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Article
Publication date: 17 May 2022

Yang Yang, Jia Xu, Jonathan P. Allen and Xiaohua Yang

This study examines the impact of formal and informal institutional distances on the foreign ownership strategies of emerging market firms (EMFs).

Abstract

Purpose

This study examines the impact of formal and informal institutional distances on the foreign ownership strategies of emerging market firms (EMFs).

Design/methodology/approach

This is an empirical study relying on two sets of data collected over two time periods, 2006–2008 and 2017–2019, for publicly-listed Chinese companies.

Findings

Greater formal institutional distances in the host and home countries make EMFs less likely to use joint ventures (JVs), while greater informal distances make EMFs more likely to use the JVs. When both formal and informal institutional distances are high, the use of JVs is more likely. These results are affected by the goal of the foreign direct investment (FDI) project, with strategic asset-seeking (SAS) FDI projects favoring the use of wholly owned subsidiaries (WOSs).

Research limitations/implications

This study relies on cross-sectional data from publicly-listed Chinese companies, which may limit the generalizability of the findings.

Practical implications

EMFs investing in advanced countries should carefully assess the tradeoffs between transactional cost efficiency and legitimacy in making their foreign ownership decisions. If the goal is to access strategic assets, EMFs should consider WOSs to ensure the transfer of strategic assets and create value for the parent company.

Originality/value

The findings show that formal and informal distances between institutions have different impacts on foreign ownership strategies, providing empirical evidence for the need to balance conflicting cost-efficiency and legitimacy considerations when businesses make such strategic decisions. The authors show how this balance depends on the goal of the FDI project.

Details

International Journal of Emerging Markets, vol. 18 no. 12
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-8809

Keywords

Case study
Publication date: 10 October 2022

Ou Bai, Xiaohua Yang, Keith O. Hunter and Bingwen Wang

This paper aims to first, identify the external and internal factors that a company needs to analyze when formulating its digital platform strategy. Based on the framework of…

Abstract

Learning outcomes

This paper aims to first, identify the external and internal factors that a company needs to analyze when formulating its digital platform strategy. Based on the framework of PESTNPG (political economic social and culture technological population and globalization) and internal analysis a company should analyze both internal and external factors to formulate its digital platform strategy. For companies from emerging markets the institutional-based market created by national or local governments is important for digital platform strategy. Second dynamic capability theory and its linkages to digital platform strategy. The dynamic capabilities view is considered as a primary theoretical lens in the strategy literature to analyze a company’s strategies to achieve sustainable competitive advantages. To carry out a successful digital platform strategy companies need to build strong dynamic capabilities to capture or create opportunities and reconfigure their resources simultaneously. Third the advantages and disadvantages of different digital platform strategies (i.e. an independent digital platform and online–offline integration platform) and the possible consequences and risks of different strategies. It is important to evaluate different types of digital platform strategies that require different capabilities in terms of business structure product structure revenue structure organizational structure and technology architecture. A company needs to link these capabilities to a digital platform strategy to enable the integration (or separation) of online business with offline business. It also increases the accuracy and efficiency of online business. Fourth key points of digital platform strategy implementation. Companies need to identify key profit models for their digital platform to promote business growth and financial returns. It is equally important to increase customer value by leveraging its digital exhibition platform and to learn to use digital technology to foster organizational dematerialization.

Case overview/Synopsis

Zhejiang Meorient Commerce & Exhibition Inc. (hereinafter referred to as “Meorient”) was a leading company in the exhibition industry in China. The unexpected outbreak of COVID-19 plunged Meorient into a state of emergency that forced it to fight for survival. Further, China had launched a national strategy of Digital China, which created new market opportunities for Meorient. As a result, Meorient gradually developed and launched its digital exhibition services in 2015. Meorient suffered significant losses in 2020 due to COVID-19 and had to formulate a new strategy based on a digital exhibition platform in 2021. Chairman Pan Jianjun had two options. One was a purely digital platform strategy without the original offline exhibition business. The other one was an online and offline integration strategy. Which option was the best way forward for Meorient? Pan had to make a choice. Some of the top management team members believed Meorient should completely transform into a digital platform company and provide comprehensive online digital exhibition services. Over the previous 20 years, Meorient had accumulated a large amount of data from domestic and foreign exhibitors and professional buyers and had gradually developed a digital exhibition platform. It was one of the companies that pioneered digital transformation within China’s exhibition industry. More conservative thinking held that Meorient's strategy should focus more narrowly on the integration of online and offline exhibition businesses. Toward the post-pandemic era, China’s national strategy of “Digital China” accelerated the development of digital infrastructures. During such critical transitional period, Meorient had to choose wisely if it was to sustain its profits or even survive.

Complexity academic level

The case is aimed at students in undergraduate, MBA, short course executive, EMBA or other executive education programs, especially where digital transformation is featured subject matter.

Supplementary materials

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

Subject code

CSS 11: Strategy

Details

Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies, vol. 12 no. 3
Type: Case Study
ISSN:

Keywords

Case study
Publication date: 16 December 2022

Zaiyang Xie, Rongxin Roger Chen, William Wei, Xiaohua Yang and Qingyue Huang

1. Understand how the corporate lifecycle could trigger a necessity of making a tough decision to develop new business ventures based on the corporate lifecycle theory; and how…

Abstract

Learning outcomes

1. Understand how the corporate lifecycle could trigger a necessity of making a tough decision to develop new business ventures based on the corporate lifecycle theory; and how changes in the external environment could hasten such a decision.

2. Analyze how a company can leverage its internal organizational structure to share and utilize cross-departmental resources and capabilities to support new venture businesses according to the synergy effect perspective.

3. Undertake a resource-based view analysis to evaluate the external and internal resources needed for corporate new venture development.

4. Identify the best course of action for the decision-maker by comparing, contrasting, applying and evaluating the two different models of corporate new venture development in the e-commerce business: the centralized organizational model and the decentralized organizational model and evaluate the pros and cons associated with each mode in the context of Dahan’s external and internal environments.

Case overview/synopsis

Since its inception in 2003, Dahan’s traditional business in SMS (Short Message Services) and data had gained thousands of customers across China and won top rankings in the industry. Despite its achievements, Dahan encountered difficulties when it entered the new e-commerce market, as the domain knowledge about the new business was very different from the domain knowledge in its traditional business. Furthermore, the emerging B2B e-commerce industry was very different from the traditional business in that the former mainly targeted corporate clients and the latter targeted individual customers in the B2C industry. This case examined the critical decisions that Xiaofen Huang, the CEO of Dahan E-Commerce Corporation and Co-Founder of Dahan Tricom Group, had to make and external, especially Internal, resources the Dahan Group needed in developing its new venture.

Specifically, this case explored how Huang would go through the mental process to make the best possible decision to help the company not only to survive, but also thrive in the rapidly-changing and competitive digital environment: it urgently needed to finalize an organizational incubation model to support the further development of its e-commerce and future new venture activities with two options to choose from: the centralized organizational model or the decentralized organizational model. A key challenge facing Huang was to decide which option was best suited to motivate salespeople in different departments to help one another, especially in the new B2B e-commerce business and to grow that new business.

In the case, Dahan’s growth aspirations and its motivation to transform its traditional business into a new e-commerce business were discussed. Second, when external challenges were examined, how Dahan explored the B2B e-commerce business using a trial-and-error learning process was explained. Third, when internal challenges were examined, how Dahan incubated its new B2B e-commerce business and its practices for leveraging and sharing resources/capabilities, as well as cross-departmental and cross-divisional collaboration through a resource-based lens, were illustrated. Last, the most critical learning in the case presented an immediate decision-making dilemma on which organizational incubation models to choose from for further new business development, where students learn to analyze both external and internal factors and consider Dahan’s available resource and founder’s aspiration, available strategic options to derive a best possible decision to suit the stage of the company’s lifecycle and founders’ vision.

Complexity academic level

This case was designed for use in undergraduate courses on corporate innovation, new venture development, corporate innovation, corporate entrepreneurship, e-commerce and growth.

Supplementary materials

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

Subject code

CSS 11: Strategy.

Article
Publication date: 29 October 2018

David Ahlstrom, Xiaohua Yang, Liang Wang and Changqi Wu

This paper aims to study largely recent aspects of entrepreneurship and innovation in China. It synthesizes the research in the current special issue (SI) of Multinational

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to study largely recent aspects of entrepreneurship and innovation in China. It synthesizes the research in the current special issue (SI) of Multinational Business Review (MBR) on this topic. In addition, this paper differs from other work on this topic in examining entrepreneurship and innovation from a more global standpoint with relevant international effects.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper provides an overview of the literature on entrepreneurship, innovation and key related topics such as firm and economic growth, as well as linking this research to related international works. It also summarizes the papers of the SI.

Findings

The authors’ analysis suggests that the study of entrepreneurship and innovation should be placed in the context of a country’s economic development and institutional environment as well as the firm internationalization trajectories and business models. In addition, the authors believe that a good understanding of economic growth in a transition economy like China (which is a key goal of China’s recent emphasis on innovation) is facilitated by understanding the comparative advantages and disadvantages of an economy with respect to the global innovation system.

Originality/value

The authors’ study explores the local-global and parent-subsidiary connectivity and co-evolution of firm strategies and the institutional environment in entrepreneurship and innovation in emerging and transition economies. The authors summarize and synthesize the papers in this SI to provide the results as well as some directions for future research in the domain of entrepreneurship, innovation and new venture creation, which is believed to be a key engine of economic growth in the coming years.

Details

Multinational Business Review, vol. 26 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1525-383X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 22 October 2021

Liang Wang, Zaiyang Xie, Hongjuan Zhang, Xiaohua Yang and Justin Tan

The literature on how emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs) overcome the liability of emergingness/origin has sidestepped a prerequisite for any efforts to overcome…

Abstract

Purpose

The literature on how emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs) overcome the liability of emergingness/origin has sidestepped a prerequisite for any efforts to overcome liability, namely, corporate compliance. The authors argue that EMNEs build corporate compliance capability as a knowledge-based firm-specific advantage (FSA) to adapt to institutional norms in advanced economies. In this study, the authors empirically examine the intricate relationships between corporate compliance capability and performance in the US subsidiaries of Chinese firms.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study, the authors use survey data to empirically examine the intricate relationships between corporate compliance capability and performance in the US subsidiaries of Chinese firms.

Findings

The findings reveal a positive relationship between corporate compliance capability and subsidiary performance, as mediated by local financing.

Originality/value

The study suggests that corporate compliance capability helps a subsidiary gain legitimacy, which leads to local resource acquisition and utilization. Corporate compliance capability thus serves as a source of a knowledge-based FSA for EMNEs in developed economies.

Details

International Journal of Emerging Markets, vol. 18 no. 10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-8809

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 September 2013

Yang Yang, Xiaohua Yang and Barry W. Doyle

There has been a surge of overseas investment from China, both to developing and developed countries. However, there is limited understanding of the impact the…

1305

Abstract

Purpose

There has been a surge of overseas investment from China, both to developing and developed countries. However, there is limited understanding of the impact the internationalization of these firms has on their value creation. This paper seeks to draw on the reconciled FSA/CSA framework with Dunning's four motives to differentiate two types of FDI: traditional FDI and strategic asset-seeking FDI. Further, the paper draws on Verbeke's FSA/CSA recombination process model to analyze the differentiated value creation of traditional FDI and strategic asset-seeking FDI for the Chinese MNEs.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper adopts event study methodology to measure the value created by Chinese MNE's FDI projects and hierarchical linear regression to test the hypotheses. The sample consists of 121 FDI projects publicly announced by Chinese listed companies during 2001-2009.

Findings

Both traditional and strategic asset-seeking FDI create value and traditional FDI creates more value than strategic asset-seeking FDI for Chinese MNEs. In addition, the paper empirically demonstrates that traditional FDI into developing countries creates more firm value than traditional FDI into developed countries or strategic asset-seeking FDI into developed countries.

Originality/value

This research makes the following original contributions: it contributes to the growing body of literature on internationalization of Chinese firms by investigating whether international expansion creates firm value and how the alignment between types of FDI and location strategies influences firm value creation; the study contributes to the literature by providing insights into the performance implications of emerging economy enterprises (EEEs); and the research contributes to FDI theory building by incorporating learning concepts in internationalization theories and by extending the context of internationalization theories to that of EEEs.

Details

Multinational Business Review, vol. 21 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1525-383X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 July 2014

Xiaohua Yang, Chongli Di, Ying Mei, Yu-Qi Li and Jian-Qiang Li

The purpose of this paper is to reduce the computational burden and improve the precision of the parameter optimization in the convection-diffusion equation, a new algorithm, the…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to reduce the computational burden and improve the precision of the parameter optimization in the convection-diffusion equation, a new algorithm, the refined gray-encoded evolution algorithm (RGEA), is proposed.

Design/methodology/approach

In the new algorithm, the differential evolution algorithm (DEA) is introduced to refine the solutions and to improve the search efficiency in the evolution process; the rapid cycle operation is also introduced to accelerate the convergence rate. The authors apply this algorithm to parameter optimization in convection-diffusion equations.

Findings

Two cases for parameter optimization in convection-diffusion equations are studied by using the new algorithm. The results indicate that the sum of absolute errors by the RGEA decreases from 74.14 to 99.29 percent and from 99.32 to 99.98 percent, respectively, compared to those by the gray-encoded genetic algorithm (GGA) and the DEA. And the RGEA has a faster convergent speed than does the GGA or DEA.

Research limitations/implications

A more complete convergence analysis of the method is under investigation. The authors will also explore the possibility of adapting the method to identify the initial condition and boundary condition in high-dimension convection-diffusion equations.

Practical implications

This paper will have an important impact on the applications of the parameter optimization in the field of environmental flow analysis.

Social implications

This paper will have an important significance for a sustainable social development.

Originality/value

The authors establish a new RGEA algorithm for parameter optimization in solving convection-diffusion equations. The application results make a valuable contribution to the parameter optimization in the field of environmental flow analysis.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 24 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

Keywords

Content available
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Abstract

Details

Journal of Asia Business Studies, vol. 6 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1558-7894

Article
Publication date: 14 April 2014

Xiaohua Yang and Clyde D. Stoltenberg

This paper aims to re-examine the role of institutions in the rise of made-in-China multinationals. Specifically, the paper seeks to understand how changes in the global…

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to re-examine the role of institutions in the rise of made-in-China multinationals. Specifically, the paper seeks to understand how changes in the global environment, especially global financial crisis, have solidified the Chinese government's role in pushing and encouraging Chinese firms to engage in outbound foreign direct investment (OFDI) activities.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a conceptual paper. The analysis is based on a large number of publicly available sources, including research papers, government documents, and reports. The paper strives to triangulate the validity of the data with multiple sources.

Findings

The study finds that while the role of the state in China has been evolving since the start of the economic reforms in 1978, by no means has it been lessened. Instead, the state has asserted its role specifically to grow Chinese multinationals in size and in number, by leveraging the financial resources accumulated over the last 30 years, by taking advantage of the cheap assets made available globally by the recent financial crisis and by institutionalizing its “Go Global” strategy.

Research limitations/implications

The study implies that the role of the state will be further solidified through China's national goal of enhancing competitiveness via knowledge acquisition through OFDI and simultaneously, multinationals’ OFDI initiatives and strategies will be reinforced by the state's economic policies and goals while their commercial interests will take on an increasing importance in the global marketplace and their behavior will co-evolve with and be reshaped by local, national, and international environments. The paper suggests that future studies employ co-evolutionary theory to investigate the role of state-owned enterprises (especially the functions of their CEOs) as well as non-state actors in shaping the institutional framework in China. Future studies should verify some of the ideas with empirical data and strive to triangulate different data sources to increase data quality.

Practical implications

The study also provides implications to Chinese policy makers on how to balance the government's role as conductor, enabler, protector, and constrainer while allowing Chinese multinationals to integrate into the global market for the benefit of both China and the world economy.

Originality/value

This study represents an original contribution to this topic. The research contributes to the study of globalization of Chinese enterprises by exploring the renewed dynamic relationship between the state and the firm after the 2008 global financial crisis.

Details

International Journal of Emerging Markets, vol. 9 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-8809

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 29 April 2014

Artemis Chang, Carlin Guo, Roxanne Zolin and Xiaohua Yang

The purpose of this paper is to critically review the extant guanxi literature to identify the major inconsistencies in the way guanxi is currently conceptualized. The authors…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to critically review the extant guanxi literature to identify the major inconsistencies in the way guanxi is currently conceptualized. The authors develop a conceptualization of guanxi which views guanxi as a complex adaptive system.

Design/methodology/approach

Electronic databases were queried for the keyword guanxi. This study offers an extensive review of the current literature, highlighting four major inconsistencies, namely, the breadth, linguistic-cultural depth, temporality and level of the conceptualization and analyses of guanxi.

Findings

In reviewing the extant literature, the authors find four levels of inconsistency that contribute to a lack of clarity in the way guanxi is conceptualized. They define guanxi as a complex adaptive system involving a dynamic formed by the strategic establishing, evolving, utilizing and maintaining of personal relationships based on social norms of trust and reciprocal obligation unique to the Chinese culture.

Research limitations/implications

This approach has the advantage of capturing the dynamic and emerging nature of guanxi over time, while encompassing the underlying principles of the evolving networks as part of the definition.

Practical implications

The authors' new definition makes it easier to explain to people of other cultures. The appropriate level of breadth allows guanxi to be distinguished from associated concepts. This provides guidance for non-Chinese people to help understand guanxi and avoid cross-cultural misunderstandings and conflict.

Originality/value

Having a clear and inclusive definition of the cultural practice of guanxi will integrate the growing literature and theoretical dialogue surrounding the phenomena. This will allow for consistent study of guanxi and its underlying principles, making integration of the various studies conceptually easier.

Details

Journal of Asia Business Studies, vol. 8 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1558-7894

Keywords

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