Frontiers of research in international business

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) are networked firms whose subsidiaries act as nodes embedded in a variety of local contexts. This allows them to tap into many local systems of innovation to access diverse knowledge bases and integrate them to create new competencies. Currently technology is altering our conception of space and forcing us to recognize that it is a multi-dimensional concept, incorporating geographic space, technological space and personal network space. At the corporate level, MNE managers need to understand comparative strategic management, constantly looking for arbitrage opportunities that arise due to differences in resources, capabilities and institutions across the local contexts. At the functional level, in order for the MNE to integrate knowledge from diverse geographic locations, managers must recognize that valuable knowledge resides in invisible communities of practice where narrow technological specializations, personal connections and information sharing are critical means of access.     

高频数据条件下基于ETF基金的股指期货套利研究

利用无套利区间分析方法,构建了高频数据条件下基于ETF基金组合的股指期货套利模型,并对自有资金投资者及融资融券投资者的期现套利过程进行了分析。实证研究发现中国股指期货市场的正向套利机会多于反向套利机会,期现套利过程中的错误定价率较高,表现出非均衡性;融资融券的费率较高使得该类型投资者的无套利区间较大,而该做空机制的引入在一定程度上抑制了市场的过度套利行为。由于季月期货合约的交易时间相对较长,因此该类型合约的套利机会要多于当月交易的其它类型合约。即使交割日有20%的涨跌幅限制,但交割日当天的平均错误定价率、瞬时套利平均收益率与交割日的前三交易日相比基本相同,但连续套利机会有所增加。     

中小企业各阶段创新能力分布与分析

本文基于全面创新管理的框架,以中小企业创新能力调查问卷为基础,对回收的问卷数据进行了统计分析.并按照企业的规模、创新绩效、所处的发展阶段对样本数据进行了比较,分析了影响企业规模和绩效的能力差别,以及各发展阶段企业的能力特点.     

Dynamic collaboration between small- and medium-sized enterprises from highly dissimilar markets

Emerging markets have created significant opportunities for European small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Highly dissimilar market contexts compared to traditional markets and missing resources present substantial barriers to successfully serve those markets. Collaborative partnerships with local SMEs can help to overcome the barriers. Knowledge on how SMEs can develop lasting collaborative relationships in highly dissimilar contexts is scarce. This research investigates which factors influence the stability of more informal collaborative partnerships of Central European SMEs with SMEs located in China. A qualitative analysis of four cases confirms the importance of complementarity of partner resources, working well together based on mutual trust and commitment, shared sensemaking, and the balanced consideration of partner interests. Mutual learning and adaptation in iterative steps to enhance shared sensemaking and seeing differences in interpretation and behavior arising from contextual dissimilarity as opportunities instead of threats turn out to be SME-specific factors essential for building stable informal collaborative relations.     

An innovation knowledge game piloted by merger and acquisition of technological assets: A case study

Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) play a significant role in technological strategic deployment. This case study describes a methodology applying two-stage grey decision-making to help businesses recognize the role of technology in creation of wealth to acquire opportunities for technology push. The study results show that the application can effectively assist corporations in controlling selection of technological assets and tailor a technological asset investment mode for them.     

集群企业创新来源、技术能力及创新绩效关系研究

产业集群为中小企业创新提供了良好的环境,促进了中小企业的技术学习.本文以浙江省产业集群中的中小企业为研究对象,通过问卷调查,对创新来源、技术能力及创新绩效的关系进行了分析.分别从产品创新来源和工艺创新来源两个方面进行了实证研究,检验并支持了技术能力的中介作用,以及创新来源对创新绩效的正向影响.     

Upgrading local operations for global arbitrage

This study shows that upgrading sales operations in host countries towards production allows MNCs to perform global arbitrage in their networks of foreign subsidiaries and thereby contributes to a strategy of reaping the benefits of multinationality. We predict and find that operation upgrades follow opportunities of improving resource flows in the subsidiary network to exploit the advantages of host countries in tax rates, investment incentives, and technological knowledge across borders. Performance effects on the level of the MNC network give evidence of these benefits from global arbitrage.     

浙江省机械行业中小企业创新能力分析探讨

本文基于全面创新管理的框架,分析浙江省机械行业中小企业创新能力情况.首先,根据全面创新管理的范式,构建主要的创新能力,分析总体的情况,然后探索企业创新能力的发展状况.最后对创新能力与创新绩效之间的关系作了一定分析.     

ICT-based solution approach for collaborative delivery of customised products

Growing interest on business collaboration motivates today’s industries, especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to establish and manage dynamic and non-hierarchical business networks to respond to market opportunities with added business benefits. This business environment requires concurrent work and real-time information sharing between key business partners in order to design and develop customised products. The use of traditional communication media such as e-mail, phone and fax is not satisfactory to get real-time information and is time-consuming and most often ineffective. In such environments, an Information and Communication Technology (ICT)/Web-based technology supports real-time information sharing among networked SMEs for the collaborative design and manufacturing of customised products. This study proposes an innovative ICT platform supporting SMEs collaboration, through Web and the Internet of Things technologies, which follows the Net-Challenge conceptual approach and methodological guidelines for SMEs to form and operate virtual organisations for the collaborative development and delivery of customised products. The ICT Platform was assessed in three different industry domains, namely the textile and apparel, the footwear and the machine tools, respectively. This ICT solution promotes collaboration, with substantial advantages for SMEs including the reduction of costs and delivery time and improvement of the innovation potential.     

Cyber risk assessment in small and medium-sized enterprises: A multilevel decision-making approach for small e-tailors

The role played by information and communication technologies in today's businesses cannot be underestimated. While such technological advancements provide numerous advantages and opportunities, they are known to thread organizations with new challenges such as cyberattacks. This is particularly important for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that are deemed to be the least mature and highly vulnerable to cybersecurity risks. Thus, this research is set to assess the cyber risks in online retailing SMEs (e-tailing SMEs). Therefore, this article employs a sample of 124 small e-tailers in the United Kingdom and takes advantage of a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) method. Indeed, we identified a total number of 28 identified cyber-oriented risks in five exhaustive themes of “security,” “dependency,” “employee,” “strategic,” and “legal” risks. Subsequently, an integrated approach using step-wise weight assessment ratio analysis (SWARA) and best–worst method (BWM) has been employed to develop a pathway of risk assessment. As such, the current study outlines a novel approach toward cybersecurity risk management for e-tailing SMEs and discusses its effectiveness and contributions to the cyber risk management literature.     

沪港通能否促进A股与香港股票市场一体化

沪港通是否有助于促进A股与香港股票市场一体化?本文从微观视角研究沪港通标的股中A+H交叉上市公司A股和H股的价格差异,分析A股市场和港股市场一体化程度的变化并提出提高市场一体化的套利交易策略。基于转移模型的log t检验结果表明,交叉上市公司A股和H股价格的收敛性因公司和时间而变,具有收敛关系的交叉上市公司占比较低,A股与香港股票市场一体化程度较低且未见提高趋势。为提高股票市场一体化水平,本文基于价差极值服从广义帕累托分布（Generalized Pareto Distribution,GPD）的VaR模型构造了无套利区间的上下界,提出A+H交叉上市公司A股和H股套利交易策略,实证结果表明该策略能够获得显著的正收益。本文为市场一体化研究提供经验证据并为通过套利交易促进市场一体化提供解决方案,为深港通推出起到借鉴作用。     

Knowledge management based collaboration moderator services to support SMEs in virtual organizations

Abstract

Collaboration Moderator Services (CMS) are discussed as a Knowledge management service for SMEs operating in a virtual organization (VO). In this research, a CMS supports the pre-creation stage of a VO by quickly identifying potential business opportunities and collaborative partners. Text mining techniques are used to analyze calls for tender documents based on the competencies and areas of interest stored in the shared information about companies in a collaboration pool. A case study of UK-based SMEs demonstrates the application of text mining as a knowledge discovery tool, supporting SMEs at the pre-creation stage of a VO. Results show that text mining can be used to (1) identify possible business opportunities for SMEs in the collaborative network (2) Indicate potential collaborations between pairs of SMEs using link analysis and (3) Raise awareness of business opportunities and possible SME partners for multi-enterprise collaborations using a dimensional matrix.     

A model of e-commerce use by internationalizing SMEs

Globalization and e-commerce pose new challenges and provide new competitive opportunities, especially for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) seeking to broaden their involvement into new international markets. Yet, SMEs are only beginning to embrace these new opportunities. The authors derive a model describing the use of e-commerce by internationalizing SMEs, developed by integrating findings from case studies of 12 Canadian SMEs exporting to Japan with a broad range of management theories. The cases represent two very different sectors: hospitality/tourism and high tech. The research first describes how the firms use e-commerce internationally, by examining resource commitment, web function and cultural adaptation. It then explains why the firms use e-commerce, by relating two types of environmental variables — market changes and industry norms — and three firm factors — technical capability, cultural capability and firm size — to the firms' adoption of e-commerce. Implications for SME managers are discussed and nine propositions are put forth to guide and focus future research.     

Managing Cross-Functional Cooperation for New Product Development Success

This article focuses on conditions that make cross-functional cooperation in new product development projects more or less productive. We investigate 40 NPD projects in the consumer electronics and pharmaceuticals industries in which R&D and marketing played key roles. We find that the contributions of cross-functional cooperation to NPD success are contingent on the type of market and technology opportunities being pursued. More specifically, our results suggest that when a project team pursues an opportunity characterized by high levels of technological and market risks, investments in high levels of cross-functional cooperation are warranted to increase NPD success. We do not find evidence that cross-functional cooperation moderates the relationship between the openness of an NPD project towards external information and knowledge and its performance. This suggests that less integrated project teams could achieve similar results as more integrated teams in terms of processing large quantities of information and knowledge without incurring the costs that may stem from high levels of cross-functional cooperation.     

考虑在险价值的中小企业成长性评价研究——基于沪深中小上市公司的实证

评价分析中小企业的成长性有助于中小企业的发展,越来越多的研究从各个角度来评价其成长能力。本文以中小上市公司为样本,在已有的较为成熟的指标体系中加入市场风险的在险价值因素,并通过实证研究对考虑市场风险因素与未考虑市场风险因素两个排名作有效性检验及比较分析,得出考虑市场风险因素的排名结果更为有效。以不同公司作为样本对成长性排名与市场风险做回归分析,发现对总体样本而言,成长性排名与市场风险呈显著负相关关系。     

Internationalization Orientation in SMEs: The Mediating Role of Technological Innovation

This study examines the relationship between internationalization orientation and international performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and the mediating effect of technological innovation. Prior research suggests that internationalization is a prominent strategic choice for SMEs growth and profitability. However, there is still no explicit agreement on how internationalization affects international performance. Similarly, the role of innovation on performance has long been emphasized, but the implications of technological innovation on international performance are still eluding us. Our investigation of 116 SMEs in the United Kingdom reveals that internationalization orientation has a significant effect on their international performance, with SMEs adopting simultaneously an inward and outward international orientation achieving superior results. We further demonstrate that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between technological innovation and international firm performance among SMEs. Meanwhile, we find that technological innovation positively mediates the effect of internationalization orientation on international firm performance, particularly for the SMEs exhibiting moderate levels of technological innovation activities. The findings of this study suggest that managers can improve international performance by combining inward and outward internationalization orientation with technological innovation activities in their strategic decisions.     

债权治理机制、企业特征与成长性——来自中国中小上市公司的经验证据

本文以中国中小上市公司2002～2005年的经验数据为样本,采用结构方程模型探讨了债权治理机制的4个主要维度:偿债能力、债务融资程度、资产期限、债务期限,并对债权治理机制、企业特征因素与企业成长性的关系进行了理论和实证分析.结果显示,中小企业债权综合治理机制对企业成长并没有产生应有的促进效用,其中偿债能力与企业成长性负相关;资产期限结构的影响作用不显著;债务融资和债务期限结构对企业成长有促进作用;企业特征的异质性显著影响债权治理水平和企业成长性.     

动态Nelson-Siegel模型与无套利约束相容吗？——来自中债国债收益率曲线的经验证据

实践上成功的动态Nelson-Siegel利率期限结构模型,存在不能排除无套利机会的理论缺陷,而符合金融理论的无套利仿射模型却在实证绩效上表现不足。通过对两个模型的估计和比较,本文旨在检验动态Nelson-Siegel模型能否在中国国债市场产生与无套利约束相容的收益率曲线。采用中债即期收益率数据的实证研究显示,中国国债市场存在显著的时变性风险价格,确认了期限溢价的存在,但无套利约束并未明显地改善预测绩效。此外,利用模拟收益率数据的检验发现,无套利模型下的载荷参数估计量,在统计上显著不同于来自于动态Nelson-Siegel模型的载荷,即无证据表明中国国债市场的动态Nelson-Siegel收益率曲线与无套利性是相容的。     

有限套利与盈余公告后价格漂移

本文结合盈余公告后价格漂移(PEAD)对中国股市的有限套利进行研究。市场定价偏误现象的持续存在与经典金融学的套利假说相矛盾,我们认为市场存在套利局限,异象的背后也许其对应了更高的风险、交易成本或者不同的投资者。基于以上考虑,我们构造了交易风险、交易成本以及投资者熟练度的代理变量对PEAD现象进行考察,结果发现定价偏误的程度与套利风险和成本有正关系、投资者熟练程度与PEAD程度负相关,这说明在中国股市机构投资者会降低股价有更大程度漂移。     

Knowledge management for food supply chain synergies – a maturity level analysis of SME companies

Abstract

Despite the considerable number of papers addressing knowledge management (KM) aspects in supply chains, many research issues in the area are still neglected. One of the main research gaps in this field concerns the maturity level of KM practices adoption by small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This paper addresses this research gap by developing a framework to support the analysis of the maturity level of KM adoption in an SME context. The framework is applied in a multiple case study developed to investigate the extent to which SMEs operating in the food sector are deploying KM practices to support more sustainable initiatives. By relating KM maturity levels, perspectives and processes to sustainable practices concerning food waste and by-product synergies, the paper makes an original contribution to advance theory and practice in the area. The paper also points out potential barriers that companies face to implement sustainability-related KM practices.