Why do Emerging Market Firms Engage in Voluntary Environmental Management Practices? A Strategic Choice Perspective

In this paper, we investigate firms’ decisions to engage in voluntary environmental management (VEM) practices within an emerging market context. Drawing on the strategic choice and the resource‐based view perspectives, we report results from a survey of VEM practices – a specific form of self‐governance – drawing on a sample of 519 Turkish firms from various industries to identify important strategic antecedents of firms’ decisions to engage in such practices. We find that as firms become more customer focused, more inclined to pursue a differentiation strategy and subject to a higher level of strategy‐oriented stakeholder focus, they tend to implement higher levels of VEM practices, with important implications for research, policy and practice for both emerging and developed markets.     

Rules of the Game for Emerging Market Multinational Companies from China and India

The prominence of Emerging Market Multinational Companies (EMNCs) in the global marketplace has challenged our assumptions about the nature of global competition and corresponding strategy. We use an inductive approach to conduct historical analysis of eight companies that originated from key emerging markets viz China and India. We examine the various strategies that EMNCs devise to circumvent the resource challenges faced in their home markets and develop routines and key capabilities that lead to their competitive advantage in developed nations. Our results suggest that EMNCs' foreign expansion is, on the one hand, based on their capability to acquire resources and absorb them to build their own advantage (supply-side-argument). On the other hand, it is also based on EMNCs' capability to find some market niches, i.e., entering into markets untapped by traditional MNCs (demand-side-argument). Finally, based on our analysis we propose a dynamic stages model suggesting that EMNCs' foreign expansion can be explained in three stages — licking the dirt to carve out the way; taking off with speed and strength; and around the world with excellence.     

Entry and access to competencies abroad: Emerging market firms versus advanced market firms

This article examines the acquisition behavior of multinational companies from emerging markets (EMNCs) compared to multinational companies from advanced markets (AMNCs). Specifically, we relate the governance mode (i.e. the degree of commitment) to exogenous and endogenous uncertainty. As a result of endogenous uncertainty due to their liability of origin, EMNCs are likely to acquire less control, which is exacerbated by exogenous uncertainty when acquiring targets in high-tech sectors. Furthermore, EMNCs experience a higher propensity to control the local partner the higher the institutional distance with the host country, since they enjoy a better institutional environment when they invest in advanced countries and, hence, they are less likely to need a local partner. To test our hypotheses, we develop an econometric analysis applied to foreign acquisitions in Italy between 2001 and 2010 and we study the degree of control of AMNCs as compared to EMNCs. Our results confirm that EMNCs acquire less control than AMNCs, especially in high-tech industries, while institutional distance in trade and investment freedom effectively increase the probability to undertake full acquisition for EMNCs as opposed to AMNCs.     

Startups internationalizing in quest of a business model: The global prospecting of process niche firms

This paper examines technology startups whose initial offering is not a tangible product or service, but rather a technology used in the production process of goods and services of other firms. These “process niche firms,” as we call them, represent an emerging and increasingly common feature of the digitized economy. As part of their search for a suitable business model – be it products, services, and/or outright licensing of intellectual property – process niche firms engage in early internationalization in order to gain relevant market knowledge and identify possible business partners. A framework is derived to examine the internationalization pattern of such firms. The paper draws on four illustrative case studies providing insight into how such process niche firms “prospect” in foreign markets prior to deciding on the business model that suits them best. Early in their life cycle, process niche firms may decide to locate their headquarters in a different country in closer proximity to relevant markets and partners, as their high knowledge intensity and dearth of tangible assets makes them highly movable. Later in their development, process niche firms will likely evolve into other types of firms, depending on the business model they ultimately choose and the process that they follow.     

Emerging Market Multinational Companies and Internationalization: The Role of Home Country Urbanization

We develop a multilevel theoretical framework for investigating the role of home country urbanization for emerging market multinational companies' (EMNCs) international expansion. We propose that more urbanized home environments directly increase EMNC's proclivity to internationalize and moderate the effects of firm intangible and tangible resources. The empirical counterpart studies 592 EMNCs from 18 different countries in 2010 and an unbalanced panel of a subsample of these firms over the period 2006–2010. Our hypotheses are confirmed in both datasets. We find that while urbanization complements firm financial resources when expanding abroad, it appears to substitute to some extent for internal R&D capabilities. Our findings further our understanding of the drivers of internationalization of EMNCs.     

Motivating talents in Thai and Malaysian service firms

Talent development in Thailand and Malaysian service firms has become a prioritized human resource management practice as these societies move toward knowledge-based economies. This paper discusses talent management in the social, organizational and managerial context of firms in Thailand and Malaysia, and argues that such structures often counterbalance investments made in talent development. The paper concludes that new human resource management practices do not produce a difference per se. It is the mindset and attitude of various managers that makes the difference. The learning for practitioners is that they need to adapt existing social and organizational structures to their new human resource management practices. The paper is based mainly on qualitative interviews with human resource managers from Thai and Malaysian service firms.     

When Gray is Good: Gray Markets and Market‐Creating Investments

Gray markets arise when an intermediary buys a product in a lower‐priced, often emerging market and resells it to compete with the product's original manufacturer in a higher priced, more developed market. Evidence suggests that gray markets make the original manufacturer worse off globally by eroding profit margins in developed markets. Thus, it is interesting that many firms do not implement control systems to curb gray market activity. Our analysis suggests that one possible explanation lies at the intersection of two economic phenomena: firms investing to build emerging market demand, and investments conferring positive externalities (spillovers) on a rival's demand. We find that gray markets amplify the incentives to invest in emerging markets, because investments increase both emerging market consumption and the gray market's cost base. Moreover, when market‐creating investments confer positive spillovers, each firm builds its own market more efficiently. Thus, firms can be better off with gray markets when investments confer spillovers, provided the spillover effect is sufficiently large. These results provide a perspective on why firms might not implement control systems to prevent gray market distribution in sectors where investment spillovers are common (e.g., the technology sector) and, more broadly, why gray markets persist in the economy.     

政治关联、多点接触与企业绩效——市场互换性的调节作用

 随着多元化经营趋势的发展,企业与竞争对手在多个市场上相遇并形成多点接触早已成为常态。在企业与竞争对手间形成多点接触的背景下,许多学者验证了多点接触会对企业绩效产生一定的影响。同时在转型制度环境下,政治关联将有助于降低市场壁垒使企业进入对方所在的市场,这会增强企业间的多点接触程度并降低竞争强度。然而,对政治关联如何影响多点接触进而影响企业绩效的内在机制还鲜有研究。        基于政治关联对企业进入对方所在市场行为影响的逻辑,将市场互换性作为调节变量,利用STATA软件和OLS回归分析方法,以2008年至2014年中国9家上市民营房地产企业在151个区域市场分布变化情况作为样本,结合相互容忍假说,探讨在多点竞争环境下政治关联和多点接触与企业绩效的关系。        实证分析结果表明,政治关联可以降低市场进入壁垒,使企业达到主动增加与其主要竞争对手多点接触程度的目的,进而对企业绩效有积极的影响;另外,市场互换性能负向调节政治关联与企业绩效的关系。        在中国制度环境下,讨论多点接触对企业经营过程产生的影响,为中国企业在多点竞争环境下实现提升绩效的目的提供一个方向,为企业有效增加多点接触程度提供更多的解决方法,也为日后进行多点接触问题的研究拓宽了思路。     

Planning for flexibility

This paper presents an approach to corporate development which relates the instability of the firm's environment and the ability of the firm to change. Using this framework, managers can examine their firm's posture vis-à-vis their environment and choose an appropriate strategy. The framework explains why firms can find themselves at odds with their environments, and suggest the lines of action that firms should pursue to survive and grow.     

Integration and Cospecialization of Emerging Complementary Technologies by Startups

We analyze the market entry problem faced by startups that must integrate their service or product with one or more complementary technologies. The problem is especially challenging when the complementary technologies have uncertain cost reduction potentials. The entrepreneurship literature suggests that startups should pursue focused strategies for various reasons, including bounded rationality and budget constraints, but generally overlooks startups entering markets with complementary technologies. The advice for mature firms investing in complementary technologies is often to diversify investment across multiple complements to manage technological uncertainty. Given competing guidance, we seek to extend the entrepreneurship literature by modeling startups' entry decisions for markets in which complementary technologies exhibit strong learning effects. We find that, consistent with the extant entrepreneurship literature, startups generally achieve higher expected returns by channeling their integration investment to only one complementary technology. However, the mechanisms driving our results differ significantly by hinging on nonlinear feedback effects that occur when firms concentrate integration investment in only one complementary technology. Interestingly, this focused strategy often does not yield the highest market share or the lowest likelihood of bankruptcy. We characterize the situations under which each finding holds and describe the implications of these findings for theory, practice, and policy.     

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.     

Chinese expatriate management in emerging markets: A competitive advantage perspective

Recent research draws attention to the large number of expatriates sent abroad by Chinese multinational corporations (CMNCs), especially to emerging markets. It is generally assumed that their large number, and any competitive advantage this generates, relate predominantly to their low cost, compared to other MNCs' expatriates and/or locally available labour. Our research uses an integrative perspective drawing on the resource-based view (RBV), international human resource management (IHRM) and “country of origin” literature and extensive case-study research on 27 CMNCs in 12 emerging markets. This reveals that the competitive advantage created by Chinese expatriates is closely related to the use of expatriates at both managerial and operational levels. It is achieved through human resource management that exploits their relatively lower cost, higher productivity and hardship tolerance (compared to host or third country counterparts) and their knowledge/resource reconfiguration capability, through a centralised and collective expatriation management system. These together enhance CMNCs' competitive advantage through not only offering cost effective and differentiated products but also transferring the reconfiguration knowledge. This study enhances understanding of the competitiveness of emerging market multinationals (EMNCs) by showing how the competencies, combination and management of their expatriates create a distinct source of competitive advantage. It also advances IHRM research on expatriates by investigating their use from a competitive advantage perspective.     

An Empirical Model of Growth Through Product Innovation

Productivity differences across firms are large and persistent, but the evidence for worker reallocation as an important source of aggregate productivity growth is mixed. The purpose of this paper is to estimate the structure of an equilibrium model of growth through innovation designed to identify and quantify the role of resource reallocation in the growth process. The model is a version of the Schumpeterian theory of firm evolution and growth developed by Klette and Kortum (2004) extended to allow for firm heterogeneity. The data set is a panel of Danish firms that includes information on value added, employment, and wages. The model's fit is good. The estimated model implies that more productive firms in each cohort grow faster and consequently crowd out less productive firms in steady state. This selection effect accounts for 53% of aggregate growth in the estimated version of the model.     

Opportunity and opportunism: The expatriation practices of Indian information technology multinational corporations

Although effective International Human Resource Management during an international assignment constitutes a significant factor in ensuring success of an expatriate assignment, there has not been much research that studies the expatriation practices associated with the global delivery model that has come to be identified with global outsourcing. The purpose of this paper is to understand the expatriation practices of Emerging Market Multinational Corporations (EMNCs) in the Indian IT sector, by examining the experiences of Indian IT workers sent to work on international client projects in a western country. We have used qualitative semi-structured interviews with 47 Indian IT expatriates from Indian IT MNCs working at client sites in Australia. We find that there is inadequate attention paid to expatriation both prior to emigration and while workers are overseas and employed at client sites. Such human resource shortcomings may be inherent in the global delivery model that is an important feature of Indian IT business. The implications of these findings are discussed in the paper.     

Outsourcing to emerging markets: Theoretical perspectives and policy implications

Creating value through outsourcing has emerged as a popular competitive strategy for firms in various industries. In order to survive in the domestic and international marketplaces, firms, especially in developed countries, are seeking opportunities offshore, which is one focus of globalization. Offshore outsourcing has emerged as a popular competitive strategy and emerging markets have become increasingly attractive locations. As firms in developed countries (e.g., the US) continue to face enormous challenges to sustain competitive advantage, outsourcing to emerging markets is becoming an increasingly important source of business renewal and corporate transformation.In spite of the growing strategic significance of sourcing, we have limited knowledge of offshoring and outsourcing to emerging markets. The objectives of this review are fourfold: (1) to provide a better understanding of the concepts of offshoring and outsourcing business models, (2) to discuss relevant theoretical perspectives related to outsourcing, (3) to present a taxonomy of outsourcing strategies drawing on the extant literature, and (4) to discuss public policy implications. Conclusions and direction for future research are provided.     

竞争驱动战略转型的人力资本视线研究——以天津中小制造业企业为例

转型升级阵痛中的中国制造业企业，唯有基于人力资本"视线"实施差异化战略、推进激进式创新，才能变革成功，进而在激烈市场竞争中存活下来并形成核心竞争力。以天津市各大工业园区154家中小制造业企业的问卷调查数据为样本，采用结构方程模型对制造业企业创新逆驱战略转型的人力资本"视线"进行统计检验。结果显示，战略层面的"视线"有一个：外部环境竞争性、差异化战略、激进式创新与企业绩效。资源层面"视线"有两个：差异化战略、HRM系统、人力资本、渐进式创新、激进式创新与企业绩效；差异化战略、HRM系统、知识共享与企业绩效。这三条"视线"为中国制造业企业指明了战略转型、创新变革的具体方向。     

MANAGERIAL HEDGING AND PORTFOLIO MONITORING

Incentive compensation induces correlation between the portfolio of managers and the cash flow of the firms they manage. This correlation exposes managers to risk and hence gives them an incentive to hedge against the poor performance of their firms. We study the agency problem between shareholders and a manager when the manager can hedge his compensation using financial markets and shareholders can monitor the manager's portfolio in order to keep him from hedging, but monitoring is costly. We find that the optimal incentive compensation and governance provisions have the following properties: (i) the manager's portfolio is monitored only when the firm performs poorly, (ii) the manager's compensation is more sensitive to firm performance when the cost of monitoring is higher or when hedging markets are more developed, and (iii) conditional on the firm's performance, the manager's compensation is lower when his portfolio is monitored, even if no hedging is revealed by monitoring. Moreover, the model suggests that the optimal level of portfolio monitoring is higher for managers of firms whose performance canbehedged more easily, such as larger firms and firms in more developed financial markets. (JEL: G30, D82)     

Research on Markets for Inventions and Implications for R&D Allocation Strategies

Several streams of literature have examined the phenomenon of “markets for inventions”, that is, the trade of elements of knowledge which are “disembodied” from individuals, organizations, and products. The aims of this paper are to bring together the various streams of research in this area and discuss their major assumptions and limitations, in order to provide a comprehensive framework for understanding the phenomenon, and identify promising paths for future research. We start our review by identifying the object of market exchange—that is, an invention whose knowledge has been codified and disembodied from individuals, organizations, or artifacts. We then identify those factors that enable firms to trade inventions, distinguishing between institutional-, firm-, and industry-level factors. We close our analysis of the extant literature by discussing the implications of markets for inventions for firm behavior and performance. Against this background, we highlight an important avenue for future research. A neglected implication of the development of invention markets is that firms are confronted with a wide variety of technological paths from which to choose, because the opportunity to acquire technologies on the market offers them a greater variety that can their internal R&D departments. However, the streams of research on markets for inventions and on R&D allocation strategies have been surprisingly disconnected so far. Hence, in the final section, we start to establish and explore the link between these literatures, and to identify a research agenda in this domain.     

中小企业新产品开发关键成功因素的识别及其实证研究

创新对于公司绩效的重要性引致了许多关于识别新产品开发成功因素的研究。然而,这些研究的大部分都是针对发达经济或是大型企业的;对于中小企业在新兴市场中如何开发新产品研究则相对较少。这篇论文试图分析中国中小企业新产品开发的成功因素以弥补这一研究的空缺。不同于传统的分析方法将新产品开发的每一阶段的成功因素都认为是同质的,我们对于新产品开发过程的每个阶段的成功因素从管理的角度来进行审视。我们发现我国中小企业在创意设想阶段并不将经济回报作为首要标准。虽然各成功因素的相对重要性在不同阶段会有所不同,技术、营销、商业性、管理等因素在所有阶段都是重要的。这个结果对于中小企业在新产品开发的各个阶段如何开发和管理新产品有一定的启示作用。     

Attracting and retaining talent: exploring human resources development trends in Australia

Drawing from the resource based view of the firm (RBV) the argument developed in the paper is that in an environment characterized by increasing levels of skilled labour shortages organisations need to design employment systems that prioritize human resource development to enable competitive advantage. The literature review examines the issues associated with the attraction, retention and development of human resources, and the major contextual issues and debates underpinning skill and labour shortages. A research question is then framed to capture the HR priorities of Australian organisations. We examine responses from 1372 Australian human resources (HR) professionals who participated in an online survey of a national HR professional association and results are interpreted with respect to HR efforts to attract, develop and retain talent.

Our findings suggest that employers are addressing issues related to attraction - recruitment and selection. However, in critical HR development areas associated with retention such as training, job design, skill development, careers management and team building, results indicate a lower level of resource allocation. We conclude that this lack of resource allocation is of concern for Australian organisations that are struggling to compete both domestically and internationally for skilled workers.