Search results

Purpose: Focusing on the growing importance of Indian multinational corporations in the past decades, this paper aims to understand how establishment mode decisions in a foreign market can differ depending on a series of factors. Specifically, the authors examine how institutional distance, including cultural distance and political risk, could affect these decisions, and how international acquisition experience could moderate this relationship. Design/methodology/approach: The authors test their hypotheses using data from 114 outward foreign direct investments between 2000 and 2010. Findings: The findings suggest that experience in international acquisitions increases the likelihood of subsequent acquisitions in high-risk and culturally distant countries. Originality/value: By considering that the country of origin also matters, some differences among emerging-market multinational corporations (MNCs) may arise. Besides, since empirical research focusing on emerging-market MNCs is scarce, more empirical studies are needed to analyze the influence of cultural distance and political risk on some decisions. In the case of India, there are also additional motivations for analyzing those institutional factors. First, since this is a country with significant linkages to Western countries, it is interesting to know if the influence of cultural distance is similar or not. Second, there is a lack of empirical evidence on the relationship between political risk and establishment mode choice in the case of Indian MNCs. To fill this gap, the first aim of this paper is to analyze how cultural distance and political risk affect the establishment mode choice of Indian MNCs. Moreover, recognizing international experience to be an important factor in explaining international expansion, we focus on international experience interactions with sources of uncertainty inherent in the host market.

Purpose - Drawing on the institutional perspective, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how state ownership moderates the relationships between political risk, inertia and mimetic behavior, and the location choice of Chinese multinational enterprises (MNEs). Design/methodology/approach - The authors argue that state ownership leads Chinese firms to behave toward political risk in an unconventional way, and that government support makes them less dependent on their own and other Chinese firms' prior host country experience. The authors tested the hypotheses using data on outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) decisions made by 186 Chinese firms in 93 countries. Findings - The authors found that Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs), compared to non-SOEs, are more likely to move into countries with high political risk, and that they are less likely to be inertial and mimetic. Originality/value - Building on the distinction between macro- and micro-political risk, The authors contribute to the political risk literature by developing several arguments that explains why political risk varies across investing firms in a given host country. Moreover, this is one of the first studies of its kind to investigate the moderating effect of state ownership on the relationship between inertial and mimetic behavior, and the location choice of Chinese MNEs.

The international expansion of emerging-market multinational enterprises (MNEs) is becoming a research topic of increasing interest among international business scholars. One of the specific research questions arising is whether conventional theoretical arguments originated in studies on developed-country MNEs are still valid for explaining the international behavior of emerging-market MNEs. Drawing on the institutional theory, this paper argues that the influence of host country institutional factors on location decisions differs between Chinese and Indian MNEs. We hypothesize that the negative impact of both cultural distance and political risk on location decisions is lower for Chinese MNEs as compared to Indian MNEs. From a sample of 832 outward foreign direct investments (OFDIs) we obtain empirical support for these hypotheses.

The study of Chinese multinationals (MNEs) is becoming one of the most promising research topics in the international business literature. After outlining the distinctive characteristics of the internationalization process of Chinese MNEs, this chapter analyzes the influence of various host country factors on the location of Chinese outward foreign direct investment (FDI). From a sample of 189 outward FDI decisions made by 35 mainland Chinese firms in 63 countries, our results show that host market size and the existence of overseas Chinese in the host country are positively associated with the number of Chinese FDIs. However, greater difficulty in doing business and host country political risk have no effect.

Este artículo analiza la influencia de diversos factores institucionales del país de destino sobre los patrones de localización de 29 grandes multinacionales chinas. A partir de una muestra de 127 decisiones de inversión directa en el exterior (IDE) en 52 países, nuestros resultados indican que una mayor dificultad a la hora de hacer negocios y un elevado riesgo político no condicionan sus decisiones de entrada. No obstante, la presencia de personas de etnia china en el país de destino, un mayor tamaño absoluto del mercado y un mayor volumen de exportaciones chinas hacia ese país influyen positivamente. ; This paper analyses the impact of various host country institutional factors on the location patterns of 29 large Chinese multinationals. From a sample of 127 outward foreign direct investment (FDI) decisions made in 52 countries, our findings suggest that a greater difficulty in doing business and a high political risk in the host country do not discourage Chinese multinationals. However, the presence of overseas Chinese in the host country, a larger absolute host market size and a higher volume of Chinese exports to that country affect positively.

La localización de las industrias en general y las empresas en particular ha sido un tema de gran importancia en economía desde el trabajo seminal de Alfred Marshall (1890; 1920) quien, mediante la observación, se dedicó a analizar por qué las empresas se co-localizan en lugares particulares. Además, en las últimas décadas se ha producido un aumento en el número de estudios empíricos que investigan las fuerzas motrices detrás de las decisiones de localización de las empresas industriales (Arauzo-Carod et al., 2010). Por otro lado, un tema candente es el que se dedica al estudio de las industrias creativas y ello ha motivado el estudio de su localización. El término "industrias creativas" es una categoría todavía reciente en el discurso político, académico e industrial (Cunningham, 2002), sin embargo, está emergiendo claramente un importante debate sobre el papel de la creatividad y la cultura como factores determinantes para el desarrollo económico local (Power y Scott, 2004; Ginsburgh y Throsby, 2006). En este trabajo abordamos estos temas desde una perspectiva de las economías de aglomeración aplicando un análisis comparativo al caso de España y Reino Unido. ; The location of industries in general and firms has been a subject of great importance in economics since the seminal work of Alfred Marshall (1890; 1920) who, through observation, devoted himself to analysing why companies are co-located in particular places. In addition, in the last decades there has been an increase in the number of empirical studies that investigate the driving forces behind the locational decisions of industrial firms (Arauzo-Carod et al., 2010). On the other hand, a burning issue is the one that is dedicated to the study of the creative industries and this has motivated the study of its location. The term "creative industries" is still a recent category in political, academic, and industrial discourse (Cunningham, 2002), but a major debate is clearly emerging about the role of creativity and culture as determinants of local economic development (Power and Scott, 2004; Ginsburgh and Throsby, 2006). In this work we approach these issues from a perspective of agglomeration economies applying a comparative analysis to the case of Spain and the United Kingdom.

Tomando como base diversas perspectivas teóricas y la literatura sobre la empresa familiar, este trabajo teórico tiene como objetivo mostrar, mediante un modelo conceptual, el potencial que ofrecen los intangibles que presenta este tipo de organización para hacer frente al fenómeno de la complejidad. De acuerdo con este modelo, concluimos que la empresa familiar reúne las características propias de los sistemas complejos con capacidad de adaptación. Señalamos que este tipo de organización está dotado de un conjunto de intangibles específicos, básicos para el desarrollo de capacidades dinámicas que permitan hacer frente a la complejidad del entorno. La gestión de estas capacidades desde la perspectiva de la complejidad facilita el desarrollo de procesos de auto-organización que dan como resultado innovaciones en diversos ámbitos, permitiendo la adaptación a un entorno complejo.

In the past decade, society and technology have made remarkable progress in the realm of the digital economy. Public administrations, in their double role as part and servant of society, must keep up with this progress, but this development does not happen without its difficulties. This paper aims to explore whether the transformation of local e-government environment has made a significant impact in the way municipalities face their challenges when implementing an e-government strategy. To do so, a longitudinal research was conducted to explore any changes within the perceived value of challenges to municipal e-government initiatives over the past 8 years by local Chief Information Officers in Spain. This theoretical and empirical research contributes to the ongoing discussion on the varying role of technology as an explicit hindrance and as base for other challenges, and the impact of other non ICT-driven challenges for e-government. It also proposes a set of managerial implications to help overcoming said challenges based on the knowledge of local government experts in a contingent manner. The paper's results establish the significant and persistent effect of political interference in local e-government success in Spain, asserting that they are mostly non ICT-driven challenges that are viewed as significantly bigger obstacles today.

Purpose– Based on the literature devoted to family firms and the intellectual capital-based view of the firm, the purpose of this paper is not only to identify the most important human capital intangibles owned by family firms but also to show a number of indicators that can help measure them.Design/methodology/approach– A qualitative case-study-based research approach was adopted taking as reference: 25 family firms belonging to different sectors; previous works existing in the literature; and the intellectus model.Findings– The present study identifies ten intangibles associated with the human capital of family firms and shows 60 indicators that can be used to measure them. It additionally provides empirical evidence and gives examples of these intangibles through the analysis of 25 international family firms.Research limitations/implications– The difficulty in collecting all the human capital intangibles of family firms; the problems associated with the creation of accurate indicators; and those specific to the research methodology adopted.Practical implications– Identifying the human capital intangibles of family firms and their indicators can help managers become aware of their importance, and this will consequently help them improve their management. This could be an interesting starting point to value these intangibles in the balance sheet as well as to draw comparisons between family and non-family organisations.Originality/value– The framework provided by family firms sheds light on several intangibles specific to these firms – precisely for their condition as "family" firms. Those intangibles – human capital intangibles being especially highlighted in this study – provide the basis for the achievement of competitive advantages.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to analyze which policies of human resource management (HRM) contribute to exploratory learning and which to exploitation learning; and second, to determine the influence of the two types of learning on organizational performance.Design/methodology/approachThe research hypotheses are tested by partial least squares with data from a sample of 100 Spanish hotels.FindingsThe results confirm that, in order of importance, selective staffing, comprehensive training and an equitable reward system lead to exploratory learning. Exploitative learning seems to be fundamentally driven by comprehensive training and an equitable reward system (but in a different way than with exploratory learning). Finally, both types of learning have a positive impact on performance.Practical implicationsBoth exploratory and exploitative learning result from HRM practices. To maintain performance expectations managers should develop both learning types, which entails the utilization of the best HRM practices.Originality/valueThis study presents empirical evidence around the findings of other studies (Laursen and Foss, 2014; Minbaeva, 2013) which call for further research into whether strategic HRM configurations have positive effects on the two learning types. The results find some practices that have a positive effect in both cases, but with different intensities in their explanations. This finding reveals the need for more detailed exploration around which combinations of HRM practices, in terms of exploratory vs exploitative learning, are advisable for organizations. The study also finds that the two learning types have a positive influence on organizational performance.