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The case study presented here discusses the story of Marek, who left his job in a corporation in Poland and set up his dream hotel business in Zanzibar. The first part of his story offers an excellent basis for discussing the role of distance in international business and learning the CAGE model. In the second part, the entrepreneur had to face up to the global pandemic, and decide whether to give up on his dreams or cope with the difficulties. Students working with this case thus have an opportunity to put themselves in the shoes of a transnational entrepreneur embedded in two countries, and to learn how a person’s perspective on distance might change in times of crisis.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of national culture on leverage speed of adjustment (SOA) across countries.

We use a partial adjustment model to estimate the impact of national culture (assessed using Hofstede's six cultural dimensions) on leverage SOA.

We find that culture does significantly affect the degree to which firms deviate from target debt level and the speed of adjustment (SOA) of leverage. High power distance, individualism and masculinity are associated with a slower SOA, while high long-term orientation, uncertainty avoidance and indulgence result in a faster SOA. Additionally, cultural characteristics affect leverage SOA differently when firms are underlevered versus overlevered and when firms have small versus large deviations from the target level of debt. We suggest that these effects can be explained by agency motives.

The results of the study are based on available information for firms from 53 countries.

This study is, to the best of our knowledge, the first to examine the impact of national cultural traits on leverage SOA in international settings.

This study aims to examine the existence of capital structure dynamics and speed of adjustment during different economic periods. This study adds to the existing body of literature by investigating the factors influencing adjustment process toward target debt in developing economies.

By employing two-step generalized method of moment (GMM) and sensitivity analysis, the study highlights critical factors which affect firms’ adjustment mechanism for target debt.

Dynamic GMM estimations confirm the substance of past leverage on current debt, which recognizes the existence of dynamic capital structure. The findings corroborate that adjustment process is subject to trade-off between convergence rate and cost of being off-target. The fraction of financing of Pakistani firms confirms the pattern of pecking order hypothesis. The outcome of study clearly validates the significance of dynamic trade-off modeling for optimal capital structure.

As more data become available, the authors would extend this study to investigate the sectoral analysis to find how capital structure dynamics are different across sectors and how distinctive behavior of each sector differently affects the adjustment process toward target debt across each sector. In addition, sector-level and macro-economic factors could be incorporated to examine how external factors affect the firm’s speed of adjustment across sectors.

The present study provides valuable insights for banking and corporate sector, mainly in Pakistan. The companies could take into consideration the firm-level factors which affect the adjustment process toward target debt. Likewise, the borrowing and lending procedures could be advanced by complying with dynamic mechanism of speed of adjustment. Furthermore, the findings of this research provide obstinate grounds for future research.

Both the use of dynamic GMM adjustment model and sensitivity analysis along with Sargan test validate the health of instruments and values.

This paper aims to propose an integrated framework combining the cost-reduction rationale and the institution-leveraging rationale to explain how institutional distance, both formal and informal, influences emerging multinational enterprises (EMNEs)’ foreign direct investment (FDI) location choice. This paper also explores the moderating role of EMNEs’ FDI experience and strategic intent on value chain positioning as a reflection of firm heterogeneities, on the link between institutional distance and location choice.

This paper tests the hypotheses based on a firm-level longitudinal data set of FDI by Chinese EMNEs. The unique data are manually collected from Chinese companies listed on Shenzhen and Shanghai Stock Exchanges, composed of 250 FDI entries of 122 manufacturing firms from 2006 to 2010. The conditional logit model is used to estimate the proposed main effect and moderating effect.

Cultural distance does not deter Chinese EMNEs’ entrance in general, but firms investing in low value-added manufacturing subsidiaries are more likely to choose culturally similar countries than those investing in high value-added subsidiaries such as in upstream R&D and downstream marketing. Formal institutional distance with positive direction promotes Chinese EMNEs’ entrance, and this effect is enhanced when firms have less FDI experience and have the strategic intent to invest in high value-added subsidiaries.

This paper contributes to the current literature by identifying a holistic view of the institutional influences on FDI location choice of EMNEs and revealing how firm-level heterogeneities, particularly FDI experience and strategic intent of subsidiary value chain positioning, shape the boundary conditions of the institutional effects in different ways.

Effective decision making and learning in a world of growing dynamic complexity requires leaders to become systems thinkers – to develop tools to understand the structures of complex systems. The paper aims to clarify the relationship between systems thinking and leadership performance. The relevance of systems thinking as a competence was disclosed in the context of leadership in the complex world.

The paper followed a quantitative research approach. First, exploratory factor analysis was employed to assess dimensionality of scales. Second, relationships between variables were explored using Spearman's correlation. Third, multiple linear regression was run to test the hypothesized model of relationships. The total sample of 201 consists of subsamples in two industries: retail trade (103 respondents) and manufacturing (98 respondents).

Based on the analysis and synthesis of the scientific literature, a conceptual model of relationship between intelligence competencies (such as systems thinking) and leadership performance is developed. The theoretical model is supported by empirical evidence from the two industries perspectives: the paper compares the impact of systems thinking on leadership performance in manufacturing and retail trade enterprises. Correlational and regression analyses revealed that systems thinking was associated with higher leadership performance.

Because of the chosen research approach, the research results may lack generalizability. First, the model was tested empirically only in two industries: in retail trade and in manufacturing. Second, the sample of this research was limited only to national level, therefore there is no possibility to compare results across different countries. In order to generalize the research findings, further research should include more companies from different industries.

The paper discloses the benefits of systems thinking in organization and includes implications for the development of systems thinking and other leadership competencies.

This paper establishes a link between systems thinking and leadership performance. Theoretical insights that systems thinking is most important dealing with conceptual strategic problems of an organization were confirmed empirically.

As an important indicator of the quality of life of individuals, residential environments are continuing to evolve, due to the rapidly changing production–consumption relations. However, in this evolving process, the effect of the differentiated residential environments on the individuals' residential satisfaction remains unclear. This paper aims to measure the effects of the varying residential environments on the overall quality of urban life (QoUL) in Kayseri, one of the most developed cities in Central Anatolia.

It is based on empirical data on the quality of life in the different residential environments of Kayseri. The research method used stratified purposeful sampling, and the household survey data were analyzed using factor analysis, multiple regression and ANOVA statistical methods.

The most influential factors on the overall QoUL of individuals living in different Kayseri residential neighborhoods were satisfaction with neighborhood and city-level urban services, neighborhood relations and belonging factor groups. The critical finding obtained in this study is that residential satisfaction in low-rise and compact form housing areas in Kayseri is higher compared to residential satisfaction in high-rise neighborhoods. This result reveals that the high-rise building typology that is dominant in Turkey's big cities should be seriously questioned, and urban development policies should be re-evaluated.

The study was designed to produce baseline data so that future changes in residential conditions as perceived by the residents of Kayseri could be monitored to support decisions for residential areas.

Comparative case studies, particularly on low-rise versus high-rise environments, are scarce. As a result, this research contributes to the field of comparative studies on residential environments.

The objective of this chapter is to explore the experience of EU companies in the environmental protection sector in China focusing on their difficulties and the mitigating strategies mobilized.

We adopt a qualitative, case study approach, using interview data to explore the liability of foreignness (LOF) experienced by the companies studied and the strategies adopted to overcome LOF.

We found examples of all categories of LOF identified by Eden and Miller (2004), among our case study companies, but the most problematic and persistent were discrimination hazards. Companies adopted various strategies to cope with LOF, including maximizing the use of local employees, developing relationships with local and national government actors, and establishing partnerships with local companies. None had chosen a combative legalistic approach to the unfair treatment they had suffered.

The relatively small number of cases (six) limits the generalizability of our findings. However, we are convinced that the size of our case companies and their long experience in China mean our findings are well grounded, although more research is needed.

The experience of our case study companies can help to inform the strategy of companies interested in entering and developing the Chinese market.

Very few studies have explored LOF through a case study-based qualitative approach. This research therefore helps to supplement findings from more large-scale quantitative analyses. In addition, there is little research on the LOF of foreign companies in China. Given the growing importance of the market, we believe the question merits further analysis.

Multinational corporations (MNCs) have increasingly sourced knowledge across borders, and foreign subsidiaries operations have played a critical role in MNC international knowledge sourcing strategies. The growing responsibility of foreign subsidiaries has paralleled an interest on the geography of this phenomenon by international business and international management scholars. In this chapter, we review this research. In addition, based on recent research in economics and management drawing on economic geography and innovation studies, we highlight possible avenues of research to enrich our understanding of the geographical aspects of international knowledge sourcing. In particular, we suggest three lines of research opportunities. A first opportunity relates to the explicit consideration of distance and border effects. A further research opportunity arises from investigating the geographical distance of heterogeneous host country knowledge sources from the foreign subsidiary. A final research opportunity we discuss is about the contribution of heterogeneous host country knowledge sources to the variety of knowledge developed by the foreign subsidiary.

The purpose of this study is to focus on a growing strategic approach in global industries: the coopetition. Cooperation among competitors, namely, coopetition, is a strategic guideline in many global industries affected by technological innovation. This study discussed the effect of firm-, inter-firm- and industry-level drivers leading to coopetitive agreements in global industries affected by technological innovation.

By using an event history analysis, the authors develop a framework on firm-, inter-firm- and industry-level drivers on the likelihood of each competitor in the industry entering into coopetitive agreements in global competitive contexts. Empirical data are analyzed in five global industries: car industry, telecommunication industry, air transportation industry, bank industry and computer programming services industry.

The results of this study suggest that firms’ experience in cooperation (H1) predicts whether a firm will enter a coopetitive agreement. Moreover, the cultural similarity among competitors (H2) predicts whether a firm will enter a coopetitive agreement with a culturally similar competitor, while the total number of competitors already involved in coopetitive agreements (H3) has a low positive effect on the likelihood of a firm to coopete. Finally, the speed of agreements among competitors (H4) and the total number of coopetitive agreements in the industry (H5) (only in the car industry and software industry) are positively related to the chance of a firm entering into a coopetitive agreement.

First, the authors identified and tested specific drivers of coopetition as a result of the literature review and data accessibility. The results may have omitted some variables able to further explain the event of coopetition. Second, the results of cultural distance versus cultural similarity revealed differences on firms’ behavior according to their different nationality. Chinese firms were the most oriented to deal coopetitive agreements with other Chinese firms, while firms from other countries were progressively less oriented by cultural similarity. These results may lead to studies of the “country of origin effect” on which partners to include in coopeititve agreements or which network of partners to join. Finally, the findings of this study are based on five industries over a specific ten years period of time. Consequently, the results certainly reflect the evolution of these industries over the time period considered.

The empirical investigation clarifies the relationship between decisions on strategy and competitive dynamics with the decision-making option to coopete. While managers take into account strategic moves against competitors, according to the authors’ investigation, it is valuable to consider coopetitive actions, especially when other competitors are involved in coopetitive agreements and the industry is affected by technological innovation. Moreover, the knowledge of drivers at the firm, inter-firm and industry level affecting coopetition is helpful to identify the weak or strong signals that show the rise and proliferation of coopetition in an industry.

This study highlights the relevance of coopetition as an emerging approach in the competition among firms for developing or exploiting technological innovations. This approach can improve results in technological innovations that can have an impact in sustainability as well as new innovative solutions for social progress.

In literature, attention has been focused on drivers explaining the growing number of coopetitive agreements in several industries. Some contributions already discussed this topic from the perspective of costs and benefits for players. This study tries to continue to fill this research gap by studying, at firm, inter-firm and industry level, drivers of the likelihood of each competitor in the industry entering into coopetitive agreements in global competitive contexts.

This study examines what motivates firms to go and remain abroad despite uncertain profit potential. In a departure from probing traditional market-seeking, profit-driven motives, the authors explore how domestically driven, sociocultural motivations may shape the foreign market entry decisions of Korean commercial banks (KCBs). The authors argue that, due to the power imbalance between KCBs and their chaebol clients within the historical and cultural contexts of their relationships, KCBs' foreign market entries may depend more on their clients' presence in these markets than on their profit potential.

The authors focus on the foreign market entries of KCBs and their client firms. Using the data of 8 KCBs and their client firms belonging to the 60 business groups (chaebols) of Korea, the authors analyze 6,577 observations involving the dyadic relationship between a KCB and its client firm in 15 host countries from 2005 to 2014.

The authors find that the number of clients' subsidiaries operating in foreign markets may increase the likelihood of KCBs entering these markets. Moreover, when KCBs earn more domestic profit from client firms, the potential Korean market in the host country is greater, and the institutional distance between the host country and Korea is smaller.

In addition to the critical role of a bank-centered financing system in advancing a developing country and its firms, the authors’ findings suggest that firms should pay attention to the local diaspora and the institutional distance between the host and home countries in order to manage power-imbalanced relationships and make them sustainable.

The study contributes to the literature on foreign market entry by demonstrating how the home country's sociocultural factors may worsen the power imbalance, thereby pushing firms to make seemingly irrational decisions to go and stay abroad. That is, KCBs' foreign operations may be a way of seeking relational benefits with client firms, which would serve as a source of long-term domestic market profits. The authors’ findings thus highlight the need to consider how sociocultural factors may also shape firms' decision-making in their international business.