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The purpose of this paper is to consider the impact of network position of independent directors on the decision-making process of cross-border mergers and acquisitions (CBMAs).

With 912 CBMAs constructed by 431 Chinese-listed corporations from 2006 to 2015, the authors provide graph-theoretical methods to quantify directors’ networks and build logistics models of CBMA success and generalized linear model for transaction value.

The authors find that independent directors in central positions of board networks of CBMA significantly strengthen the possibility of success of CBMA and react more positively to large CBMA. The results reveal that state-owned enterprises reduce the importance of independent directors in central positions in assisting successful CBMA, but strengthen the importance in promoting large CBMA. Specifically, majority shareholders counteract the importance of independent directors in central positions in assisting successful CBMA, but improve the importance in promoting large CBMA.

The findings suggest that independent directors in central positions, which are embedded in sets of board relationships and interactions, lead to efficient external corporate governance as a mechanism to facilitate a Chinese-listed firm’s CBMA decision making.

This study investigates the potential of low-income countries to mitigate technological lock-ins by exploiting windows of opportunity (WOOs). Given their inherent inclination toward path dependency, these countries often face challenges in diversifying beyond their established technological trajectories. We examine the pivotal role of adopting shorter cycle times of technologies (CTTs) in opening technological WOO, triggering unrelated diversification and accelerating technological catch-up.

Using fixed-effect regression models, we analyze country-level patent data within the neurotechnology domain from 1995 to 2021 – a period marked by significant technological change since 2010. Our focus lies in comparing diversification and catch-up trends between low-income and high-income countries, while evaluating the performance of CTT.

Our findings reveal that as low-income countries increase their knowledge complexity (KC), they tend to be locked into existing technological paths. To mitigate lock-in risks, they can strategically adopt technologies with shorter CTTs. These technologies act as catalysts, opening up technological WOOs and stimulating unrelated diversification. KC presents a double-edged sword in the catch-up process, but unrelated diversification can eliminate this dilemma.

Our study introduces the KC-CTT framework, proposing practical strategies to enhance and sustain countries’ competitive advantages.

Diversification and catch-up emerge from two separate bodies of literature but present a conceptual overlap. This research bridges the gap between the two literatures by investigating the impact of CTT as their predictor variable.

This study aims to investigate whether and why multinational corporations (MNCs) seek to reduce institutional costs of foreign direct investments (FDIs) by aligning with transnational political frameworks.

This study uses the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to test whether MNCs’ subsidiaries in China increase FDI into BRI-affiliated countries after the BRI’s launch. This study compares FDIs by Chinese subsidiaries of foreign MNCs in the year before and two years after the BRI’s announcement. Hypotheses are tested for two explanations of why foreign MNCs seek to exploit the BRI.

Investments into BRI-affiliated countries increased after the announcement of the BRI, and this increase is positively moderated by institutional distance between the MNC home country and the BRI-affiliated target country. This shows that the greater the institutional costs of investing in a BRI-affiliated country, the more responsive the MNCs’ Chinese subsidiary will be to the BRI.

This study demonstrates that MNCs respond to transnational political frameworks. This study only studies the immediate response because the BRI is an infrastructure project. Better infrastructure will, over time, lead to more investments; however, the immediate response is due not to infrastructure but political structure.

The results show how MNCs use transnational political frameworks. The idea that MNCs can channel FDI through existing subsidiaries for this purpose has not previously been discussed in the literature.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the internationalization of Chinese new global players through innovation-oriented Mergers and Acquisitions (M&As).

The paper combines the analysis of East-Asian and Chinese multinationals’ international expansion within international business (IB) and innovation domains, with the “latecomer” perspective. It is a conceptual contribution, based on the role of local institutions and firm’s absorptive capacity. A theoretical framework is developed, and further elucidated with two illustrative cases of Chinese M&As abroad in the automotive sector. Implications for theoretical development and practical application are then drawn.

Chinese firms’ M&As abroad have become one of the preferential modes of developing innovation capabilities. The success of these endeavors is argued to be the result of a combination of a strong push from government industrial policies, along with significant internal knowledge assimilation and transformation capabilities.

The paper extends IB literature integrating the latecomer firms’ perspective within a novel conceptual framework, which adds to the traditional resource-based arguments about incumbent MNEs asset and knowledge-seeking internationalization modes, as well as institutional and multi-dimensional absorptive capacity perspectives.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the role of institutional distance and host country attractiveness in location determinants of Chinese Foreign investments in EU in the renewable energy sector, taking into account bilateral political and economic relations.

A firm-level Ministry of Commerce (MofCom) database of greenfield and non-greenfield Chinese investments abroad is used. A six fixed-effects logit analysis is performed.

Chinese firms tend to invest in EU countries with reduced rule of law; market affluence is an attraction factor for them, but they do not seem to be human capital asset-seekers. Countries with politically stable environment are most attractive to sales/services subsidiaries; while countries with good control of corruption, low trade barriers and encouraging foreign ownership are most attractive to manufacturing subsidiaries. A large market is the most attractive factor for R & D subsidiaries, and a rich market is the most attractive factor for manufacturing subsidiaries. Manufacturing subsidiaries are more technological asset-seekers. R & D subsidiaries are the most non-human capital asset-seekers.

The study extends the state of the art of the literature by developing a theoretical framework, grounded on the influence of host country institutional factors and on endowment of resources on the location choice of Chinese investors. Further variables should be included in the future (industrial specialization of host country, cultural distance, bilateral ties).

Policy implications are relevant. They are related both to outward foreign direct investment attraction policies and to Europe-China cooperation dialogue. With reference to attraction policies, as Chinese green firms are technological asset-seekers, more than human capital asset-seekers, EU countries interested in partnering with Chinese investors should develop specific measures targeting encouraging technology spillover. Even R & D subsidiaries should be tempted with technology-oriented measures. With reference to Europe-China cooperation, the paper findings support suggestions for a more active European position on foreign investments in key European energy sectors.

The paper is grounded on an improved theoretical model, tested through a unique Mofcom firm-level database. Originality lies in the fact that the authors provide a sectoral insight. The need for sectoral analysis is fundamental as Chinese industrial development and internationalization path vary extensively across industry, due to policy interventions, supportive measures and prioritized initiatives. Zhang et al. (2011, p. 229) found that – specifically – the energy sector is highly sensitive to host country institutional context, therefore Chinese foreign direct investment are more likely to be exposed to regulatory and competitive pressure compared to other industries.

The focus of this paper is to provide an assessment of the impact of imports from China on Indian manufacturing and capture the multifarious dimensions of India–China bilateral trade flows. By examining the comparative disadvantage imports (RCA<1), the paper critically examines their significance on India's industry output and performance and underlines factors beyond trade competitiveness.

For examining the impact of India's manufacturing imports from China on industry performance, four stages of analysis is adopted. First, the imports with RCA <1 have been identified. For these, BRCA was also computed. Second, trends in industry performance associated with high imports from China. Third, for estimating the impact of imports on industry output, augmented production function was specified and estimated with imports from China as a potential determinant. And fourth, comparison of industry performance between India and China.

The impact of imports from China on industry output is positive and significant. A 1% increase/decrease in the share of China in world imports will result in output increasing by 0.31%. The rise in imports from China seems to be on account of non-availability of necessary intermediate and capital goods domestically, thereby making these imports critical and complementary for production. This negates the threat perception of imports from China.

The paper recognizes the need for understanding the firm heterogeneity in import decisions and R&D intensity of imports. Across industries, the drivers for firms' decisions to import are “learning by importing’ and “self-selection” (Camino-Magro et al., 2020). Also, another important dimension at the firm-level analysis is the elasticity of substitution between foreign and domestic inputs. If the elasticity of substitution is low then high import barriers will lead to reduction of domestic output. These firm-level issues are important for effective policy interventions.

One, the inward looking focus of the industry which is exhibited in low export intensity will not provide the necessary impetus to propel the manufacturing sector to a higher technology frontier and translate the productivity gains to export competitiveness. Two, unless the domestic manufacturing is propelled from the current low/medium technology to high technology products, the current policy thrust on “self-reliance” cannot be realized.

Analysis is based on manufacturing imports with RCA<1 from China thereby underlining factors beyond trade competitiveness not covered by RCA methodology. Complementing the quantitative analysis with economic policy developments in China and India and contrasting the same has provided insights into the real factors determining India–China bilateral trade.

Enterprise architecture (EA) aligns information systems with business processes to enable firms to reach their strategic objectives and, when effectively employed by organizations, can lead to enhanced levels of performance. However, while many firms may adopt EA, it is often not used extensively. The purpose of this paper is to examine how performance expectancy (PE) and training affect the degree to which organizations use EA.

The paper employed a survey method to gather data from IT professionals, senior managers, and consultants who work within organizations that have adopted EA. Covariance-based structural equation modeling was used to analyze the research model and test the hypotheses.

The paper found PE to be a significant predictor of EA use. In addition, training is also shown to enhance use of EA while also playing a mediating role within the relationship between PE and use of EA.

The study is limited by the focus only on training as an intervention. Other mediators and/or moderators such as top management support and organization culture may also play an important role and should be examined in future studies. Nonetheless, the study demonstrates the critical role that training can play in facilitating widespread use of EA within organizations.

Widespread use is a critical success factor for organizations that want to gain the maximum possible benefit from EA. To achieve extensive use, the study suggests that organizations that adopt EA should consider implementing a formal and robust education and training program.

This study extends the research on information technology training by examining the role of training as an intervention within the technology acceptance paradigm. The paper also contributes to the literature regarding post-adoption innovation diffusion by demonstrating the efficacy of organizational training in promoting widespread usage.

Numerous articles contain recommendations as to how emerging countries can attract foreign direct investment on terms that are beneficial to both the investing firm and the host society but very few explore the conditions for firms from emerging countries to invest abroad. The purpose of this paper is twofold: the first is the documentation of the preferred locations of foreign affiliates for the largest financial groups headquartered in emerging countries; and, second, is to identify some of the determinants associated with the location-specific advantages of these host countries.

The analysis of the internationalization process of these groups is based on a list of top financial groups ranked by total assets. In the empirical section, the factors that explain the choice of these locations by multinational firms are categorized as resources seeking, market seeking, efficiency-seeking variables and cultural variables.

There is empirical evidence that institutions prefer to invest in foreign locations that minimize some dimensions of the culture. Other factors like the role of efficiency variables, i.e. trade efficiency, political risk and government effectiveness, in host countries also have a strong impact on the determinants of the internationalization process.

The paper puts forward a framework for analyzing determinants of foreign direct investment of multinational financial groups from emerging economies.

The purpose of this paper is to contextually theorise the different patterns of emerging multinational companies’ (EMNCs’) learning processes for innovation and the different influences of their technology-driven FDIs (TFDIs) on the processes.

A comparative case study method and process tracing technique are employed to investigate how and why firms’ learning processes for innovation took place, how and why the TFDIs emerged and influenced the firms’ learning processes in different ways.

The paper identifies two different patterns of learning process for innovation (Glider model vs Helicopter model) and two different roles of the case firms’ TFDIs (accelerator vs starter) in the different contexts of their learning processes. It is found that the capability building of the domestic wind energy industry has an important influence on the case of EMNCs’ learning processes and thus on the roles of their TFDIs.

The limitation of the paper lies in its small number of cases in a specific industry of a specific country. The two contextually identified learning models and roles of TFDIs may not be applied to other industries or other countries. Future research should investigate more cases in broader sectoral and geographic scope to test the models and also to identify new models.

For EMNCs, who wants to use the Helicopter model to rapidly gain production and innovation capability, cross-cultural management and integration management are crucial to practitioners. For emerging countries with ambitions to explore the global knowledge and technology pool, besides of the EMNC’s capability building, the capability building in the domestic industries should not be overlooked by policy makers.

The paper develops a dynamic and contextual analytical framework which helps to answer the important questions about how and under what context a TFDI emerges and influences firm’s learning process for innovation. It theorises the EMNCs’ learning process and TFDIs in the context of the development of the domestic industry. It strengthens the explanatory power of the learning-based view and adds new knowledge to the current FSA/CSA discourse in the international business literature.

Internet + and Electronic Business in China is a comprehensive resource that provides insight and analysis into E-commerce in China and how it has revolutionized and continues to revolutionize business and society. Split into four distinct sections, the book first lays out the theoretical foundations and fundamental concepts of E-Business before moving on to look at internet+ innovation models and their applications in different industries such as agriculture, finance and commerce. The book then provides a comprehensive analysis of E-business platforms and their applications in China before finishing with four comprehensive case studies of major E-business projects, providing readers with successful examples of implementing E-Business entrepreneurship projects.

Internet + and Electronic Business in China is a comprehensive resource that provides insights and analysis into how E-commerce has revolutionized and continues to revolutionize business and society in China.