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Given the contradictory findings of standardization/adaptation of marketing strategy in explaining export performance in the extant research, this study aims to examine the contingent effects of managerial ties and born global orientation in the standardized advertising-export performance conceptualization.

The study used two-respondent method in the survey research by a sample of 155 exporting firms operating in the industrial marketing based in Australia and New Zealand and applied hierarchical regression analysis to test the hypotheses.

The findings demonstrate that standardized advertising has a significant effect on export performance and this relationship is positively moderated by business ties. Such effect is particularly enhanced for born global firms (than nonborn global firms). However, political ties negatively influence the impact of standardized advertising on performance and such effect is stronger for born global firms.

A broader perspective of contingent variables should be included to examine the underlying relationship between standardized advertising and export performance in capturing the dynamism in international marketing contexts, such as institutional frameworks or sociocultural environments in host countries.

Standardized advertising is critical for born global firms’ export performance as it can increase efficiency and speed up internationalization processes. Such positive impact of standardized advertising on export performance is further enhanced if born global firms allocate resources to develop strong business ties with host country partners instead of building political ties with host country governments, because smooth business networking can facilitate standardized advertising on industrial marketing, yet justifiable political relations require intricate negotiations that often prolong internationalization progress.

This study incorporates managerial ties and born global orientation as contingent factors in fixing the theoretic interlock between standardization advertising strategy and export firm performance.

The research on sustainable business model innovation (SBMI) has seen a surge over the years. However, despite the surge, the literature on the antecedents of SBMI is still at a budding stage. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to expand the literature on SBMI by investigating the influence of managerial ties on SBMI.

Data were collected from 200 SMEs in Saudi Arabia to test the conceptual model, which was analysed using structural equation modelling.

The findings highlighted the significance of managerial ties in promoting SBMI. Furthermore, the findings highlighted that managerial ties might not optimally result in SBMI uncles channelized through absorptive capacity. However, the findings could not confirm the moderating role of strategic flexibility.

The findings from this study have implications for SME owners, recommending that these firms develop managerial ties and absorptive capacities to realize the benefits of SBMI.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to highlight the significance of managerial ties in promoting SBMI from an emerging market perspective.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) might be among the primary factors ensuring any organization’s survival, and disclosing its related information is very important. This research initially investigates the effect of managers’ behavior characteristics, including overconfidence, myopia and narcissism and corporate political ties on the disclosure of CSR. This study also aims to assess the mediating impact of political connections on the association between managerial personality traits and CSR.

The research sample included 129 listed companies on the Tehran Stock Exchange from 2013 to 2020. Behavioral managerers charecteristics. A multivariate regression method with combined data (firm-year) was used to test the research hypotheses.

The results show that overconfidence and managerial myopia cause the disclosure of CSR to decrease. Managers’ overconfidence and short-term attitudes lead to a decrease in the level of CSR activities of the companies and their disclosure, respectively, 0.021 and 0.025. However, the existence of narcissism in managers and having political ties by companies may lead to an increase in the disclosure of the CSR, respectively, around 0.089 and 0.02. Further findings also indicate that political connections may motivate narcissistic managers to increase CSR disclosure near 0.037. However, the results document no significant impact of political ties on the relationship between managerial overconfidence and myopia with CSR involvement.

According to the findings, the authors recommend to stockholders that employing narcissistic managers and improving political connections might be two effective strategies to enhance the level of CSR engagement. One of the critical limitations of the current paper might be its generalizability. As Iran is an emerging and fossil fuel seller country, its institutional settings may significantly differ from those of developed and industrial nations. Thus, the readers of these nations must consider such an important issue.

For the first time, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research has investigated the moderating effect of political ties on the association between management behavioral characteristics and the level of fulfilling CSR by listed companies.

This paper aims to adopt the dynamic capabilities view to investigate the relationship between managerial ties (i.e. business and political ties), dynamic capabilities and innovation climate on ambidextrous innovation (i.e. balanced and combined ambidextrous innovation), in the renewable and sustainable energy context. It also examines the mediating effects of dynamic capabilities between managerial ties and ambidextrous innovation (i.e. balanced and combined ambidextrous innovation), and moderating effects between dynamic capabilities and ambidextrous innovation relationships.

Multilevel analyses conducted using AMOS 26 on 288 employees working in 47 UAE energy firms.

Results found that business ties influences balanced and combined ambidextrous innovation indirectly, whereas political ties only impact combined ambidextrous innovation indirectly through dynamic capabilities. Dynamic capabilities insignificantly mediated managerial ties–ambidextrous innovation and political ties–balanced ambidextrous innovation relationships, with stronger indirect effect on combined than on the balanced dimension. Findings also indicate that innovation climate is the crucial moderator between dynamic compatibilities and ambidextrous innovation, as well as balanced and combined ambidextrous innovation, with stronger effect on balanced dimension than the combined.

This study addresses recent calls by highlighting the role of dynamic capabilities, an important yet underexplored organizational capabilities in the innovation and ambidexterity literature. Also, this study advances insight into how balanced and combined exploration–exploitation innovation and dynamic capabilities are connected and enhances the understanding into how organizational factors stimulate dynamic capabilities leading to superior innovation.

Drawing upon the resource-based view this study aims to examine the connections between formal and informal business relationships and resource-bridging and adaptive capabilities within the context of foreign subsidiaries of multinational enterprises (MNEs) operating in Thailand. Based on prior literature emphasizing business network ties as sources of competitive advantage in emerging markets, this study extends the discourse by investigating the moderating effects of technological turbulence, power distance and assertiveness.

This study uses a quantitative research approach, using data obtained from a self-administered survey conducted among 168 foreign subsidiaries spanning diverse industries in Thailand. The data were analyzed by using multiple-group structural equation modeling to test the hypothesized relationships.

Cultivating different types of business ties enables foreign subsidiaries to improve different types of capabilities. While interpersonal relationships (i.e. informal businessties) enable them to develop their abilities to combine various resources (i.e. resource-bridging capability), rigid contractual-based relationships (i.e. formal businessties) help them to be more adaptive (i.e. adaptive capability). These relationships are also contingent upon the levels of technological turbulence, host-country power distance and host-country assertiveness.

This research builds upon prior research on network ties and capability building by delineating the specific nature of capabilities. Contradicting to the previous findings, demonstrating a negative relationship between formal business ties and capabilities, this study found that each type of business tie enables foreign subsidiaries to enhance different types of capabilities under different circumstances. Moreover, this study adopts a lens of host-country national culture rather than home-country culture in investigating the moderating effects of power distance and assertiveness.

This study aims to investigate the drivers of political embeddedness and the possible outcome in terms of autonomy and subsidiary unique competences.

This study draws on resource dependence theory and applies structural equation modeling on a sample of 193 subsidiaries.

Political embeddedness is confirmed as a source of potential autonomy and the development of competences and is usually boosted by previous existing networks at the internal and external levels.

The authors investigate and discuss how multinational corporations can leverage political resources in host-country political arenas, extending their understanding of the interplay between political activities and market strategies.

This paper examines the relationship between heterogeneous political connections and corporate overinvestment.

Based on a comprehensive Malaysian dataset of 834 publicly listed companies from 2000 to 2022, the authors employed multivariate ordinary least squares regression to test the relationship.

Despite different types of political connections, the findings demonstrate a positive relationship between political connections and corporate overinvestment. In particular, the association is more profound in government-linked companies (GLCs) but weaker in firms that developed political ties through family members of ruling elites. Further analysis reveals that the “helping hand” effect is only observed in GLCs and firms with politically connected directors and businessmen, whereas the “grabbing hand” effect is observed among firms connected through board, businessmen, and family ties. Moreover, the relationship is more persistent among firms with politically connected directors and businessmen around the regime change.

Regardless of the types of political connections, the findings show that politically connected firms tend to engage in rent-seeking through political patronage networks and high levels of government interference in resource allocation. Therefore, a more sophisticated monitoring system should be developed within the political patronage networks to reduce the likelihood of different types of political-business collusion. In terms of research limitations, the research design does not consider the influence of financial constraints and management efficiency. Future research could explore these facets to comprehensively understand the dynamics between political connections and corporate investment decisions.

The evidence informs market participants about the relationship between heterogeneous political connections and corporate overinvestment, reinforcing previous findings that crony capitalism, political patronage, agency problems, and weak governance are well-entrenched in Malaysia’s emerging economy. The government should acknowledge these concerns by enacting anti-corruption campaigns and promoting a fair business environment. In the meantime, policymakers might redesign regulations and revise corporate governance frameworks to substantially reduce the value of political connections, thereby diminishing the bargaining power of politicians.

As corporate investment efficiency has a considerable impact on firm value, investment decisions that enhance firm value will increase share price and maximise shareholder value. Conversely, firms may damage shareholder value if they overinvest or undertake projects that do not yield sufficient. Hence, the findings of this study may assist investors in making more informed judgements, particularly by understanding different types of business-government relations, as political connections are one of the determinants of corporate overinvestment.

This study reveals that the degree to which overinvestment issues manifest within firms is influenced by the nature of the political connections those firms possess. This indicates that politically connected firms should not be regarded as a homogenous group of firms.

The purpose of this study is to examine the influence of corporate governance (CG) mechanisms on earnings management (EM) within the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries. In addition, the impact of firm’s political connections (PCs) on EM is investigated, as well as whether it moderates the relationship between CG and EM.

Fixed-effects model is used on a sample of non-financial firms across the GCC countries to test the hypotheses. Moreover, a two-stage least squares method and a propensity score matching procedure are used to mitigate potential reverse causality and sample selection bias.

This study reveals that CG mechanisms such as board size and board independence are negatively associated with EM, while CEO duality is positively association with EM. In addition, this study shows that institutional ownership and blockholders do not influence EM. Furthermore, PCs are shown to play a moderating role in the relationship between CG and EM. The results of this study are robust to endogeneity testing and to alternative measures of CG.

Because of a lack of data, the authors do not consider additional CG attributes such as tenure, education and age of board members. Future research could explore the impact of these attributes when data becomes available.

This study provides valuable insights for government officials, policymakers, standard-setters, regulators and corporations by presenting new evidence on the relationship among CG, PCs and EM. Moreover, this study underscores that, in the absence of a strong institutional infrastructure and investor protection, relying solely on strong CG and Islamic values and GCC culture may have a limited impact on effective monitoring of opportunistic managerial behaviors.

This study contributes to existing literature with a specific focus on the unique political, legal, institutional, social and cultural setting of the GCC region. Moreover, this study provides new insights that PCs serve as a governance mechanism in mitigating EM because relatively little attention has been given to the impact of PCs in improving accounting outcomes, especially in the context of the GCC region where Islamic ethical norms often shape business practices.

Research on the political connections of multinational enterprises’ (MNEs’) subsidiaries in emerging host countries has been growing. The purpose of this paper is to integrate institutional and resource dependence theories to argue that MNEs-subsidiaries are likely to develop fewer formal (i.e. board-level) political connections when operating in welfare-state monarchies as compared to in host countries with developmental-state democratic systems. Furthermore, this paper argues that MNE-subsidiaries develop formal political connections to a greater extent in industries where religion influences the development of products and services considerably. Finally, the extent of developing formal political connections varies by the scale of the MNEs’ investment (or subsidiary density) in the host market.

The paper tests its hypotheses on a sample of foreign-owned subsidiaries operating in Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The data was collected by combining information from Bureau Van Dijk’s Orbis database with company websites and other secondary sources. The final sample consisted of 156 observations – 70 MNEs-subsidiaries operating in Saudi Arabia, and 86 in Egypt.

The findings confirm that foreign subsidiaries are likely to develop fewer formal political connections in a welfare-state monarchy as compared to in a developmental-state democratic system. Furthermore, formal political connections are more significant in industries that are impacted by the influence of religion – such as the financial industry in Arab countries. Finally, the extent of using political connections varies by the scale of the MNEs’ investment in the host market – that is, with a greater scale of investment (or higher subsidiary density), formal political connections are greater.

The paper contributes theoretically by explaining that a combination of institutional heterogeneity and its associated resource dependence conditions between MNEs and host governments influence MNE-subsidiaries' political connections. The paper tests its hypotheses in an emerging Arab context, which is characterized by both autocratic and semi-democratic political settings, and which makes the integration of institutional and resource dependence theories useful in explaining how MNE-subsidiaries navigate local complexities in this region.

Using the resource-based view and dynamic capabilities theory, we explore the impact of strategic management practices, innovation and social capital on small and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs) performance in three developing Arab countries, namely, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia.

Drawing upon firm-level data derived from the standardized World Bank Enterprise Surveys, we use quantile regressions and the marginal effects analysis to test our hypotheses.

Our results show heterogeneity among the three countries as to the factors affecting firm performance. The configuration of performance determinants also differs among firms within each country, depending on their level of performance.

Our findings further the understanding of the performance determinants of SMEs in developing countries within their own local context. They imply important theoretical, methodological, managerial and policy implications.

This study is the first to investigate simultaneously strategic management practices, innovation and social capital as determinants of SMEs’ performance in developing countries. We confirm an important premise of the resource-based view and dynamic capabilities theory, which has not been thoroughly investigated in the literature, claiming that strategic management, innovation and social capital cannot be separately investigated as determinants of firm performance. We do so by going beyond the mere inclusion of interaction terms in regression equations to computing marginal effects.