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Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

This paper examines the role of location‐specific (L) advantages in the spatial distribution of multinational enterprise (MNE) R&D activity. The meaning of L advantages is revisited. In addition to L advantages that are industry‐specific, the paper emphasises that there is an important category of L advantages, referred to as collocation advantages.

Using the OLI framework, this paper highlights that the innovation activities of MNEs are about interaction of these variables, and the essential process of internalising L advantages to enhance and create firm‐specific advantages.

Collocation advantages derive from spatial proximity to specific unaffiliated firms, which may be suppliers, competitors, or customers. It is also argued that L advantages are not always public goods, because they may not be available to all firms at a similar or marginal cost. These costs are associated with access and internalisation of L advantages, and – especially in the case of R&D – are attendant with the complexities of embeddedness.

The centralisation/decentralisation, spatial separation/collocation debates in R&D location have been mistakenly viewed as a paradox facing firms, instead of as a trade‐off that firms must make.

While advances in big data analytics (BDA) provide valuable business insights and immense business value, many firms find it difficult to gain advantage from their BDA initiatives. Noting the strategic role of firm-specific knowledge, we develop a framework examining the relation between firm specificity of BDA knowledge and competitive advantage. We also examine the dynamic evolution of BDA capabilities and the associated knowledge management strategies.

We review the resource-based view (RBV), capabilities life cycles and absorptive capacity perspectives along with the literature on BDA competitive advantage. Identifying two key BDA factors, application customization and data proprietorship, we develop a BDA competitive advantage framework. We also investigate the absorptive capacities employed by firms to advance their BDA capabilities. We use anecdotal cases to support our theoretical arguments.

We propose that BDA solutions with vendor-based applications (noncustomized) and public data will not generate firm-specific knowledge and therefore not provide competitive advantage. In contrast, BDA solutions with custom applications and proprietary data will provide high-level firm-specific knowledge and potentially result in sustained competitive advantage. We further suggest the relevant absorptive capacities and the knowledge management strategies for BDA capability development.

Our framework provides managers with insights into how to develop and enhance firm-specific knowledge from their BDA solutions to gain competitive advantage.

Our study offers a new BDA firm-specific knowledge framework for competitive advantage.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the multinationality‐performance (M‐P) relationship in the context of US biopharmaceutical small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs).

The study examines the M‐P relationship of SMEs from a single home country and in a specific industry.

The paper finds that geographic dispersion of both foreign subsidiaries and alliances affects SME performance negatively, albeit to a varying extent. Firm‐specific technological advantages alleviate the negative impact of geographic dispersion of both foreign subsidiaries and alliances, whilst firm‐specific marketing advantages mitigate the negative effect of only geographic dispersion of foreign alliances. The paper also addresses the direct and joint effects of firm‐specific advantages, country‐specific advantages, and the degree of internalization on SME performance systematically. Further, the results reveal some interesting differences between the venturing and the development stage of SME internationalization.

To the best of the authors' knowledge, there have been virtually no studies on the M‐P relationship which attempt to distinguish between subsidiary‐ and alliance‐based internationalization.

We suggest that the entire world may not always be the appropriate frame of reference in analyses of Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) location choices. In some industries and activities, more narrowly defined geographic areas, such as regions and cities, are more relevant level of analyses. Employing global cities as the geographic frame of reference, we extend the theory of the location choices of MNEs by challenging the assumption that location attributes have identical values for all MNEs. Rather, we explicitly acknowledge the relative value of such attributes for individual MNEs, and search for the firm-specific characteristics that affect this variation. The empirical testing is based on analysis of 673 financial and professional service MNEs that entered New York and London via mergers and acquisitions (M&As). The findings confirm that it is the interaction between location and firm-specific attributes, rather than each of these independently, which affects location choices.

This chapter provides a logical extension to the understanding of firm-specific advantages and disadvantages and the enabling role of existing and emerging country-specific advantages relevant to the process of Chinese firm internationalization. Its longitudinal perspective considers the changing objectives and actions of firms that enable them to compensate for disadvantages and create new or strengthen existing competitive advantages. The case study evaluation reveals that the evolution of strategic resources is the key motivator behind the internationalization of Chinese firms. Decisively encouraged by the Chinese government firms with corporate entrepreneurship aspire to alter themselves from home market leaders and regional players into globally competing multi-nationals. This process is made possible via the development of firm-specific advantages and continuous compensation for firm-specific disadvantages. The aspiration for strategic asset acquisition from developed countries combined with cost leadership and independent customer-centred innovation brought about strong firm-specific advantages stimulating the internationalization process of firms. The chapter focuses on the interdependence of country- and firm-specific advantages and disadvantages, thus recognizing the significance of the home country institutional context in Chinese outward foreign direct investment. It has been identified that corporate entrepreneurship is a significant firm-specific advantage for firm internationalization being a major force in gaining, accumulating, utilizing and leveraging resources for transforming firm-specific disadvantages into advantages. We argue that if the relational framework between governmental institutions and firms is more developed, the impact of country-specific advantages on firm-specific advantages is more favourable. This assumes that the government espouses an ideology that is favourable to corporate entrepreneurship.

According to John Dunning’s eclectic paradigm, firms need to have ownership, location, and internalization advantages in order to cross borders and engage in foreign direct investment. By drawing on historical evidence on the evolution of a group of leading marketing‐based multinationals in consumer goods, this paper claims that, despite its richness, the eclectic paradigm, and in particular the concept of “ownership advantages,” needs to be revised and extended to take into account different levels of institutional analysis. For the eclectic paradigm to give a rounded view of the internationalizing firm, it needs to acknowledge the critical importance of firm‐specific ownership advantages, such as the role of the entrepreneur.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the significance of the direct and indirect effects (through country and firm’s specific advantages) of government policies for export promotion (GPEP) on the export performance of small and medium-size enterprise (SME) Cocoa exporters in Cameroon.

To test the proposed model, data were obtained through self-administered questionnaires using snowball sampling technique to 101 SME Cocoa exporters. This was analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM) techniques to examine both the direct and indirect effects of GPEP on the export performance of SME Cocoa exporters in the South and Centre Regions of Cameroon.

The findings suggest that GPEP had both direct and indirect effects on the export performance of SME Cocoa exporters. Direct effect was on the usage of GPEP which reduces operating cost and increase performance. The indirect effects were through the provision of country and firms specific advantages. However, the only significant path was through the provision of export marketing information.

The research is limited to one country, one sector, and two regions and does not take into consideration other factors that may influence the effect of GPEP, country, and firms specific advantages on export performance. Moreover, the non-significant paths should be interpreted with caution and further testing required in a different context.

Empirical findings are relevant for the government and SME Cocoa exporters. It informs the government about the effectiveness of GPEP and the need to disseminate marketing information using every possible medium best understood by the SMEs. It suggests an opportunity for engagement of both SMEs and government authorities in accessing the outcome of GPEP which will increase transparency, awareness, usage, and export performance.

The research has successfully developed and tested a model for analyzing the direct and indirect effects of GPEP on export performance based on the resource-based view and SEM in a context where there is a call for more empirical and theoretical work on export performance due to limited studies. The framework reveals positive effects of GPEP, country, and firms’ specific advantages as determinants of export performance.

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether being a first‐mover into the Chinese market through strategic alliance with host companies provides competitive advantages to the foreign entrant. The aim is to understand the relevance of the first‐mover and internationalization process (incremental learning) for competitive advantage in China during environmental uncertainty. Thus, the author proposes that the first‐mover (foreign firm) would be able to deflect environmental uncertainty, such as the economic recession of 2008, by forming an alliance with Chinese enterprises earlier than its rivals.

Quantitative methods for data analysis were used in support of the proposition. The sample comprises 187 foreign multinational enterprises that entered into the Chinese market through strategic alliance with local partners. The dependent variable is return on assets (ROA) of the firm. The author used the timeline as the independent variable. The longer duration implies earlier entrants on the temporal scale. The author also used several controlled variables at the firm level, industry level and national level of the home country. The analysis was based on ordinary regression.

The result supports the main hypothesis in favour of the first‐mover advantage. Apart from the main effects in the hypotheses, there are some interesting alternative effects captured in the control variables. It appears that age of the firm tends to hamper firm performance. Industrial discretion is another control variable. The author predicted a positive coefficient. However, the result is not significant. The result shows competitive forces can lead to a better performance for the first‐mover. This observation is counterintuitive because monopoly is the source of performance, and competition reduces monopoly. It should be negatively correlated, but the result shows the opposite. In this sense, competition appears to be contributing to the firm's performance. A possible reason is that firms compete in the downstream of the industrial value china in established industries. Hence, the first‐mover advantage supports the early entrant in competitive conditions. Licensing mode of governance is negative. In comparison to alternative modes of governance, it appears that contractual mode such as licensing is less conducive for better performance. Firms that entered into IBA in China after her membership with WTO performed lower than those entered before WTO. Home country's R&D spending has not shown significant and positive influence on the performance.

The author proposes that cultural distance needs to be included in the research and analysis for a better understanding on the phenomenon of first‐mover advantage. Second, the research needs to be replicated in other contextual settings. China is indeed a big market. However, there are multiple different institutional systems in the world. Third, it will be interesting to identify the late‐mover's advantage so that policy decisions can be made in comparative terms.

This paper is different and novel in two ways. First, it reveals that companies that had entered into Chinese markets were able to deflect some of the losses caused by the global slowdown. It means that internationalization can be both positive and negative. It is negative because global crisis can adversely affect almost all economies. However, it can be positive when some economies are stable, and the firm has entered into that stable market earlier than others. Second, the research reveals that cultural and institutional distance can be a positive source during an economic crisis. The author can see today (in 2012) that similar economies of the west are still struggling to get out of the recession of 2008.

This paper aims to examine how multinational enterprises (MNEs) and local partners, including suppliers, customers and competitors in China, improve their innovation capabilities through collaboration. This collaboration was analysed as a three-way interaction between the ownership-specific (O) advantages or firm-specific assets (FSAs) of the MNE subsidiary, the FSAs of the local partner and the location-specific assets of the host location.

The propositions are examined through a survey of 320 firms, supplemented with 30 in-depth case studies, based in Mainland China.

It is found that the recombination of asset-type (Oa) FSAs and transaction-type (Ot) FSAs from both partners leads to new innovation-related ownership advantages, or “recombinant advantages”. Ot FSAs, in the form of access to local suppliers, customers or government networks are particularly important for reducing the liability of foreignness for MNEs.

The study reveals important patterns of reciprocal transfer, sharing and integration for different asset categories (tacit, codified) and different forms of FSA and explicitly links these to different innovation performance outcomes. The paper reports on these findings, making an empirical contribution in an important context (China-based partnerships). This paper also contributes to conceptual developments, connecting various kinds of FSA, tacit and codifiable assets and “recombinant advantages”. Limited conceptual, methodological and empirical contributions are made in linking asset integration with (measurable) innovation performance outcomes in international partnerships.