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A study of the price discounts granted by Morton Salt Company and other producers of table salt in the U.S. on their sales of table salt to grocery wholesalers and retailers. The discounts were found to be illegal under the Robinson-Patman Act by the Federal Trade Commission and the Supreme Court. The Commission and the Court believed that the discounts were unjustified price concessions granted to “large” buyers, consistent with the concerns of the Robinson-Patman Act. However, the evidence indicates that the most common discount – the “carload discount” – was received by virtually all buyers, regardless of the buyer’s size; the other discounts – “annual volume” discounts – though received primarily by “large” buyers, were likely cost based. The history of the discounts and likely reasons why they were granted are explored in detail.

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.

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the question: should management segment the markets according to different “cultures”, serving the target consumers with the minimum “cultural shock” and providing the most appropriate service for consumers from different nations?

This research regards Hofstede's cultural perspective as the main basis for deduction. Drawing on a self‐administered questionnaire, the data are collected from Taiwanese and American consumers in the international tourist hotels in Taiwan. Based on theoretical considerations, hypothesis are proposed to examine what are the Taiwanese and American consumers' evaluation factors toward international tourist hotel service quality.

Based upon the empirical findings of this research, Taiwan consumers and American consumers have different cognition toward international tourist hotel service quality due to their cultural difference. The differences are most pronounced in the perceptual categories labeled “Assurance”, “Tangibles”, “Reliability”, “Reaction” and “Empathy”. Cultural differences do influence consumer behavior.

The research problems and objectives of this research are merely to understand if there is any difference between the two and where the differences might lie. However, according to the research finding, “cultural difference” plays a significant role. Since this research is a “descriptive study” which cannot assure causality, future research can investigate effect and causality of “national culture dimension” and “service quality dimension” and further expand the theory.

In order to respond to different cultural values, enterprises should recognize different needs of consumers from different cultures and employ various operational strategies, diminish the gap between expectation and cognition of service quality, transcend cross‐cultural boundaries, upgrade consumers' cognition toward hotel service quality. Via the characteristic of international tourist hotel industry, which is highly connected with consumers, one can thus clarify the consumers' various responses under the influence of their different cultures. Furthermore, with the related study on service marketing, one can supplement the theory from the cross‐cultural perspective. As to the empirical aspects, the said study is able to function as a reference for upgrading the cultural sensitivity of the industry.

Previous researches neglect whether there is any difference between the optimal international marketing strategies with respect to “service”, the intangible product, and the “tangible product” of manufacturing industry. Confirming the difference of each country can result in valuable insight such as understanding the relationship among culture, economics, society and space. Consequently, understanding the cultural differences with respect to evaluation and cognition of service quality qualifies as the most important issue for this research.

This chapter bridges the gap between two distinct approaches to the concept of psychic distance – measuring it in terms of people’s perceptions of distance or in terms of exogenous national-level differences. The two approaches are reconciled in a “refined and integrative” definition of the concept, which is tested empirically using a mediating model.

Structural equation modeling is used on a bilateral sample of 25 countries to test whether perceptions of psychic distance mediate the relationships between national-level differences and bilateral trade and investment.

By testing for alternative direct paths, the chapter confirms that for the main forms of national-level differences, culture, socioeconomic development, language, and religion, psychic distance fully mediates their relationships with both trade flows and investment patterns. However, for geographic distance, while the relationship is fully mediated for investment, it is only partially mediated for exports. Two asymmetric “distance-bridging” factors are also found to be significant antecedents of psychic distance.

This chapter is the first to empirically demonstrate the mediating relationship between exogenous national-level differences and perceptions of psychic distance, and thus, provides new insights into the debate over which measurement approach is more appropriate. Perceptions of psychic distance, even if measured by expert panels rather than the actual decision-makers, fully capture the impact of national-level differences on trade and FDI flows; however, if such measures of perceptions are not available, a simple selection of four national-level differences will still capture 80% of the same effect.

Most of the research on international outsourcing of value chain activities focuses on larger firms. The purpose of this paper is to fill an important research gap by exploring how small firms manage institutional differences to enhance their international outsourcing success.

The paper uses data from interviews conducted with two managers of a small New Zealand apparel manufacturing firm who have over 35 years of combined experience with international outsourcing. The firm had both failed and successful experiences in its international outsourcing ventures. Findings are discussed in the context of the extant literature on international outsourcing.

Small firms overcome institutional constraints they face in offshore locations by leveraging from their entrepreneurial skills, learning from failures and using a relational governance mode. This results in achieving performance targets and sustaining long-term relationships with suppliers, defined as international outsourcing success in this study.

The findings may not be generalised as they are based on a single case and cover only the client perspective. The study contributes to the offshoring literature from the perspective of smaller firms and calls for quantitative investigations to generalise the findings.

The key implications include that small firms need to develop quality relationships and leverage from their unique entrepreneurial capabilities to enhance their success while outsourcing to relatively different institutional environments. Moreover, even a failed experience might help generate subsequent multiple successful ventures, if lessons are learned and behaviour adapted accordingly. Operating in emerging economies is much more challenging than managers from developed markets usually expect – thus the need for them to understand and prepare well before undertaking operations in these markets.

With the rise of international outsourcing of value chain activities, the findings are useful to small firms aiming to achieve success in their outsourcing ventures in offshore locations. This study is one of only a few studies investigating small firms’ international outsourcing that examines both failure and success in an institutionally diverse context.

This chapter aims to make sense of the growing research that examines the role of culture in mergers and acquisitions. We provide a detailed review of the many related but distinct constructs that have been introduced to the literature. While each construct has contributed to our understanding of the role of culture, the lack of connections made among constructs has limited the consolidation of contributions. The review shows what these constructs mean for mergers and acquisitions, what major findings have been discovered, and, most importantly, how constructs interrelate. Our discussion provides several opportunities to foster the needed consolidation of this research.

This study examines the perceptions of 41 corporate chief accountants from Bahrain on the issues relating to the relative importance of international accounting topics in Bahrain. The study indicates a significant interest of the respondents in internationalizing the accounting curriculum. The topics which received importance rating of over 80% were: foreign investment and decision making, international accounting standards, financial reporting and disclosure, foreign currency transactions and translation, management information system (MIS) for multinational enterprises (MNEs), and consolidations. Results were also compared to a recent study from United States (US) and significant differences were found to exist in respect of several topics. The reasons for the major differences in the perceptions are explained in this paper, some of which may be attributed to cultural as well as environmental differences. The study also found that there is a strong support for adoption of the International Accounting Standards (IASs) because international markets are becoming increasingly important and there exists major differences in accounting principles among the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries themselves. Furthermore, the study also suggests that in view of the similarity in social, economic, and business practices in GCC countries, the highly ranked accounting topics reported in this study should perhaps be incorporated by the accounting departments of universities operating in the GCC region. This will facilitate the process of harmonization of the accounting curriculum in this region.

Cultural differences have been frequently cited as a major source of risks for international joint ventures (IJVs). Cultural differences may cause extensive conflicts in technology, norms and emotion among the international joint venture (IJV) partners. The purpose of this study is to explore the interactive effects of national culture differences (NCDs) and conflict management approaches on the performance of international construction joint ventures (ICJV).

Data were collected using a questionnaire survey method with 143 valid responses. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to test the research hypotheses.

It was found that ICJV performance declined with a high degree of NCDs. The negative effect of NCDs on ICJV performance was mitigated by adopting the cooperative conflict management approach; while it was aggravated by adopting the competitive conflict management approach. The findings may provide an alternative way (i.e. adopting the cooperative conflict management approach rather than avoiding or competitive approaches) to address the cultural conflicts in the multicultural project management teams.

Firstly, as NCD negatively impacts performance of ICJVs, project managers should pay attention to cultural issues and learn how to manage them; Secondly, as cooperative and competitive conflict management approaches have different moderating effects on the relationship between NCD and ICJV performance, project managers must choose appropriate conflict management styles in multination teams. Thirdly, as the avoiding approach has no significant moderating effect on the negative relationship between NCD and ICJV performance, it is important for Chinese partners not to employ avoiding approach to deal with conflicts in ICJV.

This study uniquely adds to the literature on cultural issues in managing ICJVs by integrating the moderating effects of conflict management approaches. The interactive effects of conflict management approaches and national cultural differences on ICJV project performance may contribute to the theories regarding conflict management theory in the context of cross-cultural management.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a quantitative integration of the existing empirical body of literature on culture and acquisition performance.

The study is based on a meta-analytical approach that synthesizes 189 effect sizes from 24 independent samples with a total sample size of n=5,496 acquisitions.

This meta-analytical study found a consistently negative and significant relationship between organizational cultural differences and acquisition performance, and a dual effect of national cultural differences (i.e. cultural distance) on acquisition performance. It further identified significant methodological and contextual moderators and discusses the implications for acquisitions in emerging markets.

Due to the nature of meta-analyses, this study is based on existing (i.e. available secondary) data. Future research may collect novel, primary data to further test the conceptual model and respective relationships developed therein.

This study sheds light onto the culture-based performance determinants of acquisitions and the effects of methodological and contextual moderator variables. Given the significant importance of acquisitions across organizational and national cultures, the findings may inform business practitioners when developing sustainable strategies to successfully integrate organizations that are culturally different and/or are located in culturally diverse environments.

A better understanding about the culture-based performance determinants of acquisitions may inform public policy makers about how to regulate and set incentives for acquisitions, which constitute a main vehicle through which firms undertake foreign direct investment, and which can be considered a global sustainable growth strategy for multinational corporations and entire economies.

This paper is original in that it provides a large-scale and in-depth quantitative integration and synthesis of the empirical literature on culture and acquisition performance based on a meta-analytical approach and so has important theoretical value and empirical implications for future emerging market research.