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This paper explores the major factors influencing multinational companies’ (MNCs) propensity to change the level of resource commitments during financial crises in emerging markets. Favorable changes in the host government policies, market demand, firm strategy, and infrastructural conditions are hypothesized to influence the MNCs’ decision to increase resource commitments during a crisis. The hypotheses are tested with data collected in a survey of 82 MNCs during the recent Argentine financial crisis (late 2002). While all the above variables are considered by the respondents as generally important reasons for increasing resource commitments during a crisis, only favorable changes in government policies significantly influence MNCs’ decisions to change the level of resource commitments during the Argentine financial crisis. The research, managerial implications, and policy‐making implications are discussed.

With the development of economic globalization and the growth of cross-border technology flow, the internationalization of innovation has become an important strategy for enterprises in global competition for both investment optimization and technological advancement. The purpose of this paper is to reveal the research evolution in internationalization of innovation, investigate the hot spot transformation, and predict the future research trends.

The main research approaches in this study are literature co-citation analysis and keyword co-occurrence analysis. Co-citation is applied as a semantic similarity measure for related papers that makes use of citation relationships. Co-occurrence frequency analysis of keywords is also carried out to reveal the hot spots in research of internationalization of innovation. With the data downloaded from Web of Science, Citespace was used as a tool of scientometrics to visualize the node papers, knowledge mapping and keyword co-occurrence ranking in different stages of research evolution. The literature being analyzed in this study come from paper collection by searching the titles, abstracts and keywords, for terms that include “international innovation”, “international R&D”, “international technology”, “globalizational innovation”, “globalizational R&D”, “globalizational technology”, “multinational innovation”, “multinational R&D” and “multinational technology”.

The investigation reveals that there are two distinct stages in research evolution of the internationalization of innovation. The direction of innovation diffusion has turned from “one-way trickle down from developed countries” to “two-way interaction between developed countries and emerging countries”. Meanwhile, the research hotspots have been transformed since 2000 from “detail and operation-focused” to “profound and strategy-focused”.

The paper gives an insight into the internationalization of innovation field using literature from the Web of Science as an illustration.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the contributions that critical realist ethnographies can make to an understanding of the multinational corporation.

This paper draws on a discussion of methodological challenges in researching the multinational corporation and the ways in which critical realist ethnographies can respond to these challenges. The example of research on the transfer of management practices is used to illustrate this.

Taking the example of researching the transfer of management practices within the multinational, the paper argues that the potential of critical realist ethnography including critical realist global ethnography to contribute to the field of International Business and International Management remains relatively untapped.

Adopting the sociological imagination of the critical realist ethnographer has implications for the kinds of questions that are asked by the researcher and the ways in which we seek to address these methodologically. Researching from a critical standpoint fruitful empirical themes for further research relate to the experience of change for example in business systems, internationalization of organizations and “globalization”.

The critical realist ethnographer can contribute insights into the complex social and political processes within the multinational and provide insights into how social structures are both impacting on and impacted by individuals and groups. Ethnographic research located within a critical realist framework has the potential to address questions of how stability and change take place within specific structural, cultural and power relations.

At the methodological level, this paper highlights the potential of critical realist ethnography in researching the multinational, in addressing significant questions facing the critical researcher and in gaining a privileged insight into the lived experience of globalization.

For the specific topic of multinationals in clusters, both regional strands and international business and management literatures address the topic from different yet intertwined perspectives. This study aims to facilitate the integration of the conversations and the distinct literatures to produce a clear understanding and conceptualization of the existent knowledge on the topic, with the aim to foster an integration of those different lines of inquiry on the topic that can advance scholarly research and improve policymaking.

Mixing a robust and longitudinal bibliometric analysis (1992-2018) and a qualitative critical review, the study disentangles sub-conversations on the topic in each literature.

The study encounters commonalities that foster cross-fertilization and blind spots that prevent integration of findings from each literature.

Both literatures need to cross-fertilize and integrate each other’s knowledge.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to integrate literatures using bibliometrics, mapping the existing knowledge on two key areas of competitiveness: clusters and multinationals.

How to enter and expand in a newly emerged foreign market is less understood. Should multinational enterprises move fast or slowly? In this study, the authors take China as the context to investigate what factors will lead to a fast expansion strategy in a foreign market. The purpose of this paper is to understand whether fast expansion benefits firms’ performance in a rapidly emerging market.

Based on insights from field interviews, the authors developed a theoretical framework. Then, the authors collected data from surveys of managers of multinational enterprises from Western countries to test their hypothesis. This research context is based on the experience of multinational enterprises in China which opened up to foreign direct investment in 1979.

This study shows that internally, strategic long-term investment goals, top management team commitment and externally switching costs and the growth in the demand market which will push firms to expand fast in the newly emerged China market. Faster pace of expansion benefits the performance of multinational enterprises in a newly emerged market.

Based on the onsite interviews followed by the survey of top managers of multinational enterprises located in China, this study provides a fine-grained analysis of the importance of pace and its key antecedents. Thus, the results provide new insights to decision-makers of multinational enterprises when considering expanding in an emerging market at its early stages of growth.

Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to analyse the evolution in the local, global and multinational network embeddedness of foreign subsidiaries in China

Methodology – The study focuses on Sino-Belgian subsidiaries in China. Factor analysis was used to determine the local responsiveness, global integration and multinational network embeddedness of firms. Next cluster analysis was carried out to classify groups of subsidiaries, while ANOVA analysis assessed their different characteristics.

Findings – Although most firms remain the same type of subsidiary throughout the period of 1995–2005, the most prevalent trajectory of strategic evolution by multinational subsidiaries in China is by increasing the integration in the multinational network before gaining more local embeddedness towards a more active role within the multinational network.

Research implications – Changes in the strategic setting and operations of MNEs occur over time because of the dynamic patterns and changing interactions of firm- and country-related factors and policies, especially when the host economy is involved in a rapid transformation process, such as China. Further research could focus on the determinants of strategic evolution.

Originality – This is one of the first chapters to analyse the changing roles of subsidiaries, in particular in an emerging economy.

The objective of this paper is to extend research findings obtained in a preliminary survey of currency risk management in UK multinational companies (Collier and Davis, 1985) by presenting a case study analysis of currency risk management practice in large UK and US multinational companies. The research is specifically concerned with aspects of the management of foreign currency transaction and translation risk by multinational companies and the extent of risk aversion in the policies adopted.

This study aims to develop a new reference framework which accounts for the motivations of headquarters (HQs) from developed countries and the roles of their subsidiaries established in developing countries.

A multiple case studies approach was used for this research. The data were collected using a directed interview with 20 participants in eight foreign subsidiaries established in Tunisia.

The results show that the studies of subsidiaries can be classified into “workshop” subsidiaries and “market” subsidiaries according to the level of their added‐value activities, the scope of the market served and the level of their decision‐making autonomy. Furthermore, the development trajectory of these subsidiaries takes the form of two consecutive phases. In the first phase, the subsidiaries begin acquiring new competencies which allow them to integrate value‐creating activities that are far beyond intensive labor or low‐technology activities. Subsidiaries in the second phase intervene more and more in strategic decisions related to their growth. While the “workshop subsidiaries” in this study are still in the first phase, the “market subsidiaries” have succeeded in broadening their regional responsibilities within the multinational.

This research had a number of limitations; the most important is the explanatory and qualitative method used in this paper. In addition, this research solely focused on foreign subsidiaries that are still in business. It also would be interesting to investigate the subsidiaries that are stalled or shrank. The perspective of the HQs and the Western institutional players would be also relevant to explore.

Despite the abundance of works on subsidiaries' role, there has been very little research that looks explicitly at the role of foreign subsidiaries in developing countries. This research expands the existing literature and provides evidence on the motivation of multinational companies as well as the role of their subsidiaries in developing countries. This study helps us rethink the redistribution of decision‐making power between the HQs and the subsidiaries established in the developing countries.

The Gemba‐Kaizen approach is a key business process strategy employed by companies (multinationals also) to enhance their manufacturing performance. However, whilst there is significant research information available on implementing management systems in a sequential manner, there is little information available relating to the application of this approach to provide a single and highly effective methodology for process innovation in the context of the Gemba‐Kaizen approach in multinational companies. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to develop and apply a process innovation framework in terms of methodology for multinational companies. The research question that governs the study is: How is the Gemba‐Kaizen approach applied in an organisational context such as that of a multinational food company in Mexico?

An exploratory case study was conducted. One multinational food company (chocolate) which has been established in Mexico for at least 19 years was selected. The paper chronicles the design and application of a process innovation framework in the context of the Gemba‐Kaizen approach. In total, four methods were used to gather data: direct observation; participative observation; documentary analysis; and semi‐structured interviews.

This paper proposes a process innovation framework using the Gemba‐Kaizen approach. The development, refinement and implementation of a process innovation framework in the context of the Gemba‐Kaizen approach has been achieved, working closely with a multinational food company. Consequently, as a result of the application, a conceptual framework was established, based on the results of comparing theory and fieldwork: this provides a glimpse into the relationship of the Gemba‐Kaizen approach with other improvement methodologies, known as Process Redesign, in the organisation analysed.

Derived to describe the case study on how to apply the Gemba‐Kaizen approach through process innovation methodology, the paper may prove to be of value to practitioners and managers involved in the field. Similarly, a section on managerial implications has also been included.

The paper contributes to the limited existing literature on the Gemba‐Kaizen system and subsequently disseminates this information in order to provide impetus, guidance and support towards increasing the development of companies, in an attempt to move the Mexico manufacturing (food) sector towards world‐class manufacturing performance.