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.     

Overcoming the liability of foreignness without strong firm capabilities — the value of market-based resources

The concept of “liability of foreignness” — the costs of doing business abroad — has been known and discussed since the mid-1970s. At the core of these discussions is the role that firm capabilities play in overcoming or limiting these costs. This raises the question of how firms with inappropriate, limited or constrained capabilities relative to their host environment overcome the liability of foreignness. This paper focuses on the subsidiaries of “emerging multinationals” and how they manage the demands of a technologically and economically highly developed host country. A host location with sophisticated markets and well-developed institutional infrastructure may be a highly challenging environment for firms that have grown their organizational capabilities in less developed contexts. This paper explores that situation and considers how resources available on the market — for example through supplier inputs — assist subsidiaries to benefit from their presence in a munificent location. Despite the acknowledged limitations of a transaction-based approach, this paper presents evidence that purchasing knowledge provides an accessible strategy for overcoming some liabilities of foreignness.     

Top Management Team Internationalization and Firm-level Internationalization: The Moderating Effects of Home-region Institutional Diversity and Firm Global Focus

The factors that determine firms' levels of internationalization remain a focal area of international business research. Within this research stream, studies building on the upper echelons theory have investigated the influence of the demographic characteristics of the top management team (TMT) on firms' international expansion. However, the literature to date has overlooked the TMT's overall degree of internationalization as a key driver of firm-level internationalization. In our paper, we argue that by having self-selected into careers abroad, foreign TMT members by definition have a higher cognitive tolerance of foreignness than domestic TMT members do. We theorize that foreign TMT members' higher cognitive tolerance for foreignness enhances the overall TMT's level of international attention and international trust, thereby facilitating strategic decisions that favor firm-level internationalization. Additionally, we propose two key contingencies that attenuate this relationship: the institutional diversity of the firm's home region and the firm's global focus. Analysis of Fortune Global 500 firms supports the hypothesized relationship between TMT internationalization and firm-level internationalization, as well as the two moderation effects.     

Internationalization of family SMEs: the impact of ownership, governance, and top management team

Family small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) internationalize their business after consolidating their position in their domestic market. Once family SMEs have built up the necessary resources and capabilities for their growth in the domestic market, they may leverage it later on for further expansion abroad. This paper seeks to examine the determinant factors that may explain the internationalization of family SMEs. More specifically, this study will examine the relationship between ownership, governance, top management team (TMT) and internationalization in family SMEs. Family SMEs may reap the benefit of stewardship orientation. This study seeks to examine the potential moderating role of stewardship orientation and TMT behavioral integration. The main contribution of this study is in examining theoretically and conceptually the relationship between ownership, governance, TMT and internationalization in the family SME context.     

Employer Attractiveness in Latin America: The Association Among Foreignness,Internationalization and Talent Recruitment

Rapid economic development is provoking a skilled talent shortage in Latin America, causing firms to compete intensely for scarce talent (Manpower Group, 2011). While foreign-headquartered firms may bear a “liability of foreignness” (Zaheer, 1995), the question remains whether this alleged liability extends to attracting workers in the Latin American context. We propose an interactionist model grounded on person–organization fit and marginalization theories. Our model, which distinguishes between foreignness and internationalization, argues that they interact with marginalization variables to impact employer attractiveness. Our multi-level analysis of 76,191 individual evaluations of 80 firms within five Latin American countries supported hypotheses that members of marginalized groups based on gender, education, and income were relatively more attracted to foreign headquartered and more international firms. Our findings contribute to an emerging body of evidence suggesting that the impacts of foreignness and internationalization are not necessarily monolithic across all contexts.     

Coping with liability of foreignness: Different learning engagements of entrant firms

Much has been written about how international firms create and sustain firm-specific advantages that offset their liability of foreignness. Less attention has been devoted to the question of how international firms reduce their liability of foreignness. It is the contention of this study that as a consequence of managerial discretion, such as willingness to undertake local adaptation, international firms familiarize with foreign markets at different paces. The data from a sample of 494 international firms from Sweden, Denmark, and New Zealand suggest that entrant firms' learning engagement, i.e., the effort and ability to learn how to conduct business in a foreign environment, varies considerably. In particular, adoption of standardized international business routines and unwillingness to adapt products and marketing practices to local markets seem to be associated with a low learning engagement. The data also indicate that a large proportion of the entrant firms has been engaged in preentry learning.     

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.     

Innovation and internationalization in an emerging market context: Moderating effects of interpersonal and organizational social networks

This study draws upon the social network theory to understand under what conditions innovation influences firm internationalization in the context of Vietnamese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). We theorize that different types of social networks play varying roles in moderating the relationship between innovation and firm internationalization. Using a panel dataset of more than 15,800 observations of SMEs, we found that high levels of interorganizational social networks positively moderate the relationship between innovation and firm internationalization. However, there is no such relationship for interpersonal social networks for the studied firms. Our findings will allow SME managers to better understand the crucial role that interorganizational social networks can play in their successful internationalization.     

Internationalization of Emerging Economy SMEs: A Tripod Approach

Research suggests that internationalizing SMEs in the West enjoy far greater institutional support. There is, however, little understanding of the internationalization processes of emerging economies' SMEs (EESMEs) and yet they are notable contenders in international trade. Accordingly, this research draws from an integrated strategy tripod framework to develop new perspectives accounting for how Iranian-based EESMEs internationalize and compete in international markets. A comprehensive analysis of Iranian EESMEs' survey data revealed that, other than their owner's managerial perceptions of their industry, firm, and institutional constraints, international market knowledge (IMK) significantly moderated their internationalization strategies. Such understanding advances research on firm internationalization by pinpointing the central role of IMK in forming internationalization strategies by EESMEs in hard-to-reach contexts, which has implications for academic research and policy-making, leading to needed reform based on theory and practice.     

Is there a liability of localness? How emerging market firms respond to regulatory punctuations

In the 1990s, emerging economies all over the world deregulated, privatized and liberalized their domestic markets. These regulatory punctuations caused radical institutional changes for emerging market firms (EMFs). We argue that, for EMFs, regulatory punctuations created a liability of localness, parallel to the liability of foreignness that firms face when they go abroad. Whereas liability of foreignness comes from the differences caused by changing one's geographic place from ‘here’ to ‘there’; liability of localness comes from changing one's point in time from ‘then’ (pre-exogenous regulatory shock) to ‘now’ (post-exogenous regulatory shock). In both cases, firms incur additional costs, and the ones that survive are ones that best develop strategies for coping with “being in a strange land”. We apply our arguments to the Mexican banking industry, which was privatized and liberalized in the 1990s.     

Leadership and business model innovation in late internationalizing SMEs

Drawing on the distinction between small-scale and large-scale business model innovation, and between directive and empowering leadership, we examine how CEOs in SMEs lead business model innovation during the process of internationalization. Building on eight cases of Japanese manufacturing SMEs, we develop a theoretical framework pointing to two different patterns in the articulation between CEO leadership style and business model innovation. We show that small-scale business model innovation led by directive leadership results in a timelier foreign market entry. However, in order to increase international sales, large-scale business model innovation is required. This is facilitated by an empowering leadership style of the CEO.     

Do exits proxy a liability of foreignness?: The case of Japanese exits from the US

Progress in understanding the liability of foreignness requires accurate measurement of this concept. This paper investigates whether exits of foreign affiliates from a given host market provide a reliable measure. We tackle this question by investigating 32 exits of Japanese manufacturing affiliates from the US. Our goal is to assess the extent to which exits are driven by a liability of foreignness and thus whether exits can serve as a reliable measurement of this liability. We find that less than half of our exits are attributable to a liability of foreignness. We conclude that while the data confirm a liability of foreignness for Japanese early entrants into the US, the presence of many other motives for exit suggests caution when inferring such a liability from exits, especially when exit costs are low.     

Diaspora Ownership and Homeland Firms' Internationalization

Although the contribution of diaspora to international business is becoming more evident, little is known about the channels used by individual firms to benefit from diaspora. In this paper, we propose equity ownership as a form of connection between the homeland firms and diasporans (i.e. diaspora members). Specifically, we draw on the literature on diaspora combined with an owners-as-resources perspective to theorize about how diaspora owners can affect the homeland firm's internationalization. We suggest that the anticipated entry costs deriving from the liability of foreignness faced by homeland firms explain how the impact of diaspora owners varies depending on entry mode. Finally, we compare diaspora owners to other types of foreign owner which we argue have lower levels of motivation and ability to help homeland firms to internationalize, and contribute relatively less to their internationalization than diaspora owners. We test and confirm our predictions using data on 2608 domestically controlled Indian firms and their internationalization in 2006–2012.     

The Determinants of Foreign Multinational Enterprise Firms' Board Governance in Caribbean Offshore Island Economies

Using a unique sample of 171 listed firms in the Caribbean region, this paper explores the influence of post-entry ownership of foreign MNEs on the board composition of subsidiaries. Our findings reveal higher ownership is a means of enhancing the security of property rights while simultaneously creating a liability of foreignness. This causes subsidiaries to externally contract for resources, leading to the hiring of more lawyers and fewer accountants. The opposite is true for progressively lower levels of foreign MNE ownership. Firms' adoption of shareholder rights governance amplifies these findings, while state formal institutional quality reverses them.     

How to identify liabilities of foreignness and assess their effects on multinational corporations

This article examines the liabilities of foreignness construct and discusses key methodological and research design issues facing liability of foreignness researchers. After reviewing past studies and more recent liabilities of foreignness research, I discuss definitional issues related to this construct. I then present a two-part research framework designed to first help identify a specific liability of foreignness in a focal country, and then help identify factors that minimize the effects of that specific liabilities of foreignness. I also discuss multinational management issues at the corporation level that likely affect liabilities of foreignness experienced at the foreign subsidiary level.     

Regional economic stress as moderator of liability of foreignness

In this paper we develop optimized localization strategies for multinational firms to overcome their liability of foreignness by adding a regional dimension within a country. We explore conceptually whether economic stress in a region has a mitigating or reinforcing effect. We test this analytical framework empirically on the highly internationalized German car market and find that intra-national regions under economic stress are more promising markets for foreign car manufacturers as the effects of liability of foreignness are significantly lower there.     

The Moderating Influence of Competitive Intensity on the Relationship between CEOs' Regulatory Foci and SME Internationalization

The international business literature has mainly focused on the impact of top managers' psychological attributes on firms' strategic decisions. However, the potential moderating influence of industry conditions such as competition, has not been well explored. Deriving insights from the regulatory focus and upper echelons theories, this paper extends the international business and regulatory focus literature by investigating how the impact influence of CEOs' regulatory foci on firms' degree of internationalization depends on the intensity of competitive market conditions. Using primary data gathered from 289 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Ghana, the findings of the study revealed when competition is intense in the domestic market, the potency of a CEO's promotion focus as a driver of internationalization is amplified. In addition, the research shows that intense domestic market competition weakens the negative influence of a CEO's prevention focus on a firm's degree of internationalization. These findings have important research and managerial implications for international business.     

Asian Family Firms through Corporate Governance and Institutions: A Systematic Review of the Literature and Agenda for Future Research

Although the corporate governance model of Asian family firms has recently gained increased attention, it remains unclear how these firms’ corporate governance mechanisms (and their effectiveness) differ from those of family firms in the western world. Drawing upon a comparative institutional perspective, this paper systematically reviews 148 published articles in peer‐reviewed journals from 1980 to 2015. The aim of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of institutional complementarities that constitute informal governance mechanisms adopted by Asian family firms by considering a wider set of institutional factors (i.e. political environment, cultural values and social norms) embedded in the Asian context. The main findings suggest that: (i) given the lack of market‐supporting institutions and the presence of strong political control over Asian economies, family firms tend to cultivate political connections to respond to the failure of legal systems; (ii) Asian family firms still rely heavily on personal networks (e.g. guanxi) to reduce uncertainty, strengthen business ties, and gain access to external resources; and (iii) cultural values and social norms (e.g. ‘face’ saving, reputational concerns and adult child adoption) lead to functionally equivalent corporate governance mechanisms in Asian family firms. The downstream effects of such mechanisms are also discussed, and future research avenues are identified.     

Drivers of internationalization success: a conjoint choice experiment on German SME managers

Internationalization is a common growth strategy for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). However, SMEs face several challenges within the internationalization process. As SMEs are characterized by limited resources, managers are constantly involved in a decision-making process concerning the allocation of the SMEs’ resources. Therefore, internationalization can be understood as a complex, multidimensional decision process. Based on a set of 2244 internationalization decisions made by German SME managers, the present study examines how eight strategic and structural factors drive the perceived international success of SMEs. When applying conjoint choice analysis, the results suggest that especially equity financing in the internationalization process, an appropriate market selection as well as proactive motives, and a long-term scope can drive SMEs’ international success. Moreover, it becomes evident that strategic factors are more relevant for successful internationalization than structural factors.     

Liability of foreignness and membership in a regional economic group: Analysis of the European Union

This study examines the performance of foreign vs. domestic firms in a regional economic group. In particular, we focus on host country and foreign-owned firms in the European Union. Results provide evidence of a liability of foreignness—foreign-owned firms underperform host country firms. However, there is also evidence that liability of foreignness can vary across countries, and that foreign firms can overcome the liability of foreignness in some host countries, even industrialized ones. The results show the moderating effects of the host country and home country environments on the relative performance of foreign firms. Lastly, the results reveal that foreign-owned banks from highly competitive home countries underperform foreign firms from less competitive home countries.