Host country corruption and MNE location choice: The view of institutional pluralism

Whether to invest in a corrupt host country is an important decision for MNEs. Although scholars have investigated the contingent impacts of the institutional characteristics of the MNE parent's home country, extant research concentrates on examining the country-level contingent impact. It neglects the institutional pluralism view that MNEs could face different institutional logics through firm-level channels in their home country, which influences their decision to enter a corrupt host country. Employing the unique dataset of 42,126 Japanese MNE-host country-year pairs, this study finds that MNEs are discouraged from investing in corrupt host countries when they have greater foreign ownership or a higher ratio of independent board members because they face shareholder-oriented institutional logic in the home country. Such an effect is mitigated when MNEs are embedded in cross-equity holdings, as they face stakeholder-oriented logic.     

Between a rock and a hard place: Internal- and external institutional fit of MNE subsidiary political strategy in contexts of institutional upheaval

We investigate how subsidiaries' political capabilities in emerging markets are not just shaped by their home- or host country institutions, but by both simultaneously - presenting a dilemma for subsidiaries of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in host countries. Subsidiaries need to develop CPA that simultaneously “fit” parent company requirements and “external fit” requirements in relation to the host environment. Achieving this dual fit is particularly difficult in volatile host contexts, where the value of political capabilities changes rapidly. Subsidiaries face a dilemma because the easily transferable capabilities – that draw on parent resources – lose value due to their decreasing “external fit” with the host country's volatile institutional environment. Conversely, the most valuable relational political capabilities lack “internal fit,” as they may not be legitimate in the home environment. To understand how firms deal with this dilemma, we develop a typology of political capabilities that takes into account their transferability/stickiness and their dynamic institutional contingency in the host country. Our study shows that MNEs - even from institutionally very different economies - can successfully transfer political capabilities to develop effective CPA in a volatile political environment. Yet, as political risk becomes discontinuous, this strategy may reach its limits.     

Institutional agency by MNEs: A review and future research agenda

Although the study of institutional agency by MNEs is gaining traction in the IB literature, there are gaps in our understanding of how MNEs purposively engage with institutions in home and host markets. By systematically reviewing 73 articles in 26 journals over a 17-year period, I assess the embeddedness of institutional agency in the IB field; and present key findings along societal and organizational field triggers, individual and organizational enablers and types of institutional agency, as well as the consequences for institutional maintenance, creation and transformation. The review demonstrates that very few IB studies explicitly examine MNEs' intentional actions in relation to institutions. Consequently, I call for an advancement in MNE strategy and structure debates to account for the ways in which MNEs can address institutional contradictions. I develop propositions on these as well as micro-level activities that offer opportunities for MNEs to display institutional agency, setting a clear agenda for future research.     

Psychic distance and ownership in acquisitions: Direction matters

Recent research has begun to explore the impact of country-of-origin and direction on internationalization decisions in response to controversy over the use of symmetrical and absolute values of distance. In this paper we contribute to this stream of research by studying the moderating influence of direction on the distance–ownership relationship as it relates to cross-border acquisitions. We ground our arguments in transaction cost economics and supplement this lens using institutional theory to contextualize the home-host country relationship through moderating effects. Through our study of 25,440 full and partial acquisitions (9577 MNEs, 25 countries, 15 years), we demonstrate that the distance–ownership relationship is moderated by direction. We further find that acquisition ownership decisions made by emerging country MNEs differ significantly from those made by developed country MNEs. Our findings demonstrate that future research on the impact of distance should consider the differences between MNEs from emerging versus developed economies, in addition to host country characteristics.     

How MNE subsidiaries transfer HRM practices in distant environments: A tale of two IKEA subsidiaries

While most research in the international business field focuses on the impact of the national institutional environment on multinational enterprises (MNEs), this paper explores the opposite relationship—the role and impact of MNE subsidiaries on the host country institutional environment. I analyze the subsidiaries' agency in the transfer activities of human resource management (HRM) practices by bringing the case of IKEA subsidiaries in Korea and Japan and find that these subsidiaries not only adapted to pressures arising from an institutional distance but also played an important role in influencing the institutional arrangement for employment system of their host countries. With a contextualized agency model, this study finds that institutional and organizational contexts that these subsidiaries are embedded in shaped their agencies and strategic responses and co-evolved with their host institutional environments while transferring HRM practices. These findings have implications for the IB and IHRM field, as they highlight the potential of MNE subsidiaries as agents.     

Subnational Institutions and Location Choice of Emerging Market Firms

I examine how subnational institutions of emerging markets affect the location choice of emerging market firms. I argue that the weak institutions in emerging markets push firms to acquire the skills needed for survival in unfavorable institutional environments. When they start their international venturing, such knowledge, skills, and capabilities will become their unique advantage, which makes them more resilient to red tape, nepotism, and corruption in the host countries. Using a sample of 143 outward FDI events of Chinese multinationals, I test the relationship between subnational institutions at home and firm propensity to enter a target market with weak institutional systems and found robust empirical support for the use of different estimation strategies. Further, my results demonstrate that the effect of subnational institutions at home on location choice is more pronounced in private enterprises compared to state-owned enterprises. This study reveals the importance of home country effects in location choice research and tests empirically the existence of institutional advantage.     

Multinationals’ political activity for institutional change: Evidence from Spain during the international crisis of 2008

International crises generate uncoupling between multinational enterprises (MNEs) and the institutional environment. In these settings, industry associations of MNEs have an incentive to engage in institutional change by taking a role as institutional entrepreneurs in order to generate change within the existing, unsuitable institutions. However, MNEs can also try to avoid such institutions or try to adapt to them. Because the antecedents and outcomes of these three forms of engagement in institutional change (institutional avoidance, adaptation, and entrepreneurship) have been scarcely studied in Europe, this reflection examines the case of Spain during the international crisis and analyses the coordinated action of MNEs through their associations in seven industries. The discussion of 30 pieces of evidence regarding the engagement in institutional change in Spain suggests a model that proposes relevant antecedents of different forms of engagement and the expected outcomes resulting from the chosen forms, among them: co-evolution and co-involution.     

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.     

中国对外投资动因、制度调节与地区差异

通过整合制度观和资源观,将两者放在统一的分析框架中,考察中国企业如何利用母国制度优势克服竞争性资源占有方面的劣势,从而实现国际化战略目标。与传统思路分别分析各种内部资源和企业外部制度因素对于企业国际化的作用不同,运用调节变量的研究方法,分析母国制度因素对于资源与国际化关系的调节作用,利用2003年至2009年中国省级对外投资面板数据进行实证分析。研究结果表明,政府资源配置能力对于不同类型的资源与对外投资的关系确实起重要的调节作用,但调节的方向和强度不同,并受地区差异的影响,表明制度因素对对外投资的影响是有条件的。通过发现制度的调节作用,为中国企业为何在缺乏企业特别所有权优势的情况下仍然能够进行对外直接投资提供一个全新角度的解释。     

Location choice of Chinese outward FDI – An ethnicity-based population ecology perspective

Drawing on population ecology theory (PET) which conceptualizes an individual organization's survival as a result of organizational changes at the population level, we explain why multinational enterprises (MNEs) from emerging markets prefer to enter countries with an existing population of co-national peers. Our study of a sample of Chinese MNEs shows that the size of co-national MNEs population in the host country has a positive effect on new FDI entries by firms from the same home country. Interestingly, the co-province and co-industry-formed organizational population in the host country has an inverted U-shaped effect on the new FDI entries, and that provincial dialect and co-national immigrants flatten this curvilinear effect. We also analyze how the focal relationships vary between host countries with different levels of economic development and between different industries. Our study contributes to the research of FDI location choices by providing a population ecology-based explanation that differs fundamentally from those based on agglomeration economics and institutional theory. The study also advances PET by theorizing how legitimizing and competing forces interact to jointly influence the way the extant population of certain types of organizations influences the entries of the same type of organizations into the population.     

The effect of informal and formal institutions on foreign market entry selection and performance

We investigate the impact of informal institutional distance and formal institutions on a key decision (namely location choice) of multinational enterprises (MNEs) when they expand abroad through foreign direct investment. The findings of the research that has analyzed these decisions have been non-conclusive, and this study aims to provide further theoretical and empirical evidence by considering the interaction effect of informal institutional distance and formal institutions in the location choice and its performance implications. Through an analysis of the internationalization of mobile telecommunications carriers, we demonstrate that formal institutions in a host country positively moderate the negative relationship between informal institutional distance and the likelihood of an MNE entering that country. Moreover, we find that those location choices that can be predicted through the institutional lens obtain higher performance than those entries that cannot be predicted through the interaction of informal and formal institutions.     

Where Do We Go from Here?: Globalizing Subsidiaries Moving Up the Value Chain

This paper studies the international expansion of local subsidiaries of multinational enterprises (MNEs). The main questions asked are why and how MNEs' local subsidiaries in developing economies undertake international expansion. Drawing from the global value chain (GVC) perspective, I argue that local subsidiaries that were initially established to undertake production activities for export-oriented industries do not want to remain at the lowest-value-added position forever. They therefore undertake initiatives to get out of that position. The literature on initiative-taking subsidiary has predominantly focused on them becoming centers of excellence via R&D and innovation in the host country. I propose a different route of local subsidiary upgrading via foreign direct investment in more advanced countries. This strategy helps not only to gain internal prominence within the MNE network, but also to improve its external position within the GVC vis-à-vis the lead firms. The paper uses an in-depth case study of a Thai subsidiary of a Taiwanese electronic MNE to explore the transformation of the subsidiary from simply manufacturing for exports to becoming a strategic international expansion arm for the parent MNE.     

Racing to the bottom or seeking legitimacy? National environmental performance and the location strategies of Chinese MNEs

This paper studies the extent to which the international location patterns of Chinese MNEs privilege economies with environmentally sustainable practices. We develop a theoretical framework confronting the traditional race-to-the-bottom arguments with the Chinese MNEs' need to gain legitimacy abroad and signal their global citizenship. We also examine a set of conditioning factors pertaining to the heterogeneity of both host countries and firms, to explore potential sources of ethical pluralism in Chinese MNEs' location strategies. Empirically, we study 948 greenfield investments in manufacturing undertaken by Chinese companies in 82 countries over the 2013–2019 period. Our results suggest that Chinese MNEs may feed a downward spiral by favouring locations with fragile ecosystem vitality, that is, a weak sustainable use of natural resources with the consequent erosion of environmental quality. This result is driven by Chinese FDI in developing countries and locations with fragile institutional setting. Furthermore, the attracting force of a degraded environmental situation holds especially for Chinese MNEs operating in most polluting sectors and with private ownership.     

Country institutional environments and international strategy: A review and analysis of the research

We review and analyze the growing body of literature that addresses the institutional context of international strategy. By examining articles in eleven major journals from January 2008 to July 2020, we identify six major categories of international strategies and implementation approaches: market entry and internationalization, political strategies, multinational technology and innovation, multinational corporate social responsibility, multinational headquarters and subsidiary relationships, and international human resources management. A parallel analysis of the relevant institutional variables categorizes institutions into eight types: economic institutions, political institutions, regulatory institutions, normative institutions, administrative institutions, cultural/cognitive institutions, demographic institutions, and knowledge institutions. These eight categories allow us to contextualize the institutional environment in which the six international strategies and implementation approaches are employed. Our review identifies important progress in international strategy research that has yielded a greater understanding of institutional impact on multinational activities. Yet, it also reveals that many areas of international strategy research remain fragmented, highlighting the need for future research and suggesting new directions for such investigations. Our analysis concludes by identifying knowledge gaps in each of the six strategy categories and making a series of suggestions for relevant future research.     

Institutional distance and ownership in foreign acquisitions

In this study, we take a balanced view on cross-border distances and argue that there are both costs and benefits when multinational companies (MNCs) operate in distant environments. When conducting cross border acquisitions (CBAs), MNCs attempt to minimize the costs while also maximizing the benefits offered by institutionally distant host countries. MNCs do so by sharing the equity ownership with the local partners who help MNCs navigate the local environment and derive location-specific advantages. We also propose that the effect of institutional distance is directional such that firms are more likely to opt for shared ownership when the target is located in a country with less developed institutions than in a country with more developed institutions. Further, firm-specific and context-specific factors impact the costs and benefits of operating in distant countries and condition the relationship between institutional distance and the likelihood of a firm opting for shared ownership in CBAs. We test our arguments on a sample of 37,588 CBAs involving 52 home and 54 host countries over 17 years (1996–2013).     

制度环境、公司治理对企业竞争优势的影响研究——基于中国上市公司的经验证据

如何通过外部制度和内部制度的安排延续企业的竞争优势,是制度变迁背景下中国企业面临的核心问题.本文以2002年-2005年的中国上市公司为样本,基于国内地区差距,实证分析了制度环境和公司治理时企业竞争优势的影响.回归结果发现,政府支持市场化程度、经济法律环境水平、股权集中度、股权竞争度、董事会独立性、专业委员会设置程度以及股东参与决策程度与企业竞争优势显著正相关.研究结果表明,好的制度环境与有效的公司治理能提高企业的竞争优势;企业持续竞争优势的源泉应包含以政府为主体的宏观层次的制度竞争和以企业为主体的微观层次的公司治理竞争.     

基于路径依赖视角的我国MAH制度实施演化博弈分析

MAH制度是国际公认通行的药品上市审批制度,具有生产形式多样化、技术转让自由、节约市场资源以及提升政府行政监管质量等优点。2016年,我国在北京、上海等10个省（市）开展药品上市许可持有人制度（MAH）试点工作。本文根据我国药品上市制度变迁的路径依赖问题,构建演化博弈模型,分别对由药品研发机构、药品生产企业构成的内部制度变迁和由政府、消费者构成的外部制度变迁进行分析,深入研究博弈主体行为的演化路径。研究表明：内部制度和外部制度路径依赖是制约我国医药产业发展和新药研发动力不足的主要原因,药品上市内部制度变迁主要通过规模效应和适应性预期影响药品研发机构和药品生产企业,从而产生药品上市内部制度路径依赖;药品上市外部制度变迁主要通过学习效应和协调效应影响政府和消费者,从而产生药品上市外部制度路径依赖。在此基础上,运用Matlab数值分析对药品制度变迁过程中的最优稳定策略进行探讨,解释了我国MAH制度变迁过程中存在的路径依赖问题,为完善我国MAH制度、破除路径依赖提供了一定参考。     

The international scale and scope of European multinationals

This study analyzes the international scale and scope of European multinational enterprises (MNEs). By using five widely used multinationality measures and the corresponding five measures for intra-regional activities, the results confirm that the European MNEs focus on their home region market rather than the global market. No evidence exists that European MNEs focus on global markets or were becoming geographically diversified during 2000–2006. Additionally, this study suggests that scale and entropy measures, which are based on sales and assets, are better than scope measures, which are based on country counts. Simple country and subsidiary counts wrongly guide researchers to conclude that the MNEs are more dispersed than they really are.     

Regional Integration,Multinational Enterprise Strategy and the Impact of Country‐level Risk: The Case of the EMU

The European Monetary Union (EMU) provides a new macro‐level, institutional setting for multinational enterprises (MNEs). The authors investigate the impact of regional integration on MNE strategy by analysing Belgian firms’ entry‐mode choices in foreign markets, both EMU and non‐EMU ones, with a focus on what impact remains of country‐level risk. They demonstrate that regional integration has altered the impact of country‐level institutional risk on MNE entry‐mode choices inside the EMU. The conventional predictions of international business theory have been reversed, with higher country‐level risk inside the EMU driving a preference for wholly owned subsidiaries. Within the integrated region, insider firms now view higher country‐level risk as the equivalent of higher, micro‐level contracting risk. Such risk can best be mitigated through full internalization, combined with arm's length contracts, rather than through equity joint ventures.