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Due to the lack of industrywide data, now there is only perceptual knowledge, through survey data, that construction firms may face great challenges in geographical diversification. The article aims to provide an objective description on the state of interregional market entry practices in the Chinese construction industry. How these practices are influenced by related set of regional and industry-related factors is further studied.

Description analysis of the practices is first performed based on a first-hand industrial data set including 1,020 projects and 404 construction firms. Combining provincial panel data in the National Bureau of Statistics of China, related regional and industry-related factors on these practices are further analyzed through hierarchical regression models.

(1) Interregional market entry practices are not quite prevalent during the past two decades, only involving 271 projects and 111 firms which accounts for 26.57% and 27.47% of the analyzed subjects respectively; (2) Large, state-owned and experienced firms are more frequently involved in the practices; (3) A number of regional factors such as local market protection and industry scale also significantly impact the practices.

The empirical analysis of this study was conducted using the specific dataset from the National Quality Award Projects where firms tend to be national, which may limit the generalizability of the findings to the whole industry contexts.

While most of the research on market entry practices in the project-based construction industry is undertaken at project or firm level based on survey data, this research represents an exploratory effort of using objective data to provide a macro overview of the practices at the industry level. The findings could contribute to a deepened understanding of how these practices are impacted by related regional- and industry-level factors.

This paper aims to conduct a longitudinal analysis of the patterns of internationalisation of multinational corporations and provide a measure of their degree of globalisation at the firm-level. There is much debate in the literature on the regional nature of the globalisation of multinational corporations (Rugman and Oh, 2013).

The authors use firm-level sales data to analyse the location of sales and patterns of globalisation of 1,276 companies across ten countries and ten industries from 1998-2012.

The results show that while international sales are rising and the proportion of home region-oriented firms is falling, the majority of sales of the companies in our data set continues to be in the Triad, with little growth in non-Triad regions. The authors find one common theme for the majority of countries, an increase in sales to Asia yet concentrated in just four industries, financials, basic materials, oil and gas and technology. Despite an increase in the percentage of host-region, bi-regional and global companies, 62.6 per cent of the firms have not changed multinational classification over the 15-year period, 43.1 per cent have not expanded out of their home region and 16.4 per cent have not expanded out of their home market. The authors find some evidence of liabilities of interregional foreignness at the industry and country level. The authors show regional sales are moving towards matching global economic activity for the 50 most globalised firms in our study but less so for the other firms in our sample. Overall, the results show that the majority of the growth in internationalisation comes from a small minority of firms.

The authors make several advances across the literature on internationalisation, including a more in-depth longitudinal analysis of firm-level multinationality than exists to date and a novel method of measuring firm-level globalisation.

This paper aims at assessing the actual use of interregional transmission lines and the opportunity cost of unused capacity. The 13 electric power lines connecting the province of Quebec (Canada) to its neighbours (New Brunswick, New England, New York, Ontario) are analysed for the years 2006, 2007 and 2008.

Hourly electricity transmission data from the Quebec Open Access Same‐Time Information System (OASIS) are analysed and matched with hourly market prices in New Brunswick, New England, New York and Ontario, for the years 2006, 2007 and 2008.

Capacity factors of about 50 per cent are found for these lines. Although increasing from 2006 to 2008, this finding shows that interregional lines are far from being heavily congested. Furthermore, about 25 TWh of additional profitable exports could have taken place every year, given the market conditions and the availability of transmission lines. These exports represented an opportunity cost of about $1 billion per year.

Other network constraints and transaction costs could explain why these profitable transactions have not taken place. However, the lack of available energy most likely explains why exports were limited. The opportunity cost could also be overestimated by not taking into account the price impact of additional exports.

Price regulation in Quebec (with priority given to local loads) should be reviewed to maximize economic efficiency and environmental benefits in the Northeast region.

This is the first analysis of the use of interregional electricity transmission lines. It provides a preliminary estimate of the economic cost of not further integrating different neighbouring regions.

The aim of this study is to explore the drivers of the evolution of a subsidiary’s strategic role from an ordinary subsidiary into a springboard subsidiary in multinational corporations, paying special attention to the role of subsidiary management in this transformation.

The authors apply a case study methodology to analyse the transformation of three Spanish subsidiaries of European multinational companies into springboard subsidiaries to pursue opportunities in the Latin American region.

The results present evidence that the development of a springboard subsidiary’s role is influenced by a set of preliminary factors that include: (1) the coincidence of a favourable economic change in the target region of expansion and unfavourable market conditions in the springboard subsidiary’s home market; (2) location-specific advantages of a subsidiary that allow it to develop unique capabilities, such as the ability to reduce the psychic distance between the headquarters and target region, to balance intra-regional conflicts within the target region, and to effectively transfer knowledge from the headquarters to the target region; and (3) micro-political headquarters-subsidiary negotiation processes as a result of the subsidiary’s strong initiative, peculiarities of the structure of a multinational company, and a strong dependency of the headquarters on the subsidiary’s unique capabilities.

The study contributes to the International Business literature by providing an in-depth analysis of the evolution of springboard subsidiaries and explaining how ordinary subsidiaries located in saturated markets can trigger organisational change and achieve the extension of their strategic role.

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.

This paper reviews the theoretical case for industrial policy (coordination) provided by theories of multiple equilibria. It is argued that for most less developed countries the case for industrial policy (government coordination) is best made with respect to agriculture. Those states that have succeeded in terms of government policy promoting economic development, began with the agricultural sector.

I am honored to receive the Booz Allen Hamilton/strategy+business Eminent Scholar Award in International Management. I am even more honored to follow in the footsteps of such distinguished previous recipients of the AOM-IMD (Academy of Management-International Division) Distinguished Scholar Award as: John Child, Christopher Bartlett, Sumantra Ghoshal, John Dunning, and Yves Doz. Like them, I shall reflect here on my past contributions to scholarship, and then use this work as a building block for the major part of this paper, which is on the need for new and relevant theory in the field of international management.

Purpose – This chapter examines the expectation that because the developmental trajectories of cultural frontiers are often seen as being tied to that of their more complexly developed neighbors, increases in interregional interaction provide frontier communities with previously unavailable political-economic opportunities that promote social change.

Design/methodology/approach – This expectation is examined using data from archaeological excavations at the site of El Dornajo in southwestern Ecuador. Models based on external conditions like interregional interaction are considered alongside those based on internal conditions like environmental perturbations.

Findings – The results suggest that increased interregional interaction promoted the emergence of a regional prestige economy that symbolically legitimated (and perhaps made possible) the co-option of traditional risk buffering strategies during a time when the availability of subsistence resources had changed due to local conditions.

Practical implications – This chapter supports the notion that the emergence of institutionalized inequality requires control over both internal and external relationships. Furthermore, it suggests that examining models based on both internal and external conditions of change may help to explain the timing and pace of that change.

Originality/value – Much of the archaeological literature is dichotomized between models based on internal conditions and those based on external conditions. Few archaeologists would take exception to the notion that both conditions matter, but equally few archaeologists are looking at both kinds of conditions in the same case study.

Discusses the internationalization of retail operations within the European Union (EU) and the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Discusses the determining factors behind the internationalization process and the influence this has on the flow of international investment. Places the motivations behind internationalization indicated by the survey results presented within the debate on the internationalization process. Analyses and uses to illustrate these determining factors, the particular experiences and attitudes of UK retailers towards international expansion. As a group, large UK retailers provide an interesting indicator of changing perceptions and underlying factors that determine the nature of international organizational growth and development. The EU and NAFTA provide useful market comparisons when assessing this process. Presents and discusses observable trends and survey results. Considers current and future developments in the internationalization process.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the dynamics of China's health biotech clusters from an interregional perspective. By treating clustering as the result of firms' localization choices, the paper examines whether and why different types of firms agglomerate in the various locations.

The paper employs a demographic approach that is inspired by the 2006 work of Romanelli and Feldman on cluster development in the USA. It categorizes China's clusters based on differences in the degree of policy support and the nature of the science base. Then, it draws a sample of 75 of China's most visible firms and analyses them in terms of entrepreneurial origin, their location and, if applicable, the location of their subsidiaries. By matching types of firms with types of clusters, the paper highlights some characteristics of China's regional development.

Studies on China's high‐tech agglomerations unanimously complain about a lack of “creative buzz” compared to the vibrant clusters of for example, the Bay Area in the USA. The analysis indicates that the lack of a creative culture is associated with the anatomy of cluster development. China's clusters grow to a significant extent by attracting enterprise subsidiaries to their sites. The authors argue that these particular cluster anatomies are founded on China's capital market. As the capital market is not prepared to provide pre‐revenue firms with sufficient funds, firms have to earn revenue quickly in order to ensure their viability. Therefore, they concentrate on building up manufacturing capacity and exploiting given technologies. The main point is that local governments as major providers of financial support are instrumental in this process. The establishment of manufacturing subsidiaries in various locations rests on the rationale of collecting funds. This leads to the conclusion that national capital markets either reinforce or inhibit clustering depending on how much it allows the mobility of financial capital. Local government funds do not travel far. This has an impact on the firms' localization decisions and their business strategies, which, in turn, affects the “culture” inside the clusters.

This argument is based on a limited number of interviews conducted by the authors or other researchers. In order to corroborate the link between the capital market and local development trajectories, more evidence needs to be collected via interview surveys and other means to extract financial information.

Unlike other research on Chinese clusters, this paper offers an interregional perspective based on a demographic approach. The argument is original in linking regional cluster dynamics with the national institutional set‐up.