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.     

Regional integration and the regional risk paradox

How does regional economic integration affect the risk exposure of multinational enterprises (MNEs)? Investigating firm regionalization patterns, I uncover evidence of the regional risk paradox: as MNEs regionalize to exploit the lower risk environment offered by regional economic integration initiatives, they ultimately increase their regional risk exposure by deepening their commitment and embeddedness in regional business networks. Informed by the Theory of the Regional Multinationals and by theories of regional integration, I employ a social network lens to investigate the evolving structure of business relationships in regions governed by different regional integration frameworks. I then explore the implications of these evolving relationship network structures on the transformation of regional business risk. I find that moderately integrated regions lower transaction costs to moderately low levels, thus encouraging moderate MNE regionalization. This leads to moderate MNE embeddedness in loosely coupled regional business networks and a moderate increase in regional risk. By contrast, deeply integrated regions lower regional administrative distance to very low levels and encourage intense MNE regionalization. This leads to deep MNE embeddedness in tightly coupled regional business networks and a significant increase in regional risk.     

FINANCIAL DEVELOPMENT AND VERTICAL INTEGRATION: THEORY AND EVIDENCE

Existing evidence is mostly inconclusive on the relevance of financial development as a determinant of vertical integration. This paper presents evidence that, once industry heterogeneity in firm size distribution is taken into account, financial development is an important determinant of cross‐country differences in vertical integration. Financial development fosters entry of firms and increases competition in the industry. This reduces vertical integration of larger firms, but also leads smaller, non‐integrated, firms to exit the industry. As a result, higher financial development reduces vertical integration in industries where a high share of output is produced by small firms. The positive effect of financial development on entry also reduces vertical integration by fostering the development of input markets.     

International offshoring of services: A parity study

Conventional wisdom suggests that firms engage in international offshoring of services primarily to reduce wage costs associated with a given service activity. Drawing on international business research on the costs of doing business abroad (CODBA), liability of foreignness (LOF), and institutional theory, we investigate the factors that contribute to the location choices for services offshoring activity, including wage differentials between the home and host countries. We find that consistent with a parity perspective but contrary to conventional expectations, a country is more likely to be a destination of services offshoring as the average wage of a country increases. We also find that education level and cultural similarity are significant drivers of offshoring location choices, again consistent with a parity perspective. This study contributes to debates about the economic impact of services offshoring by showing that firms locate offshoring facilities in destinations that are closer in wages to the home country and those with higher education levels and cultural similarity.     

Perceived Environmental Uncertainty, Entry Mode Choice and Satisfaction with EC-MNC Performance

Previous theoretical and empirical research provides substantial support for a contingency approach toward international entry-mode selection. Similarly, additional empirical research supports the notion that different international ownership-based entry modes tend to be associated with varying performance levels. In this study we provide an initial attempt to use Werner, Brouthers and Brouthers' (1996) multiple measures of Perceived Environmental Uncertainty (PEU) to determine the entry mode choices of firms and link these risk-adjusted mode choices to managerial satisfaction with firm performance. We hypothesize and find that firms which make PEU risk-adjusted entry mode choices are significantly more satisfied with their firm's performance than firms whose entry mode choices cannot be predicted using multiple PEU risk measures.     

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.     

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.     

Investigating Institutional,Economic and Social Determinants of European Regions for Firm Growth Through Employment Generation

This paper examines the influence of the institutional, economic and social characteristics of a region on firm growth through employment generation across 14 European countries for the time period 2010–2013. Theoretically, we utilize the resource‐based view alongside insights from institutional theory to develop a conceptual framework that captures the influence of regional characteristics on firm employment growth. Based on this framework, our empirical results indicate that not only does firm growth depend on the firm‐specific characteristics found in the literature, but regional attributes also significantly impact firm growth in a heterogeneous way for different firm types. In line with the heterogeneous nature of firm growth, our results point to significant differences in the influence of institutional, economic and social characteristics on firm growth in different‐sized groups and across different rates of growth distribution. The implications of our study suggest the importance of managers and policy‐makers realizing which firms are mostly expected to benefit from the external environment, and which in turn can be planned via tailored policy reform by regional governments and firm‐level strategy‐making by managers.     

The Impact of Vicarious Experience on Foreign Location Strategy

MNEs can learn from the foreign investment experiences of other firms when evaluating their own foreign entry strategies. We argue that other firms' experiences reduce investment barriers arising from formal and informal institutional environments in host countries that are dissimilar from an MNE's home country, thereby encouraging new entry. Our empirical analysis of foreign entries by Japanese public manufacturing firms over more than a thirty-year period indicates that the prior experiences of other firms in a host country mitigate the negative effect of formal and informal institutional distance on entry decisions: as other firms' experiences in a host country increase, a firm is less deterred by greater institutional distance from entering the country. We also find that the distance-mitigating effect of other firms' experiences in different industries is less significant when a larger body of same-industry firm experience exists in a country, implying a substitution effect between different types of vicarious experience.     

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.     

家族企业的对外直接投资与职业化管理

基于制度同构理论,探究家族企业通过对外直接投资嵌入到国内和国外互不兼容、甚至相互冲突的制度逻辑时对其治理结构的影响,提出对外直接投资给家族企业带来制度同构压力,进而影响其职业化管理水平。运用中国沪深上市家族企业2005~2019年的面板数据,研究发现:家族企业对外直接投资的规模和广度越大,高管团队的职业化水平越高;东道国与母国之间的制度距离会增强家族企业对外直接投资对职业化管理的促进作用;企业所在地区的外商投资水平则会削弱家族企业在对外直接投资中提升职业化管理的动力。通过研究组织同时嵌入不同制度逻辑时对治理结构的影响,深化制度同构行为的分析框架,对家族企业的国际化成长和治理转型具有实践意义。     

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.     

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.     

Home–Host Country Distance in Offshore Governance Choices

This paper studies the effect of home–host country distance on the choice of governance mode in service offshoring. Using a Transaction Cost Economics approach, we explore the comparative costs of the hierarchical and contractual models to show that different dimensions of distance (geographic, cultural and institutional), because they generate different types of uncertainties, impact offshore governance choices in different ways. Empirical results confirm that, on the one hand, firms are more likely to respond to internal uncertainties resulting from geographic and cultural distance by leveraging the internal controls and collaboration mechanisms of a captive offshore service center. On the other hand, they tend to respond to external uncertainties resulting from institutional distance by limiting their foreign commitment and leveraging the resources and local experience of third party service providers. Finally, we find that the temporal distance component (time zone difference) of geographical dispersion between onshore and offshore countries plays a dominant role over the spatial distance component.     

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.     

Economic Liberalization and the Antecedents of Top Management Teams: Evidence From Turkish ‘Big’ Business

There has been an increased interest in the last two decades in top management teams (TMTs) of business firms. Much of the research, however, has been US‐based and concerned primarily with TMT effects on organizational outcomes. The present study aims to expand this literature by examining the antecedents of top team composition in the context of macro‐level economic change in a late‐industrializing country. The post‐1980 trade and market reforms in Turkey provided the empirical setting. Drawing upon the literatures on TMT and chief executive characteristics together with punctuated equilibrium models of change and institutional theory, the article develops the argument that which firm‐level factors affect which attributes of TMT formations varies across the early and late stages of economic liberalization. Results of the empirical investigation of 71 of the largest industrial firms in Turkey broadly supported the hypotheses derived from this premise. In the early stages of economic liberalization the average age and average organizational tenure of TMTs were related to the export orientation of firms, whereas in later stages, firm performance became a major predictor of these team attributes. Educational background characteristics of teams appeared to be under stronger institutional pressures, altering in different ways in the face of macro‐level change.     

Discovering and Managing Interdependence with Customer‐Entrepreneurs

Research on inter‐organizational relationships has largely focused on the interdependence between formal organizations. In recent years, firms have encountered a new logic in which interdependent parties are not formal organizations but platform‐based ‘customer‐entrepreneurs’ that create value through illegal means. Drawing on a 5‐year‐long qualitative study, we examine how firms recognize and instantiate this new logic and, consequently, respond to their interdependencies with customer‐entrepreneurs. Viewed through the lens of institutional logic, we find that, with the benefit of hindsight, firms recognize the existence of the logic of customer entrepreneurship, which triggers organizational sensemaking that is made up of three elements: interpretation of legitimacy compatibility; interpretation of efficiency compatibility; and integration of stakeholder perspectives. This sensemaking results in either a determined account concluding on the compatibility calculus in a top‐down manner, or an open‐ended account avoiding the construction of a resolute, synthesized view. A determined account leads to a defiance strategy, by which firms attempt to remove the source of interdependencies with customer‐entrepreneurs, whereas an open‐ended account guides firms to espouse a decoupling strategy, whereby firms covertly resort to efficiency maximization enabled by the interdependence. Our results offer implications for the research on inter‐organizational relationships and institutional logic.     

The Effect of Firm and Host Country Characteristics on the Choice of Entry Mode: Empirical Evidence from Spanish Firms

When investing abroad firms must choose betweengoing alone or with a partner – the so-calledownership structure decision. Additionally,firms can enter a new country by acquisitionsor by greenfield investments – the foreignestablishment mode decision. These twodecisions have traditionally been analyzedseparately in the literature on entry mode.What is more, this literature has much lessanalyzed hybrid entry modes, like partialacquisitions. The aim of this paper is toanalyze how the different factors analyzed inprior research influence the choice of entrymode when jointly taking into account fouralternative entry modes: greenfield whollyowned subsidiaries, greenfield joint ventures,full acquisitions and partial acquisitions. Theempirical analysis was carried out byestimating a multinomial logit model over asample of FDIs made by Spanish firms. Ourresults also contribute to the knowledge ofspecific patterns in the choice of entry modeby firms from late investor countries, likeSpain.     

基于行业环境风险感知维度的中国企业国际扩张与绩效关系研究——兼论企业所有制形式的调节作用

企业的国际扩张与国际化绩效一直是国际商务研究关注的重要问题。然而,中国企业与西方企业在国际化扩张中最大差异之一则在于其所有制形式。本研究从中国企业所有制独特特性出发,实证检验了中国企业所有制形式对企业在国际扩张中行业环境风险感知、进入模式选择的影响,并进一步分析不同进入模式的绩效差异。研究发现,中国企业在国际化扩张进程中:(1)行业环境风险感知对国际进入模式选择具有显著负向影响;(2)所有制形式对企业的行业环境风险感知与国际进入模式产生重要的调节作用;(3)不同进入模式对企业的国际化绩效也会产生重要影响。     

Liability of ecosystem integration and internationalisation of digital firms

The widespread emergence of digital firms has important implications for international business theory. In this paper, we argue that because of systematic cross-industry differences in the local ecosystems digital firms need to develop in foreign markets, they will face differential costs and challenges of what we term liability of ecosystem integration (LoEI). The nature of the LoEI differs from both traditional concepts of the liability of foreignness (LoF) and the liability of outsidership (LoO). Rather than reflecting the need to overcome economic or psychic distance by learning about the host country (as with LoF) or investing in relationship-specific knowledge (as with LoO), overcoming LoEI requires investments in catalysing the co-development of a local ecosystem involving users, complementors and institutional actors specific to each business. We show how the level of LoEI a firm faces depends on the characteristics of its industry and its business model along three dimensions: the level of integration with local users, complementors, and institutions. These characteristics impact both firm's success in internationalisation and the level of concentration in the global market.