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When is it more profitable for multinational manufacturers to manufacture in high-cost environments and when in low-cost environments? While the literature offers many cues to answer this question, too little empirical research directly addresses this. In this study, we quantitatively and empirically investigate the financial effect of companies' production footprint in low-cost and high-cost environments for different types of production networks.

Using the data of 770 multinational manufacturing companies, we analyze the relationship between production footprints and profitability during four calendar semesters in 2018 and 2019 (N = 2,940), investigating the moderating role of companies' production network type.

We find that companies with networks distinguished by both high levels of product complexity and process sophistication profit the most from producing to a greater extent in high-cost countries. For these companies, shifting production to low-cost countries would be associated with negative performance implications.

Our findings suggest that the production geography of companies should be attuned to their network type, as defined by the companies' process sophistication and product complexity. Manufacturing in low-cost countries is not always the best choice, as doing so can adversely affect profits if the products are highly innovative and the production processes are complex.

We contribute to the scarce empirical literature on managing global production networks and provide a data-driven analysis that contributes to answering some of the enduring questions in this critical area.

This paper aims to investigate whether the establishment of commodity futures can effectively hedge systemic risk in the spot network, given the context of financialization in the commodity futures market.

Utilizing industry association data from the Chinese commodity market, the authors identify systemically important commodities based on their importance in the production process using multiple graph analysis methods. Then the authors analyze the effect of listing futures on the systemic risk in the spot market with the staggered difference-in-differences (DID) method.

The findings suggest that futures contracts help reduce systemic risks in the underlying spot network. Systemic risk for a commodity will decrease by approximately 5.7% with the introduction of each corresponding futures contract, since the hedging function of futures reduces the timing behavior of firms in the spot market. Establishing futures contracts for upstream commodities lowers systemic risks for downstream commodities. Energy commodities, such as crude oil and coal, have higher systemic importance, with the energy sector dominating systemic importance, while some chemical commodities also have considerable systemic importance. Meanwhile, the shortest transmission path for risk propagation is composed of the energy industry, chemical industry, agriculture/metal industry and final products.

The paper provides the following policy insights: (1) The role of futures contracts is still positive, and future contracts should be established upstream and at more systemically important nodes in the spot production chain. (2) More attention should be paid to the chemical industry chain, as some chemical commodities are systemically important but do not have corresponding futures contracts. (3) The risk source of the commodity spot market network is the energy industry, and therefore, energy-related commodities should continue to be closely monitored.

This study builds on knowledge-based view (KBV) research and the natural resource-based view of the firm (NRBV) to examine the effect of knowledge absorptive capacity on innovative performance. It also investigates the mediating role of three dimensions of the cluster environment: degree of network, institutional environment and access to factors of production.

By means of partial least squares-based structural equation modelling method, the study validated and analysed the responses of 503 owners and managers of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the wood industrial cluster of Cote d'Ivoire, a developing economy.

The analysis and results reveal that knowledge absorptive capacity strongly predicts cluster environment and innovation performance. Moreover, the cluster environment emerged as a powerful determinant of innovation performance and a mediator of the effect of knowledge absorptive capacity on innovation performance. Unequivocally, institutional support has no significant impact on knowledge absorptive capacity (KAC) and innovative performance mediation relationship and is not a key determinant of innovative performance.

This study offers a key departure from past studies by linking knowledge absorptive capacity to innovative performance and the cluster environment in SMEs. It also extends knowledge concerning the role of KBV, NRBV and relational theory in innovation performance.

Cultural and creative industries (CCIs) have been argued to play an important role in achieving the sustainable development goals (SDGs). However, the mechanisms through which CCIs contribute to the attainment of SDGs remain underexplored. In this study, the authors adopt a network perspective to examine how the structure of a local CCI network relates to its local sustainability performance. By examining a database of 210,182 networked firms out of 1.34 million CCI firms across 294 cities in China, the authors conclude that both the scale and the density of a local CCI network improve the city’s performance in terms of attaining SDGs 8–12. The authors discuss the implications of these findings and propose future research avenues in international business.

The changing roles of the United Nations (UN) and national institutions have made addressing climate change a critical concern for many multinational enterprises’ (MNEs) survival and growth. This chapter discusses how such institutions, which vary in their nature and characteristics, shape firm strategies for climate change adaptation. Exploring different versions of institutional theory, the chapter demonstrates how and why institutional characteristics affect typical patterns of firm ownership, governance, and capabilities. These, in turn, influence companies’ internationalisation and climate-change strategies. Climate change poses challenges to how we understand firms’ strategic decisions from both an international business (IB) (HQ–subsidiary relations) and global value chains (GVC) (buyer–supplier relations) perspective. However, climate change also provides opportunities for companies to gain competitive advantages – if firms can reconfigure and adapt faster than their competitors. Existing IB and GVC research tends to downplay the importance of climate change strategies and the ways in which coherent or dysfunctional institutions affect firms’ reconfiguration and adaptation strategies in a globally dispersed network of value creation. This chapter presents a perspective on the institutional conditions that affect firms’ climate change strategies regarding ownership, location, and internalisation (OLI), and GVCs, with ‘investment’ and ‘emerging standards’ playing a significant role. The authors illustrate the discussion using several examples from the Global South (i.e. Bangladesh) and the Global North (i.e. Denmark, Sweden, and Germany) with a special emphasis on the garment industry. The aim is to encourage future research to examine how a ‘business systems’, or varieties of capitalism, institutional perspective can complement the analysis of sustainability and climate change strategies in IB and GVC studies.

This research paper aims to explore the impact artisan cooperatives have upon women employed in Sub-Saharan Africa. Impacts were detailed using the theoretical framework of social capital theory to demonstrate the networks within artisan cooperatives that connect to greater opportunities for social and economic benefits.

A phenomenological approach was used for this study based upon the shared experiences of women who were leading artisan cooperatives in Sub-Saharan Africa. This study included semi-structured interviews over Zoom with Chief Entrepreneur Founders of artisan cooperatives located in Sub-Saharan Africa. Documents from the cooperatives were analyzed to triangulate the cooperatives’ current projects and efforts.

Three prevalent themes emerged: (1) key partnerships, (2) benefits of the cooperative and (3) change and growth among the women and communities. Empowerment was felt through both economic and social impacts upon the women.

This article captures the perspective of the Chief Entrepreneur Founders and their observations and experiences the women shared with them. Emic perspectives from the women who participate in the artisan cooperatives is the focus of future research.

These social enterprises serve as exemplary models for other cooperatives to provide dignified and sustainable work to impact the lives of women serving in these communities.

This study contributes research on social entrepreneurship within artisan cooperatives. It provides a baseline for further research on the artisan sector specifically for the sustainable development goals of gender equality, decent work and economic growth.

Industry 4.0 accelerates the performance of supply chains, in particular, the reduction in supply chain cost (SCC) and improvement in supply chain flexibility (SCF). The aim of this study is to examine the role of Industry 4.0 on SCC and SCF, using network theory to explain the interrelationships.

Data were collected from 182 manufacturing firms in Turkey. The partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was employed in testing the research hypotheses.

The results showed that Industry 4.0 positively affects SCC; however, no direct relationship was found between Industry 4.0 and SCF. Moreover, SCC was found to have a positive impact on SCF, while SCC was found to mediate the relationship between Industry 4.0 and SCF. An additional finding was that customer integration (CI) moderates the relationship between Industry 4.0 and SCC; however, CI does not moderate the relationship between Industry 4.0 and SCF.

The research validates the role of Industry 4.0 on supply chain processes and thus provides valuable insights into supply chain practitioners and decision-makers interested in Industry 4.0 for supply chain management.

In view of the limited number of studies, this study empirically contributes to the literature on the relationships among Industry 4.0, SCC, SCF and CI.

The integration of the digital economy and the real economy has been a key focus in promoting digital economic development. It denotes a comprehensive digital transformation of national economic activities regarding technological infrastructure and production modes, which is crucial for establishing a modern economic system, advancing industrial infrastructure and modernizing industrial chains.

Firstly, the study delves into the internal logic behind the emergence of the new development dynamic resulting from digital technology's evolution. Secondly, it explores the mechanism of mutual promotion and support between the new development dynamic and the digital economy based on China's shift in focus from international engagement to the domestic economy during different stages of industrialization. Subsequently, it analyzes the characteristics and critical factors of digital economy development and examines the macro-, meso- and micro-level constraints on these factors. Finally, the paper explores approaches to promoting digital economy development while constructing the new development dynamic and provides relevant policy suggestions.

The construction of the new development dynamic and the development of the digital economy are inextricably linked, and only by mutually reinforcing each other can they provide an inexhaustible impetus for China's high-quality economic development.

The new development dynamic and the digital economy development form an indivisible whole. The new development dynamic creates the necessary conditions for digital economy development and promotes the formation of digital production modes. In turn, the development of the digital economy should strive to improve the mainstay position of the domestic economy, enhance the synergy between the domestic economy and international engagement, upgrade value chains while improving the supply and the industrial chains in China and ensure a parallel increase in labor income alongside improved productivity.

This paper examines the relationship between supply chain network structures and firm financial performance and the moderating role of international relations. In this study, which is grounded in social capital theory and applies the perspective of systemic risk, the authors theorize the effects of supply chain network structures on firm performance.

The authors extracted data from two Chinese databases and constructed a supply chain network of the firms concerned based on nearly 4,300 supply chain relations between 2009 and 2018. The authors adopted the fixed effects model to investigate the relationship between supply chain network structures and firm financial performance.

The econometrics results indicate that network structures, including the degree, centrality, clustering coefficients and structural holes, are significantly related to firm financial performance. A significant and negative relationship exists between international relations and firm financial performance. The authors also find that international relations strongly weaken the relationship between supply chain network structures and firm financial performance.

This study, which collects secondary data from developing countries (e.g. China) and explores the impacts of supply chain network structures on firm stock performance, contributes to the existing literature and provides practical implications.

The purpose of this study is to explore how digital construction policy (DCP) drives enterprise green innovation (EGI) from an information processing theory (IPT) perspective, including the mediating mechanisms of market information accessibility and operational risk, the moderating role of intellectual property protection (IPP) and product market competition (PMC) and the heterogeneous effects of ownership, Internet development and managerial ability.

Based on the matched panel data of A-share listed enterprises from 2011 to 2019 and the Broadband China policy as a quasinatural experiment, this study investigates the impact of DCP on EGI by constructing a multi-time point difference-indifferences (DID) model.

Digital construction policies can significantly promote EGI. DCP works in two fundamental ways, namely by increasing market information accessibility and reducing operational risk. IPP and PMC significantly increased the contribution of digital construction policies to EGI. Heterogeneity analysis found that digital technology has a stronger promotion effect for SOEs, high-managerial-ability enterprises and enterprises in regions with low Internet development levels.

The study provides new insights about the antecedents of EGI from a DCP perspective. It also enlightens emerging economies to actualize green innovation under the digital wave.

From the perspective of IPT, this study explains the mechanism of DCP-driven EGI. It enhances understanding of the relationship between DCP and EGI.