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International business – sell-off and joint venture.

This case is suitable for graduation and post graduation (BBA, MBA) and other management programs. The courses include multinational business environment and strategic management

A significant increase in the Asian electronics business has created a global platform for international vendors and customers. Indeed, Chinese and Korean firms have become the foremost manufacturing and fabrication nucleus for electronic supplies in the world economy. In fact, it is an example of success from Asian emerging markets. This case presents the strategies of Asian rivals in the electronics business that shows both Bolipps and Canssonic redesigning and restructuring global tactics for long-term sustainable success in the given market. It also discusses the reasons behind their current mode of business and post-deal issues.

The case describes a way to impart managerial and leadership strategies from regular business operations happening in and around the world. Solely it focuses on designing inorganic choices such as sell-offs, joint ventures, shuffle and merging strategies through theory to application.

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What it may lack in numbers, Scotland has always made up for in the independence and enterprise of its inhabitants. While Scotland cannot claim much part in the earliest stages of printed circuit development, it should come as no surprise that the land which bore Alexander Graham Bell and John Logie Baird should have seized the opportunity of exploiting this other aspect of innovative technology, and that, for its mere 5 million inhabitants, it should boast a disproportionately large share of involvement in the printed circuit board industry. The total number of people involved in the PCB manufacturing industry (non‐captive market only) in England has been estimated at approximately 9,000—the numbers involved in Scotland total approximately 2,000, not far off 25% of the English figure. Wales and Ireland trail behind with about 300 and 400 respectively, while the Isle of Man, putting up a good show, numbers 16. Michael Hannon, of Michael Hannon Marketing (Ayr), comments, ‘Scottish PCB manufacturers have a disproportionate share of the UK rigid PCB home and export markets, as well as including in their number one of the largest flexible manufacturers in the UK. Out of the top five UK/Republic of Ireland PCB manufacturers’ production, the Scottish manufacturers represent about 55%. This is quite surprising when one considers that Scotland's population represents less than 10% of the total.’ Narrowing the focus from country to specific area, the Borders region is host to a number of PCB companies which together account for 55% of PCBs manufactured in Scotland, and 10% of the UK total.

The purpose of this paper is to explore and investigate the process of green management adoption in small and medium‐sized enterprises.

The study used the qualitative methods of case study, in‐depth interviews and document analysis to collect data from two companies, one in the acoustic equipment, the other in the electronics industry.

The paper finds that the extant literature in the field of business and management has largely ignored green management practices within small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). The study finds that SMEs can make themselves greener by making strategic and organizational changes. For greener management, the factors of organizational structure, innovation capability, human resources, cost savings and competitive advantage can influence organizational change. The outcomes of the case studies confirmed this. The paper argues that further research is needed in order to identify how management practice might reduce negative sustainability impacts. The paper argues that such research can benefit from the methodological and theoretical insights of other disciplines.

The paper is of benefit to academics and managers by providing a new way to consider green management and strategies of SMEs. Since green sustainability is obviously challenging to all companies, to increase understanding of how to cope with green management is necessary, but has been rarely researched in SMEs.

The purpose of this research is to understand how power relations in global value chains (GVCs) shape the upgrading of offshoring service providers (OSPs). More specifically, the chapter addresses two questions: (1) How power asymmetry in GVC shapes the upgrading prospects for OSPs? and (2) How OSPs manage the power asymmetry in GVC and upgrade to a more favorable position?

The context for this study is the software value chain. Drawing upon relational economic geography and GVC literature, we build an analytical framework based on three conceptual building blocks: client power, upgrading, and upgrading practices. Based on the analytical framework and in-depth interviews, we design a case study of one OSP in the Pakistani software industry, referred to as OSP#A.

The findings reveal that GVCs exercise a high level of power on OSPs. This power is exercised through enforcing certain conditions to participate and coordinate in GVCs. However, it is found that OSP#A is not passive recipient of these demands. Instead, it actively manages the power asymmetry through building practices to adapt and collaborate in GVCs and attain relational proximity.

The chapter highlights the significance of upgrading practices and conceptualizing upgrading as a process of improving relational power in GVCs by attaining relational proximity.

This study investigates the evolutionary pattern of China's electronics industry and China's industrial integration into the Northeast Asian region from a historical perspective. The purpose is to shed some light on the catch‐up path of China's technological capabilities using some empirical evidence covering the period of 1974‐2000.

Market share and the Finger‐Kreinin similarity index (FKSI) are used as measures to trace the path of catch‐up from both quantitative and structural perspectives and evidence is provided at the sectoral level. The Standard International Trade Classification (SITC) classification systems is adopted and FKSI values are derived from international trade data at both four‐digit SITC and sectoral levels.

First, the take‐off points toward rapid progress of China's technological capability in different sectors happened not concurrently but in a sequentially manner. Second, as to structural evolution, the process of China's integration into the world market and the Northeast Asian region started in 1978 and the extent of integration has become higher and higher ever since. Until late 1990s, gaps between China and Japan and between China and Korea have been successfully narrowed in terms of comprehensiveness of export structure in electronics.

The period of 1974‐2000 saw the tremendous transition in China from a centralized and planned system into a market‐driven economy. It also saw several noteworthy shifts of China's industrial policy in order to build up its innovative capacity and to catch‐up with Japan and Korea. Unlike many other studies that deeply root in macroeconomic approach, this study traces the evolution of China's performance at the sectoral level by focusing on electronics industry. The findings of this paper are explained in terms of national industrial policy, location effects, and low‐cost sourcing.

There is limited empirical research on the internationalization processes, strategies and operations of Asian multinational enterprises (MNEs) from countries at different levels of development. This paper examines and analyzes the internationalization strategies and characteristics of Asian MNEs within the investment development path (IDP) perspective.

Primary data are drawn from matched case studies of emerging MNEs from Taiwan (a newly industrializing country) and Malaysia (a fast developing country) in the textile and electronics industries.

The internationalization strategies of our Taiwanese and Malaysian case firms were founded on cost‐based competencies and other location‐based advantages, brought together by an extensive web of ethnic networks. Differences between our Taiwanese and Malaysian case firms were found and discussed. In general, the Taiwanese firms were more internationalized (at stage 3 of IDP) than the Malaysian firms (stage 2). They had more developed and elaborate production networks and greater own design manufacturing/own brand manufacturing participation than the Malaysian firms.

The research did not capture the operational strategies at the level of the subsidiary or JV. The findings were exploratory and formed the basis for research propositions presented. As indicated there existed a wide empirical research gap on Asian as well as Taiwanese and Malaysian MNEs. These need to be filled to provide further evidence and answers to the issues raised in the paper. Other potential areas of research could include longitudinal studies of Asian MNEs to examine whether they will resemble Western MNEs as they evolve, the impact of ethnic networks on the performance of Asian MNEs of both Chinese and non‐Chinese origins, and the role of the state in internationalization strategies.

Few studies have been done on emerging market multinationals and their internationalisation strategies.

The economic growth of Pacific Asian countries in the last three decades is unmatched elsewhere. Financial muscle in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Singapore is comparable to that in New York, London and Frankfurt. Electronics has been one of the industries favoured by this region of poor natural resources but rich in well‐trained manpower. Fuelled by desire and strong financial backing, Pacific Asia is now responsible for 70% of the world output of consumer electronic products. Malaysia is becoming a central focus for IC assembly and the manufacture of consumer electronic goods. Singapore is the disc drive manufacturing centre of the world. Taiwan accounts for 10% of the world PC production. Hong Kong may be a model for future China when the British colony is returned to China in June 1997. Korea is becoming a power house in IC memory. Japan is a threat to the United States in every industrial field imaginable. In this paper, the author will examine the status today and in the year 2000 and beyond of Asian electronics with a special emphasis on the Asian PWB industry which already accounts for 45% of the world production. In addition to production and market assessment, technologies and manufacturing costs will be studied in comparison with the rest of the world.

The house money effect is proposed to describe that people appear to consider large or unexpected wealth gains to be distinct from the rest of their wealth, and are thus more willing to gamble with such gains than they ordinarily would be. On the other hand, the availability heuristic describes that people tend to have a cognitive and systematic bias due to their reliance on easily available or associational information. The purpose of this paper is to employ these behavioral perspectives in an empirical model regarding the January anomaly to explore investor behavior in Taiwanese stock market with bonus culture and well-known electronics industry.

This study uses the conventional and standard dummy variable regression model, as employed in prior studies, and further includes some control variables for firm, industry and macro-economic level factors. Moreover, 19 industrial indices for Taiwanese stock market over the period January 1990 to December 2014 are included in this study to examine the hypotheses, except for the 1997 Asian financial crisis and the global financial crisis period of 2007-2009 to avoid the potential effect. On the other hand, the authors also use the entire sample period of 1990-2014 for understanding whether the magnitude of January effect is different.

The empirical results indicate that Chinese bonus payments in January induce a strong January effect in the Taiwanese stock market, especially when most listed firms have positive earnings growth in the preceding year, suggesting a house money effect. Moreover, this study further provides some preliminary evidence that the higher January returns due to bonus culture are apparent only in the electronics industry when both Chinese New Year and bonus payments are in January, implying the role of availability heuristic based on the electronics stocks in investor behavior before the impending stock exchange holidays. Some robust tests show qualitative support.

The major contribution of this study is to extend the existing research by incorporating cultural and industrial factors with behavioral finance, thus enriching the literature on the causes of seasonality for Asian stock markets.

This study also has behavioral implications of investments for investors in the Taiwanese stock market, especially for foreign institutional investors which pay close attention to this market.

This study first applies and examines the culture bonus hypothesis with regard to how employees who receive culture bonuses in January can change their attitudes toward risk and induce the January effect from the concept of mental accounting. Moreover, this study further proposes and examines the extended culture bonus hypothesis related to how the January effect due to culture bonus is different for the electronics and non-electronics industries when taking into account the stock market holidays from the concept of availability heuristic.

The purpose of this paper is to examine an alternate halo model across the context of South Korea, China and India, and provide expanded interrelationships among their major brands’ brand images, country images, general product images and category-specific images (electronics and fashion handbags).

The proposed hypotheses in the alternate halo model were tested through a quantitative (survey) approach.

The results of analyzing 305 American consumers’ responses suggest theoretical and marketing implications for Asian countries in utilizing brand image effect and cross-category halo effects in marketing products in the global market.

The study proposes an alternate country image model that can be applied to the context of Asian countries with relatively immature country image, which is expanded from the traditional models in literature.