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The privatization of infrastructure promotes efficiency and service standards. While cross-border private participation infrastructure (PPI) projects hosted in emerging markets have become more prevalent in recent years, there have also been more failures. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how governance distance affects the survival of cross-border PPI projects.

The authors provide theoretical justification and empirical evidence to verify our views. The authors test the hypotheses on a sample of 4,678 cross-border PPI project investments made in emerging market countries between 1990 and 2016. Estimation techniques consist of a binary logistic regression model and a rare events logistic model.

The findings suggest that increased governance distance can lead to project failure. The study results show that governance distance is negatively correlated with the probability of project survival. Greenfield investment intensifies the negative effect of governance distance while competitive contracts mitigate the negative effect of governance distance.

The results reveal that transnational investment in infrastructure projects is susceptible to institutional differences between home and host countries. Therefore, both private enterprises and host government should pay attention to the impact of inter-country differences on negotiations and project operation. Competitive contracts mitigate this negative effect, but entering in the form of greenfield investment amplifies the negative effect of distance.

Transnational industrial engineering projects are easily affected by the differences in governance levels between the two countries. This study introduces governance distance into the field of infrastructure projects, focusing on the impact of differences between home and host countries on transnational projects. The findings on infrastructure projects that are closely related to host government contribute to the literature by broadening the research of institution and distance.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the relative institutional distance of the subsidiary from the multinational enterprise (MNE) headquarters influences job satisfaction in the subsidiary. The authors argue that job satisfaction in the MNE subsidiary will be influenced by the institutional distance between the firm’s home (headquarter) and host (subsidiary) countries, such that the greater the institutional distance, the less satisfied the subsidiary employees. The authors also argue that the degree of function interdependence (global vs local roles) will moderate this relationship, such that high interdependence will result in lower job satisfaction as distance increases.

Using data from a global high-tech Canadian MNE, consisting of over 15,000 employees located in 19 subsidiaries, the research undertakes an empirical investigation that identifies if and how job satisfaction varies between countries and tests the influence of subsidiary-level institutional distance from the headquarters on subsidiary-level job satisfaction, using a multilevel model.

The results demonstrate that subsidiary distance from the headquarters has a complex effect on subsidiary-level job satisfaction; in some distances, no effect is found, while in others, either some or all job satisfaction facets are affected (depending on the distance and facet) in both positive and negative ways. Unlike much of the past research on distance, which has treated distance as a barrier to be overcome or reduce (Stahl et al., 2016), the paper’s finding demonstrate that “negative” distance operates independently (and at varying strengths and significance) than “positive” distance, due to underlying mechanisms.

There is a real opportunity to push ahead on linking international business strategy research with organizational theory and organizational behavior research. To do so, it requires not only a positive organizational scholarship approach (Stahl et al., 2016) but also methods that will allow researchers to study the influence of distance on mechanisms and processes, as opposed to stand-alone variables. The authors therefore suggest that future work in this area pursue qualitative methods as called for by Chapman et al. (2008).

Findings are surprising, in that results vary across job facets and distances. Practitioners need to therefore focus on the mechanisms that influence job satisfaction, not just differences and their potential negative impact.

The firm-level study provides a rich perspective on the complex way in which country-level differences influence subsidiary-level job satisfaction.

The purpose of this paper is to offer a compound index of cultural dimensions.

First, the idea of the compound index is described. Then, by integrating Hofstede's and Inglehart's frameworks, the Compound Culture Index (CCI) is constructed, its scores for different countries are computed, and its robustness is validated. Finally, the theoretical implications and practical applications are discussed and some avenues for future research are pointed out.

A Compound Culture Index (CCI) on the basis of Hofstede's and Inglehart's frameworks is conceptualized, computed, and validated.

Culture is a very complex concept and cannot be fully grasped by a few dimensions or a dichotomous index. Hofstede's and Inglehart's models have some theoretical/operational differences and correspond to dissimilar time frames that may make their integration imperfect. Due to lack of data, Hofstede's fifth dimension (Timer Orientation) was not included in the calculation of the CCI.

The CCI bridges Hofstede's and Inglehart's cultural frameworks and offers an integrative measure of national culture. In addition, the CCI represents a robust measure that can be conveniently employed in empirical research.

The CCI offers a methodologically novel, theoretically defensible, and operationally robust approach to measuring national cultures.

We investigate the effect of distance – political, economic, cultural and spatial, on developed-economy multinational enterprises’ (MNEs’) ownership decisions in cross-border (CB) acquisitions. We start with the premise that distance discourages full and majority ownership in CB acquisitions, and further investigate the moderating role of distance-reducing factors. We examine how the relationship between distance and acquisition ownership decision is moderated by firm-specific characteristics, such as firm size, general international experience, and specific host country experience. Our data sample consists of 1,041 CB acquisitions under taken by Finnish MNEs in 58 countries during the time period 1990–2010. We find substantial support for all our hypotheses and conclude that the negative effects of distance on CB acquisition equity stake are positively moderated by the three firm-specific resources but their individual importance is conditional on the host country type (developed or emerging).

The purpose of this paper is to offer an integrative model of foreign market learning, including different learning processes, antecedents and outcomes.

The paper makes a critical review of the relevant literature, drawing on a keywords-based search of three major databases and a range of other published work for a broader perspective on the subject.

The resulting integrative model shows in a number of ways how companies can learn and benefit from differences in foreign markets and what results this can lead to.

The sample of subject-specific contributions to the literature may have been insufficient, and a wider selection of keywords to identify them might have captured a richer variety of concepts and opinions.

The integrative model contributes to the literature on foreign market learning and innovation and serves as a basis for future studies and current management strategy.

This paper aims to examine how distance manifests in terms of air passenger transport links between countries and focuses on the 48 countries of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It asks to what extent do existing flight connections reflect economic relations between countries, and if so, do they represent past, current or future relations? It asks whether the impact of distance is similar for all countries and at different stages of development.

Passenger flight connection data were extracted to generate map images and flight frequencies to observe interrelationships between different locations and to observe emerging patterns. The paper uses ESRI’s ArcGIS software to visualise all these data into maps.

SSA is poorly connected both intra- and inter-continentally. Cultural and historical ties dominate and elements of historical determinism appear within flight connections in SSA reflecting the biases associated with colonialism. Larger economies in SSA are less dependent on these past ties, and their flight connections reveal a greater level of diversity and interests. SSA has generally been slow to develop flight routings to the new emerging markets.

Its contribution lies not only in examining these flight patterns for an under-researched region but also in aiding future work on SSA and its integration into the global economy and international business networks. It argues that whilst distance matters, how it matters varies.

This chapter is a commentary on Kobrin's essay on the current transition to the transnational era where there is a shift in the balance of power from sovereign states to non-state stakeholders and what role the multinational corporation (MNC) plays in this transition. It celebrates Kobrin's long-established scholarship and discusses his recent thinking regarding the new reconceptualization of space, the fragmentation of political authority and the intermingling of public and private spheres, in the context of transnational governance. In his essay, Kobrin raises many interesting questions and opens new avenues for inter-disciplinary research on the MNC in the up-and-coming transnational era.

The purpose of this paper is to critically assess the theoretical underpinnings and extant progress of the research on regional multi-national enterprises (MNEs) and offer a blueprint for future research by re-conceptualizing how (regional) boundaries relate to the international diversification of MNEs.

The paper integrates key insights from the theory of the regional MNE and economic geography to re-orient the treatment of regional borders within international business (IB) literature.

The paper suggests that the (L) component within the ownership location and internalization (OLI) paradigm should be disaggregated into continuous “distance effects” and discrete “border effects”. Within this rubric, regional borders represent discrete border effects that generate discontinuities that are permeable, fluid and firm specific. Such reconceptualization opens up avenues for future research and more tightly integrates the research on regional MNEs with other research streams.

IB scholars need to make concerted effort to think of regions as one among several parameters in studying the strategy and structure of MNEs. A stronger focus on internal processes and mechanisms elucidating the main drivers of MNEs strategies is needed.

The paper offers innovative ways in which future research can advance the study of how regions matter in the internationalization strategy of MNEs.

Adaptation of foreign market strategy and its performance outcomes have been among the key research topics in international business and international marketing. The present chapter provides new evidence on the contingent nature of the adaptation-performance relationship. Drawing from the institution-based view, we argue that adaptation increases legitimacy in the foreign market, hence improving foreign market performance. This relationship can be expected to gain importance for higher levels of institutional distance. Conversely, we expect that a successful development of foreign market relationships can be an alternative way of gaining legitimacy. These statements are supported with quantitative data from 284 firms and qualitative evidence from 8 firms.

This paper seeks to consider the impact of psychic, cultural and institutional distance, the adaptation of international joint ventures and the performance of international companies entering an emerging economy. It is also a critique of the dominant quantitative approach to analyzing distance in international business.

This study applies a comparative case study using a grounded theory approach of six companies who entered Vietnam from 1986 until the present. A total of 20 international executives were interviewed representing different phases from start-up, implementation to the current situation.

In comparison to other empirical studies on entry strategy and distance, this research finds that executives involved in entry do not consider established theories such as transaction costs. The resource-based approach is considered but from a practical view. Despite the considerable cultural and institutional distance between the European cultures and the Vietnamese values, these international ventures have managed to close the distance. This contradicts the findings of many quantitative studies on this issue.

This study is qualitative. It depends on the perceptions of international executives over a 25 year period. Only a few of the Vietnamese counterparts are included in this study.

This study demonstrates the importance of adaptation overtime for the success of international ventures.

A long term qualitative study including executives from six major international companies and executives over such a longtime is rare. Using the grounded theory process in this research context is also unique.