Search results

One important strategy Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) employ to compete in the global market is to engage in foreign investment, but firms must know how they can perform better in the host country market. International subsidiaries’ performances play a chief role for MNEs’ globalization strategy. The purpose of this paper is to construct multi-level research with parent-level data at the higher level and subsidiary-level data at the lower level.

This study helps capture the rapid growing trend in emerging markets and uses a sample of Taiwanese enterprises and their subsidiaries in China. The data come from the Taiwan Economic Journal database. Precisely, the authors obtain 711 Taiwanese MNEs and 4,458 of their subsidiaries in China.

This study finds among the parent company’s attributes that firm size, firm total performance, depth of internationalization and foreign shareholding have significant impacts on subsidiary performance, while within the subsidiary’s attributes, subsidiary size, subsidiary-owned capital and total investment fund significantly affect subsidiary performance.

In order to capture subsidiary performance, this study uses a multi-level analysis approach with the Hierarchical Linear Model statistic method to separate parent company attributes and subsidiary-owned attributes as two distinct levels. This method fills the gap in the literature by analyzing subsidiary performance and clarifying that foreign direct investment is a multi-level phenomenon that cannot be analyzed using a one-level analysis method.

Despite its significance, research on how attribute framing affects ordering decisions in dual sourcing remains insufficient. Hence, this study investigated the effects of attribute framing in a sourcing task involving certain and uncertain qualities of two suppliers and analysed the role of attention with respect to suppliers' information in framing effects.

The impacts of attribute framing on sourcing decisions were demonstrated in two online between-subject (2 × 2 factorial) experimental studies involving professional samples. Study 2 was an eye-tracking experiment.

In Study 1 (N = 251), participants presented with a “high-quality” rather than a “low-quality” frame made different sourcing decisions, opting for larger percentage of order(s) from a supplier under the “high-quality” frame. This pattern holds true for suppliers who differ in risk. This finding was replicated in Study 2 (N = 129). Attention asymmetry related to the information on supplier quality contributes to this effect. Attention directed towards information regarding the supplier's quality under a positive frame mediated the relationship between attribute framing and sourcing decisions.

Highlighting the positive attributes of a risky supplier is essential when ordering from the risky supplier is an optimal decision. It is advantageous for suppliers to highlight positive rather than negative attributes when describing the quality of their components against others.

This is the first study to examine the effect of attention on the relationship between attribute framing and dual sourcing. This presents a new behavioural perspective wherein managers' attention to information plays a vital role.

The purpose of this paper is to present the contemporary thinking on deliberate lookalikes and to provide a better understanding of its key forms (counterfeits, copycats and no-name imitations) and markets (deceptive and non-deceptive).

This editorial contains a review of current and past literature on deliberate lookalikes along with summaries of all the articles accepted for publication in the special issue on deliberate lookalikes. The guest editors used academic databases such as Web of Science to find the most representative scholarly work on deliberate lookalikes literature.

This editorial identifies pertinent research gaps in the literature on deliberate lookalikes. The five selected articles address some of these research gaps and provide useful insights on the purchase and usage of deliberate lookalikes along with directions for future research and ways to apply different research methods that could have important implications for scholars and managers.

The editorial and special issue extends the knowledge about the deliberate lookalikes and their effects on firms, brands and consumers. This work opens new avenues for the research about different forms and markets in the context of lookalikes.

This paper aims to explain the discrepancy between pro-environmental intentions and behaviors with moderating effects of two socio-cultural values (espoused individualism and faith in others) on the link between intentions and actual behaviors to save electricity.

An online survey of 303 consumers in Hong Kong with a structured questionnaire was used to collect the data to test all the hypothesized relationships.

Attitude toward saving electricity has a significant positive effect on the intentions to save electricity, but subjective norms and perceived behavioral control have no such effect on intentions but do positively affect the actual electricity saving behavior. Finally, the link between intentions and behavior to save electricity is negatively moderated by espoused individualism and positively by faith in others.

This study was conducted with a sample of consumers in Hong Kong; hence, its findings may not be generalizable to other countries.

This study provides new insights into the link between pro-environmental intentions and behaviors by looking beyond the theory of planned behavior and exploring the moderating role of socio-cultural values on the intention-behavior link.

This study investigates the impact of environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure on firm financial performance under a mandatory disclosure regime in Hong Kong.

The authors examine the largest 109 firms listed on the Hong Kong Exchange (HKEX) as of the financial year of 2019. The authors use a manually constructed index based on the most current 2019 ESG Reporting Guide launched by HKEX, followed by quantitative statistical methods using a model that follows the valuation framework by Ohlson.

The authors find a significant positive association between total ESG disclosure level and firm financial performance in the main tests. However, when the total ESG scores are partitioned into environmental and social subscores, the results show that only social disclosures are value relevant. Moreover, the results demonstrate that environmental and social subscores are both significant when return on assets (ROA) is used as a dependent variable. Furthermore, the robustness tests show that only qualitative ESG information is value relevant to share prices, while both quantitative and qualitative ESG information are relevant to ROA. In addition, the disclosure quality of annual reports alone is good in explaining the firm financial performance in this study.

This study contributes to existing non-financial reporting literature using hand-collected data as well as examining the firm financial performance of ESG reporting under the mandatory disclosure regime in the Hong Kong context.

Explores how easy (or otherwise) it is for small businesses to take advantage of the huge markets opening up in the People’s Republic of China. Profiles a Hong Kong‐based office furniture manufacturer and distributor (Logic Office Supplies) as an example of successful market penetration. Outlines the research methodology used ‐ field research conducted in 1992 and 1993, which looked at the historical development of the market, the industry size and profile, the growth of private enterprise, government relations, the legal environment and an analysis of the competition. Explains why the company chose to follow a four‐pronged entry strategy and how they implemented that strategy. Infers that the company’s success was largely due to a careful choice of partners. Points out that sales increased from HK$40 million in 1989 to HK$400 million in 1994. Applies this successful approach to drawing up a conceptual framework for smaller businesses wishing to expand into China. Talks about stage of entry, mode of entry, and whether to opt for permanent representation or joint ventures. Provides a model showing five stages in the process of expanding into China. Concludes that it is not easy to expand into China and that the best route for small businesses to follow is to sell through trading houses and distributorships.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how counterfeit users estimate the probability of being detected and how this probability affects their counterfeit consumption behaviour. Specifically, it addresses three questions: do perceived social consequences influence counterfeit users’ probability estimate of being detected? What is the psychological mechanism underlying the estimation of this probability? And how does this probability estimate affect counterfeit purchase and usage intentions?

The authors used three scenario-based experimental studies with university students in Hong Kong, a place where counterfeit products are widely available. First study used a factitious brand of jeans as the stimulus and the other two studies used a Ralph Lauren polo shirt. In each study, the authors measured participants’ responses towards counterfeit purchase and the probability of being detected after they read the relevant brand information and had a close-up view of the attributes in the genuine and counterfeit versions.

The authors found that counterfeit users are susceptible to a pessimism bias such that they estimate a higher probability of being detected when they judge the outcome of being detected as more severe and this bias is driven by the spotlight effect in that counterfeit users judging the outcome as more severe tend to perceive that others pay more attention to their counterfeit usage. Moreover, this pessimism bias is mitigated when the target user is another person instead of oneself, thus suggesting the egocentric nature of the bias.

The authors used undergraduate students and scenario-based experimental approach in all the studies that may limit the generalisability of the findings.

The results suggest that brand managers should emphasise the importance of negative social consequences and highlight the role of outcome severity and egocentric bias in their advertising and communication programmes in order to curb counterfeit consumption.

The research contributes to the growing literature on counterfeit consumption by studying the process underlying estimation of the probability of being detected by others, an important but often neglected factor that influences counterfeit purchase decision. The authors also highlight the role of outcome severity and egocentric bias in this process.

This paper reviews the strategic responses of successful local Chinese banks (LCBs) in the changeable Hong Kong banking sector over the past decades. Given the mixed outlook of the industry resulting from the handover of sovereignty, financial internationalization, and regional and domestic economic developments, this paper also discusses the benefits of using strategic alliance as a means for LCBs to meet current and future challenges. Based on case reviews, the paper demonstrates the values of strategic management concepts for small banks to cope with an externally oriented and politically uncertain operating environment.

This paper looks at small spaces. In particular, it aims to focus on small gestures of resistance and the objects which accompany them. It takes its inspiration from Goffman's “secondary adjustments”, in other words, from reactions to organizational socialization, but draws most of its theoretical support from the literature of exile and architectural concepts of structure.

The paper is located in the interpretative paradigm and draws on Goffman's observations, photographic approaches, and artistic and literary works on exile. It does not work with psycho‐analytic approaches to object‐relations and has merely an affinity with science and technology studies.

The primary findings concern the relationship between work and its other. At a time when work has extended to define all areas of life, the paper considers the relationship between exile and homeland, between memories and aides memoires. The paper examines the intimate relationship between the prevailing conditions of exile and the miniscule gestures which might help to give consolation, offer compensation and serve as resistance to the relentless demands of work.

The paper outlines some of the conceptual concerns. An empirically based study will follow. Its practical relevance lies in its questioning the blurring of boundaries between home and work and raises issues about the importance of personal belongings in the workspace.

The paper's originality lies in the emphasis it gives to the small spaces of resistance which it characterises.

This paper aims to explore the increasing importance of the intraorganizational dimension of the sales role (IDSR) based on service-ecosystem theory. Specifically, it examines how firms can improve interactions both internally and with external actors and stakeholders to both create and sustain advantageous “thin crossing points” (Hartmann et al. 2018). Academic research on sales ecosystems has yet to fully harness the rich insights and potential afforded by the crossing-point perspective.

After developing and unpacking the paper’s guiding conceptual framework (Figure 1), the authors focus on crossing points and the diversity of interactions between the contemporary sales force and its many stakeholders. They examine the sales literature, identify opportunities for thinning sales crossing points and propose dozens of research questions and needs.

The paper examines the importance of improving interactions both within and outside the vendor firm to thin crossing points, further develops the concept of the “sales ecosystem” and contributes a series of important research questions for future examination.

The paper focuses on applying “thick” and “thin” crossing points, a key element of Hartman et al. (2018). The primary limitation of the paper is that it focuses solely on the crossing-points perspective and does not consider other applications of Hartman et al. (2018).

This work informs managers of the need to improve interactions both within and outside the firm by thinning crossing points. Improving relationships with stakeholders will improve many vendor firm and customer outcomes, including performance.

Integrating findings from the literature, the authors propose a conceptual framework to encompass the entire diversity of idiosyncratic interactions as well as long-term relationships the sales force experiences. They discuss the strategic importance of thinning crossing points as well as the competitive disadvantages, even peril, “thick” crossing points create. They propose an ambitious research agenda based on dozens of questions to drive further examination of the IDSR from a sales-ecosystem perspective.