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This study aims to examine the multidimensional nature of institutional distance as a driver of acquisition decisions in emerging markets. Then, this study aims to offer a nuanced perspective on the role of its various formal and informal dimensions by taking into account the potential contingency role played by a firm’s context experience.

Building on institutional economics and organizational institutionalism, this study explores the heterogeneity of institutional distance and its effects on the decision to enter emerging versus advanced markets through cross-border acquisitions. Thus, institutional distance is disentangled into its formal and informal dimensions, the former being captured by regulatory efficiency, country governance and financial development. Furthermore, our framework examines the moderating effect of an acquiring firm’s experience in institutionally similar environments, defined as context experience. The hypotheses are analyzed on a sample of 496 cross-border acquisitions by Italian companies in 41 countries from 2008 to 2018.

Findings indicate that at an increasing distance in terms of regulatory efficiency and financial development, acquiring firms are less likely to enter emerging markets, while informal institutional distance is positively associated with such acquisitions. Context experience mitigates the negative effect of formal distance and enhances the positive effect of informal distance.

This study contributes to institutional distance literature in multiple ways. First, by bridging institutional economics and organizational institutionalism and second, by examining the heterogeneity of formal and informal dimensions of distance, this study offers a finer-grained perspective on how institutional distance affects acquisition decisions. Finally, it offers a contingency perspective on the role of context experience.

This research examines how shadow economy affects foreign direct investment (FDI).

The study utilizes a panel dataset including 124 nations between 1997 and 2015. Information on shadow economy, FDI and macro-economic characteristics is obtained from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and World Bank database. Various econometric methods are employed, such as the panel ordinary least squares (OLS) with fixed-effect estimator and the two-step system generalized method of moments estimation.

The findings of the study illustrate that shadow economy negatively influences total FDI inflows, and this adverse impact is mainly driven by greenfield investments – a component of FDI. Moreover, the authors provide evidence that the shadow economy has more devastating influences on FDI inflows in countries with higher corruption levels and fewer land resources.

Overall, this research suggests an important policy implication that the shadow economy should be controlled more strictly since it harms the FDI inflows, especially greenfield investment.

This research is among the first attempt of evaluating the effect of shadow economy on different FDI types. Furthermore, it examines how the shadow economy–FDI inflows nexus is changed when considering factors including corruption and land resource.

This study aims to explore how the absorptive capacity of emerging market multinationals (EMNEs) facilitates increased acquirer performance in industry exploration and technology exploration cross-border acquisitions (CBAs).

The research context for this study is Brazilian EMNEs and their CBAs. The final database contains 101 CBAs.

The authors find that industry exploration strategies negatively affect financial performance, but technology exploration strategies have a positive effect. The acquirer’s absorptive capacity can exacerbate the negative effects, except in instances of technology exploration strategies, where there is a demonstrable benefit from the acquirer’s absorptive capacity.

The study contributes first by providing a more nuanced understanding of the effects of absorptive capacity on postacquisition performance, depending on the type of knowledge explored. Second, by drawing on EMNE learning perspectives, the authors demonstrate the versatility of absorptive capacity in emerging markets.

The purpose of this study is to focus on, namely, the international financial reporting standards (IFRS) or local generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) effects of financial reporting as a corporate governance mechanism on mergers and acquisitions (M&As) for banking institutions during the global financial crisis.

I investigate the characteristics of bank financial statements before the start of the global crisis, which helps to explain the relationships between the accounting standards and the global financial crisis. The observations, which are based on 3,178 deals in a sample period, are crucially important for corporate governance and bank performance. The results from our analysis are robust to a wide variety of modifications in our research design and are corroborated by descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA and a two-sample t-test on a sample of banks that voluntarily adopted IFRS for M&As.

The find that IFRS-based monitoring of banks M&As in terms of higher quality financial reporting is negatively linked with bank performance, whereas local GAAP-based monitoring of banks’ M&A is positively associated with accounting performance. Finally, our main results for higher quality financial reporting under local GAAP or IFRS generally hold after controlling for various analyses and relationships between account standards and the financial crisis.

Financial reporting standards setting a corporate governance mechanism are considered since it was impacted recently during the global financial crisis and became a great matter of concern.

The value of this paper is determined by an empirical investigation of the relationships between bank performance and accounting and financial reporting standards in the context of the global economy.

This study aims to analyse the efficiency effects of institutional distance on Chinese outward foreign direct investment (FDI) in Africa.

The study utilised the true fixed-effect stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) model. Data from 2003 to 2016 (14 years) were acquired from 42 targeted African countries, which are included in the analysis.

The results reveal that FDI flow efficiency can be maximised with a high institutional distance between China and African countries. Contrariwise, comparable institutional distance, measured by the rule of law, regulatory quality and government effectiveness between the host and home countries, reflected a significant positive impact for Chinese outward foreign direct investment (OFDIs), indicating Chinese MNEs can invest directly in a country with comparable institutional characteristics.

There have been limited exceptional studies that assessed the effect of institutional distance between emerging countries. However, none of these studies investigated the effect of institutional distance between China and Africa at a national level. Using the advantage of the SFA model, this study assesses the efficiency effects of institutional distance between the host and home country.

Knowledge-intensive entrepreneurial firms (KIE) strongly rely on scientific and strategic research and development (R&D) capabilities to achieve higher performance levels. Hence, the purpose of this paper is to disentangle the effects of scientific capabilities and strategic R&D on KIE performance; and how the constituent elements of these dimensions can be configured to generate conditions for high performance.

The authors’ empirical setting involves companies that submitted projects to the Innovative Research in Small Businesses (PIPE) program in Brazil. The authors then run partial least square structural equation modeling to verify how scientific and strategic R&D capabilities influence the performance construct. Second, the authors apply fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to identify configurations that are equifinal in terms of generating superior performance.

Findings indicate a strong association between scientific capabilities and KIE performance. The configurational approach outlines the existence of multiple paths to success, but human capital stands as a core condition throughout estimations.

The authors’ assessment has implications for how KIE firms are managed according to their organizational profiles and trajectories. Also, it advances the authors’ comprehension on how entrepreneurship policies can better target these distinct profiles.

The authors’ analysis provides new evidence on the inherent complexity behind the generation of high performance in KIE when addressing their portfolios of knowledge-related capabilities. More than that, the authors were able to identify the existence of heterogeneous profiles that can equally lead to higher levels of performance.

This paper delves into cross-border E-business, unraveling its intricate dynamics and forecasting its future trajectory.

This paper projects the prospective market size of cross-border E-business in China for the year 2023 using the GM (1,1) gray forecasting model. Furthermore, to enhance the analysis, the paper attempts to simulate and forecast the size of China’s cross-border E-business sector using the GM (1,3) gray model. This extended model considers not only the historical trends of cross-border E-business but also the growth patterns of GDP and the digital economy.

The forecast indicates a market size of 18,760 to 18,934 billion RMB in 2023, aligning with the consistent growth observed in previous years. This suggests a sustained positive trajectory for cross-border E-business.

Cross-border e-commerce critically shapes China’s global integration and traditional industry development. The research in this paper provides insights beyond statistical trends, contributing to a nuanced understanding of the pivotal role played by cross-border e-commerce in shaping China’s economic future.

As China’s e-commerce and cross-border e-commerce rapidly develop, the cross-border e-commerce supply chain exhibits characteristics of globalized development scale, collaborative multiparty participation, streamlined management processes, digitalized production and trade and flexible strategic choices. It tends toward data-driven intelligence, interoperable information collaboration, personalized order responses, sustainable supply chain management and secure blockchain technology. These characteristics and trends provide critical references for businesses, governments and investors.

In response to issues such as inconsistent legal regulations, imbalanced logistics and transportation, imperfect payment settlements and opaque supply chains.

It is recommended to take measures to strengthen cooperation and communication, optimize logistics, reduce customs clearance difficulties, reinforce safeguard measures and promote sustainable development, collectively fostering the healthy growth of cross-border e-commerce.

With the rapid development of cross-border e-commerce, green and low-carbon initiatives have become a significant trend in this sector. The cross-border e-commerce supply chain refers to the mechanism that reduces environmental impacts and enhances resource efficiency from manufacturers to consumers. It primarily involves manufacturers, e-commerce platforms, logistics companies and payment and settlement processes. The cross-border e-commerce supply chain is gradually becoming a highlight in China’s foreign trade, supporting the concept of “buying globally and selling globally” and connecting the “world’s factory” with the “world’s market.”

This empirical research examined the factors and conditions that contribute to the success of international strategic learning alliances. The study aimed to provide organisations with evidence-based insights and recommendations that can help them to create more effective and sustainable partnerships and to leverage collaborative learning to drive innovation and growth. The examination is performed using game theory as a mathematical framework to analyse the interaction of the decision-makers, where one alliance's decision is contingent on the decision made by others in the partnership. There are 20 possible games out of 120 outcomes that can be grouped into four different types; each type has been divided into several categories.

The research methodology included secondary and primary data collection using empirical data, the Delphi technique for obtaining qualitative data, a research questionnaire for collecting quantitative data and computer simulation (1,000 cases, network resources and cooperative game theory). The key variables collected and measured when analysing a strategic alliance were identified, grouped and mapped into the developed model.

Most respondents ranked reputation and mutual benefits in Type 1 games relatively high, averaging 4.1 and 3.85 of a possible 5. That is significantly higher than net transfer benefits, ranked at 0.61. The a priori model demonstrate that Type 1 games are the most used in cooperative games and in-game distribution, 40% of all four types of games. This is also confirmed by the random landscape model, approximately 50%. The results of the empirical data in a combination of payoff characteristics for Type 1 games show that joint and reputation benefits are critical for the success of cooperation.

Research on cross-border learning alliances has several implications. Managerial implications can help managers to understand the challenges and benefits of engaging in these activities. They can use this knowledge to develop strategies to improve the effectiveness of their cross-border learning alliances. Practical implications, the development of game theory and cross-border models can be applied in effective decision-making in a variety of complex contexts. Learning alliances have important policy implications, particularly in trade, investment and innovation. Policymakers must consider the potential benefits and risks of these collaborations and develop policies that encourage and support them while mitigating potential negative impacts.

International learning alliances have become a popular strategy for firms seeking to gain access to new knowledge, capabilities and markets in foreign countries. The originality of this research lies in its ability to contribute to the understanding of the dynamics and outcomes of these complex relationships in a novel and meaningful way.

This study aims to focus on a key unanswered question about how digitalization and the knowledge processes it enables affect firms’ strategies in the international arena.

The authors conduct a systematic literature review of relevant theoretical and empirical studies covering over 20 years of research (from 2000 to 2023) and including 73 journal papers.

This review allows us to highlight a relationship between firms’ international strategies and the knowledge processes enabled by applying digital technologies. Specifically, the authors discuss the characteristics of patterns of knowledge flows and knowledge processes (their origin, the type of knowledge they carry on and their directionality) as determinants for the emergence of diverse international strategies embraced by single firms or by populations of firms within ecosystems, networks, global value chains or alliances.

Despite digital technologies constituting important antecedents and critical factors for the internationalization process, and international businesses in general, and operating cross borders implies the enactment of highly knowledge-intensive processes, current literature still fails to provide a holistic picture of how firms strategically use what they know and seek out what they do not know in the international environment, using the affordances of digital technologies.