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1 – 10 of 324Palitha Konara, Zita Stone and Alex Mohr
The authors combine options logic with transaction cost economics to explain why firms maintain, divest or buy out their international joint ventures (IJVs). It is suggested that…
Abstract
Purpose
The authors combine options logic with transaction cost economics to explain why firms maintain, divest or buy out their international joint ventures (IJVs). It is suggested that a decline in environmental risk and higher partner-related risk makes a firm more likely to acquire an IJV but less likely to divest an IJV. The study also investigates how IJV age moderates the effects of a decline in environmental risk and higher partner-related risk.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employs competing risks analyses to examine the drivers of different termination outcomes using a dataset consisting of 459 IJVs in the People's Republic of China, of which 110 were either acquired or divested by their foreign parent.
Findings
The study finds that changes in environmental risk and partner-related risk affect how firms terminate their IJVs in the People's Republic of China. Specifically, the authors find that the effect of exogenous and endogenous risk are more pronounced for the acquisition of IJVs than for the divestment of IJVs.
Research limitations/implications
The study contributes to international marketing research by complementing options logic with transaction cost economics to provide a theoretical explanation of the different ways in which IJVs in the People's Republic of China are terminated.
Practical implications
IJVs continue to be an important yet often unstable method to serve international markets. Our findings increase managers' awareness of the effect that two important sources of risk may have on the termination of IJVs in the People's Republic of China.
Originality/value
The study provides novel insights into the effect that changes in exogenous and endogenous risk have on a firm's choice of termination mode drawing on novel data on the different ways in which foreign firms have terminated their IJVs in the Peoples' Republic of China.
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Christian Falaster and Manuel Portugal Ferreira
Using an institution-based view, this study aims to conceptualize how sub-national institutional characteristics are likely to explain location choice of multinationals’ research…
Abstract
Purpose
Using an institution-based view, this study aims to conceptualize how sub-national institutional characteristics are likely to explain location choice of multinationals’ research and development (R&D) subsidiaries.
Design/methodology/approach
In a conceptual paper, this study explores specific institutional facets of the regional environments within a country that are capable of explaining, at least in part, the location choices of multinational corporations’ R&D subsidiaries.
Findings
This study thus explores the more nuanced influences of the institutional environments at a subnational level and develops propositions to explain location choices based on the differences of the institutional environments.
Originality/value
This study contributes to international business theory by incorporating a location-specific analysis that contrasts to the usual country-level observation on the determinants of firms’ location decisions.
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Maria Fregidou-Malama, Ehsanul Huda Chowdhury and Akmal S. Hyder
This study aims to increase understanding of factors influencing the international marketing (IM) strategy of products from emerging markets (EMs) to international markets.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to increase understanding of factors influencing the international marketing (IM) strategy of products from emerging markets (EMs) to international markets.
Design/methodology/approach
This study conducted case studies by collecting qualitative data through semistructured interviews with respondents from four food product companies in Bangladesh.
Findings
This study finds that the firms employ local Bangladeshi people who are knowledgeable in the company culture. They strategically focus on countries where the Bangladeshi diaspora lives and initially target them, approaching natives later. They adapt and customize products to the importers’ requirements to make them visible and increase understanding between product providers and local customers. The findings show that EM firms encounter a mentality that poor countries produce poor quality products; this mindset makes the internationalization of their business difficult.
Research limitations/implications
This research contributes to international product marketing of EM firms by constructing a model of a modern people-oriented marketing strategy for food products. This study contributes to literature on culture by illustrating that the cultural dimensions of collectivism and uncertainty avoidance enhance the development of networks and trust and impact marketing strategy.
Originality/value
This study theorizes the importance of context and an innovation-driven modern people-oriented IM strategy that adapts to customers’ preferences for food products and emphasizes the contribution of diaspora. This research reveals that Bangladeshi firms face challenges both because customers link the country and the companies to low-quality products and because governmental regulations prevent them from establishing a local presence in other countries. This study analyzes challenges EM firms face in the process of IM and the factors affecting Bangladesh in particular.
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Matti Saari, Lauri Haapanen and Pia Hurmelinna-Laukkanen
The objective of this paper is to increase understanding of social media in international business context. To this end, the authors make an attempt to integrate the existing…
Abstract
Purpose
The objective of this paper is to increase understanding of social media in international business context. To this end, the authors make an attempt to integrate the existing, still somewhat limited views in a framework that advances the knowledge of scholars and decision-makers on this topic.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conduct a conceptual study supported by use of a systematic literature review method.
Findings
This study shows marketing as a dominant area of discussion and reveals that many firm functions where social media plays a role have received relatively little attention. Furthermore, the study shows that the positive features of social media in international activity tend to be more widely acknowledged and better understood than the potentially problematic aspects.
Research limitations/implications
The number of articles analyzed in this study was relatively small, resonating with the nature of an emerging research area. Research on social media has only taken off over the last years, and it is understandable that there is limited research that connects it specifically to phenomena of international business.
Practical implications
This study reminds managers to be cautious when using social media in international markets. The relationship between social media and international business exhibits dynamism and is dependent on a variety of factors. Social media does not come without costs, nor is easily transferred from one market to another. Efficient use of this media in the international context may increase the need of specific and qualified human resources, and it may necessitate having the whole process from R&D to delivery, and beyond, ready for adaptation.
Originality/value
It can be argued that we know too little about the relevant factors and relationships between social media and international business. The authors hope that this study revealing the scarcely studied aspects and suggesting a tentative framework for capturing the dynamics of social media and international business can guide subsequent research and accelerate its emergence.
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Tiia-Lotta Pekkanen and Visa Penttilä
The study examines the responsibilisation of an ethnocentric consumer in commercial, meta-organisational discourses. In addition to nationalistic and patriotic discourses, the…
Abstract
Purpose
The study examines the responsibilisation of an ethnocentric consumer in commercial, meta-organisational discourses. In addition to nationalistic and patriotic discourses, the focus is on wider conceptualisations of consumer responsibility.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses critical discourse analysis as a methodological approach to conduct an empirical case study on the texts of two producer-driven labelling campaigns.
Findings
The campaign texts create possibilities for ethnocentric consumption with positioning, argumentative and classificatory discourses. Patriotic responsibilisation is emphasised, together with rationales to take action on environmental concerns.
Practical implications
The study highlights the responsibility of marketers over their corporate responsibility communication, suggesting that ethnocentric promotions may have the power to alter how consumers take action on various responsibility concerns.
Social implications
The study surfaces the tensions that responsible consumption can entail for consumers. Indeed, nationalistic and patriotic discourses may alter our understanding of responsibility issues that may seem completely separate from the concepts of nationalism and patriotism.
Originality/value
The paper shows how different organisational texts are deployed to bring about the idea of ethnocentric consumption and how this relates to responsibility discourses, nationalism and patriotism.
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Simone Guercini and Matilde Milanesi
This paper aims to provide a wide picture of studies on heuristics for international decision-making with a focus on foreign market entry. This paper systematically reviews…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide a wide picture of studies on heuristics for international decision-making with a focus on foreign market entry. This paper systematically reviews studies published in the international business and international marketing domain to examine heuristically based decisions for foreign market entry.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper proposes a systematic literature review and an in-depth analysis of 32 papers published between 1997 and 2021 dealing with foreign market entry and the use of heuristics for international decision-making.
Findings
Even if the marketing and management literature is in many ways permeable to the debate around heuristics developed in experimental psychology and cognitive science, international business and international marketing studies on the one hand recognize that international decision-making, especially when dealing with foreign market entry, is strongly characterized by uncertainty, on the other hand, there isn’t a developed and systematized literature about it. This paper shows key topics and areas fundamental to foreign market entry in which heuristics are applied by decision makers and their effectiveness.
Originality/value
A systematic review of the use of heuristics for foreign market entry decision-making can represent a useful step for a more organic development of knowledge about the more general use of heuristics for international decision-making. Understanding the decision-making process on the modes of entry in foreign markets is a key topic for international marketing and international business scholars and practitioners.
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Sérgio Rezende, Kátia Galdino and Bruce Lamont
The purpose of this paper is to establish a conversation between international business and international entrepreneurship literatures by analyzing if and how international…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to establish a conversation between international business and international entrepreneurship literatures by analyzing if and how international opportunities are related to the internationalization process of the firm.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper reports finding from a backward-looking longitudinal, qualitative, embedded case study of an internationalized Brazilian firm, covering all 13 foreign markets where the firm has operated over 18 years.
Findings
Modal shifts within foreign markets were rare. Over time, the firm learned how to refine, rather than change, the servicing modes within each foreign market; it also learned how to better develop internal and exploitative opportunities, manage a portfolio of servicing modes across foreign markets, and use more complex mode servicing packages. Overall, international opportunities and the internationalization process of the firm were inextricably connected.
Research limitations/implications
The authors acknowledge limitations related to the statistical generalizability of the research method and suggest that statistical validation is needed as the research on opportunities and the internationalization process of the firm progresses.
Practical implications
Internationalizing firms should carefully consider the choice of entry mode in foreign markets. They should also understand that learning is not necessarily associated with change.
Originality/value
The authors show that the internationalization process of a traditional firm can be analyzed through an opportunity lens. This means associating characteristics of international opportunities with mode continuation and modal shifts in all foreign markets where the firm operates.
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Natalia Vila-Lopez and Graham White
To have success in newly liberalized markets, firms must have a plan of action before resources are committed. What some companies do not realize is that their own entrepreneurial…
Abstract
Purpose
To have success in newly liberalized markets, firms must have a plan of action before resources are committed. What some companies do not realize is that their own entrepreneurial orientation (EO) will dictate their strategies, and performance outcomes, in both their home market and abroad. In order to maximize firm performance in newly liberalized markets (such as Cuba), firms must be able to objectively gauge their own EO. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
Within this framework, the present paper will attempt to effectively measure the EO of decision-making managers from US companies that have an interest in entering the Cuban market. A final sample of 81 US managers accepted to collaborate. They were then split into two groups (high and low EO; with 41 and 35 managers in each group, respectively) and compared regarding three variables: entry mode strategy, government affiliation strategy, and performance outcomes.
Findings
The results show that EO is related with performance, but not with the two proposed variables of entry mode and government affiliation.
Originality/value
In sum, the added value of the paper is to link US managers’ strategies and performance in a newly liberalized market which has been seldom studied: Cuba. The fields of entry mode strategies and government affiliation decisions in this newly liberalized market remain poorly investigated. Not all firms managed by highly entrepreneurial-orientated managers will decide to enter foreign markets and, on the contrary, domestic firms which are not interested in international markets can be run by highly entrepreneurial managers. This is due, in part, to the fact that internationalization can be driven by other factors. Therefore, this paper will attempt to demonstrate if certain entry modes will perform better than others when the foreign market is a newly liberalized economy. Additionally, the importance, and effect, of governmental relationships on performance outcomes will be tested within the research.
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