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Schedule UTP requires that firms disclose to the IRS the uncertain tax positions that comprise the federal portion of the tax reserve disclosed on their financial statements. To investigate whether Schedule UTP has been an effective audit tool to the IRS, we use financial statement disclosures of reductions in reserves due to a lapse in the statute of limitations (Lapse). We find that the probability of a Lapse is 3.4 percent lower after Schedule UTP. However, this result is driven by domestic firms; we do not find evidence that Schedule UTP has been effective in the audit of multinational firms.

A number of interesting studies have emerged recently in the area of worker participation. Many of them discuss and analyse structures of representation and hypothesise on appropriate structures for different decision areas and for different decision levels within the organisation. They do not, however, take into account the structure of decision‐making in the organisations under discussion. Assumptions are not tested. One exception here is the study of Peccei and Warner. They examined levels of autonomy and centralisation of decision‐making in the subsidiaries of a multinational company. The present study extends this exercise (using the same methodology) to subsidiaries of a range of other larger companies, including multinationals. The purpose was to see whether the Peccei and Warner results were confirmed, secondly to examine non‐multinational subsidiaries for similar results and, thirdly, to check whether defined patterns in the decision‐making structure emerged which could be useful in discussing appropriate structures of worker participation. Some deviations from the Peccei and Warner results were noted with respect to degree of centralisation/autonomy. In particular, in the present study, highly similar patterns of centralised decision areas emerge, also the overall ranked correlation of centralised and non‐centralised decisions is highly significant for various types of decisions over a wide range of different subsidiaries. In contrast to Peccei and Warner, I would conclude that the pattern of centralisation is much more highly predictable than their conclusions imply.

The purpose of this paper is to use the theoretical perspective of structural inertia as a unique lens to study foreign sequential entry mode choices of multinational firms.

It adopts quantitative analysis of a sample of 121 Chinese publicly listed firms with 564 foreign entry incidents in the 2001-2012 period to test the hypotheses.

The empirical results show that multinational firms have a tendency to adopt the same mode in the subsequent entry as the number of prior entry mode choice of a given type (joint venture (JV) in this study) increases. The results support the theoretical prediction that organizations repeat their past activities due to structural inertia. Moreover, such an inertia effect in foreign sequential entry mode choices becomes stronger for older multinational firms, larger multinational firms and state-owned multinational firms.

Consistent with existing research, this study focuses on the entry mode choice between JV and wholly owned subsidiaries. However, it is better to examine the relationship identified in the study for different types of entry mode choices to assess result generalizability.

It reminds managers of multinational firms that they should be cautious to the influence of structural inertia that can be a barrier to strategic flexibility when they make entry mode choices.

The main contribution of this study resides in introducing structural inertia perspective to help understand the determinants of foreign sequential entry mode choices of multinational firms.

This paper tests the pollution haven hypothesis by examining the relationship between environmental regulation and foreign investment with consideration of the role of corporate social responsibility, which has so far been neglected. Using multinationals’ investment data from China, our results in general support the pollution haven hypothesis that less stringent environmental regulation is more attractive for multinationals to invest in China, but high social responsibility can counteract attractiveness of weak environmental regulation.

This research aims to compare the environmental information that is disclosed in the annual reports of the American and European multinational companies. Eventually, it also aims to try to show the factors which explain the differences.

This paper analyzes the annual reports of 72 multinational companies, thanks to the index developed by Wiseman. The paper then uses regression analysis in order to explain the differences.

The study finds that European multinationals reveal more environmental information than those that are American. Equally, it finds that the nationality of multinational companies seems to have an effect on the level of environmental communication.

The quantitative data are based on a small sample of multinational companies. However, findings will bring efficient contributions to the other studies dealing with the accounting harmonization.

The study aims at enriching the debates on this question, comparing the environmental information (obligatory and voluntary) showed by the annual reports of the American and European multinational companies.

Does multinational expansion affect product innovation performance? If so, does such a relationship between international diversification and performance vary depending upon the size of the firm? Focusing on the learning and experiential advantages associated with international diversification, we attempt to find answers to these critical questions from a cross‐national perspective. Based on a survey of 179 US and 250 Chinese firms, we find that international markets are important for both US and Chinese firms, but to a greater extent among US firms. The results also indicate that new product performance can vary significantly depending upon international diversity. While US firms can generally expect better new product performance with a growing level of international diversification, Chinese firms may experience deteriorating performance after a certain threshold level. Finally, the firm size effects appear to be significant among Chinese firms, but not in the US sample.

This paper explores the determinants of R&D location of US multinational enterprises (MNE). The major aim is to determine the impact of intellectual property rights protection on R&D investment by US multinationals in a sample of developed and developing economies. Some of the major findings show that in developing economies, MNEs primarily rely on the scope of foreign direct investment, while locating their R&D facilities overseas. On the other hand, for developed countries, the scope of patent protection laws is a major factor for MNEs to undertake R&D investment. Another finding is that in developing economies, location of R&D is motivated by the need to adapt products and processes to conditions in foreign markets. Further, in the food and chemical industry, evidence shows that weaker patent protection may be desirable for technology to flow to these sectors in developing economies. An important policy implication is that entry of firms enhances global innovations.

Focusing on the direction of foreign acquisition, this study aims to differentiate the effect of institutional distance on the level of ownership. The authors identify several theoretical and methodological issues that might account for the inconsistencies in the literature and provide remedies accordingly. Specifically, the authors propose perceived institutional distance as a conceptualization of distance that controls for asymmetric uncertainty.

The authors test the framework with ordinary least squares regression for a sample of 14,192 firm-entries in 115 target countries over 2007–2017.

The authors find that institutional distance shows a negative effect on equity ownership in all-inclusive global samples, while there are two imbalanced opposite effects if direction is considered. This casts doubt on the validity of studies that ignore direction. The authors suggest that multinational enterprises entering countries with lower-quality institutions tend to perceive more pronounced distance effects than those expanding the other way around. Hence, the authors argue that “perceived institutional distance” better explains the functional role of distance than simple distance.

This study better delineates the link between distance and uncertainty and enhances managerial insights for entry mode selection. For policy-making purposes, the authors also show that improvement in institutional quality has a different effect on foreign resource commitment in developed and developing countries.

To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that considers both directionality and imbalance in institutional distance and proposes a measure to control for non-linear asymmetric relationship between distance and ownership. The authors extend the institutional theory and show the superiority of perceived institutional distance in predicting ownership implications.

This study aims to investigate how a firm’s uncertainty avoidance – as indicated by the headquarters’ national culture – impacts firm performance by affecting exploratory (product innovation) and exploitative (brand trademark protection) activities. It aims to show that firms characterized by high levels of uncertainty avoidance may be less competitive in the exploratory product development stage, but may be more competitive in the exploitative commercialization stage by producing more durable brands.

The study uses data from US Software Security Industry (SSI) trademarks, registered by firms from 11 countries during 1993–2000, that provide 2,911 trademarks and a panel of 18,213 observations. It uses the SSI database to identify the number of product innovations introduced by firms.

Results show that uncertainty avoidance lowers the rate of product innovation, but helps firms to appropriate more value by greater protection of their brands. Uncertainty avoidance thus creates an exploration–exploitation trade-off.

This study provides useful insights for managers regarding where to locate a firm’s front-end development (product innovation) activities and commercialization (brand trademarking protection) activities.

This is the first study to demonstrate the influence of a cultural trait on both explorative and exploitative stages simultaneously. As a methodological contribution, it shows how objective, longitudinal brand trademark data can be used to analyze the long-term impact of marketing activities on firm performance.

The aim of this paper is to investigate whether the main propositions of the job demands-resources (JDR) model are moderated by type of contract (i.e. temporary contract vs permanent contract).

Survey data were collected in a large, heterogeneous sample from different countries, sectors, and jobs (n=3,845). Hypotheses were tested by means of multilevel analyses.

Results showed moderate support for the main effects of job demands (job insecurity and time pressure) and job resources (autonomy and social support) and weak support for the buffer effect of job resources in the prediction of job satisfaction and general health. The impact of contract type on the main propositions of the JDR model appeared to be weak. Yet, the evidence that was found suggests that temporary workers may be more tolerant to job insecurity and more likely to benefit from the buffering role of autonomy than permanent workers.

This is the first study to investigate whether the relation between job demands and job resources and employee health and well-being differs for permanent workers and temporary workers.