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This study investigates two internationalization strategies, foreign direct investment (FDI) expansion and export expansion, and their effects on the innovation performance of Chinese multinational enterprises (MNEs). Additionally, it explores the moderating roles of both formal and informal political connections in the relationship between these internationalization strategies and innovation performance.

The hypotheses were tested using the Poisson panel model and data on 2,106 observations from 645 Chinese-listed firms between 2010 and 2017.

FDI expansion significantly enhances the innovation performance of Chinese MNEs compared to export expansion. Moreover, formal and informal political connections are found to have distinct moderating effects: formal political connections amplify the positive effect of FDI expansion on firm innovation, whereas informal political connections tend to weaken it.

This study contributes to the discourse on innovation and political connections, especially in the context of EMNEs. It enriches the theoretical understanding of internationalization strategies and innovation performance in EMEs, contrasting with the technology-utilization motives observed in MNEs from developed economies.

This work conducts a comprehensive analysis of how to incorporate resilience and sustainability into capacity expansion strategies for business-to-business (B2B) chemical supply chains. This study aims to guide both researchers and managers on ensuring profitability in B2B chemical supply chains while minimizing environmental impacts, complying with regulations and mitigating disruptions and risks.

A systematic literature review is conducted to analyze the interplay between sustainability and resilience in chemical B2B supply chains, specify the quantitative and qualitative methods used to tackle this challenge and identify the drivers and barriers concerning capacity expansion. In addition, a comprehensive conceptual framework is suggested to outline a compelling research agenda.

The findings emphasize the increasing importance of modeling and resolving decision-making challenges related to sustainable and resilient supply chains, particularly in capital-intensive chemical industries. Yet, there is no standardized strategy for addressing these challenges. The predominant solution methods are heuristic and metaheuristic, and the selection of performance metrics tends to be empirical and tailored to specific cases. The main barriers to achieving sustainability and resilience arise from resource limitations within the supply chain. Conversely, the key drivers of performance focus on enhancing efficiency, competitiveness, cost effectiveness and risk management.

This work offers practitioners a conceptual framework that synthesizes the knowledge and tackles the challenges of designing sustainable and resilient supply chains as well as managing their operations in the context of B2B chemical supply chains. Results provide a practical guide for navigating the complex interplay of sustainability, resilience and chemical supply chain expansion.

The key concepts and dimensions associated with capacity expansion planning for a resilient and sustainable chemical supply chain are identified through structured and comprehensive analyses of existing literature. A conceptual framework is proposed for delineating the intersections among sustainability, resilience and chemical supply chain expansions. This mapping endeavor aims to facilitate a future characterized by the deployment of a nexus of resilience and sustainability in chemical supply chains. To this end, a promising future research agenda is accordingly outlined.

It is only logical that a firm aims to make a profit after entering the market. However, some firms enter the market with the goal of market expansion and even burn money to pursue market share, which is counterintuitive in practice. To explore the theoretical foundations behind this rare phenomenon, this paper focuses on discussing the impact of the market expansion entry strategy on the entrant firm and the incumbent firm.

Using a game theory model of a supply chain with an incumbent and an entrant, this paper explores the mathematical conditions for the entrant to adopt either the traditional or the market expansion entry strategy and investigates the incumbent’s benefits and losses under different entry strategies.

The results show that when the market-expansion effect and the selling price ceiling are moderate, the entrant firm always adopts the market expansion entry strategy, and the incumbent firm obtains a free ride from the entrant firm and benefits from it. The entire industry profits and the industry consumer surplus are increased. In particular, we further investigate the cases in which the incumbent firm has a first-mover advantage or there is a troublesome cost, and the results confirm the aforementioned conclusions.

By considering market share as the entrant’s goal, this paper contributes to the dual-purpose literature. Moreover, based on the model’s mathematical results, this paper offers relevant management insights for the entrant and its stakeholders in the e-commerce platform.

In recent decades, emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs) have predominantly adopted a big step internationalization strategy to expand their business overseas. This study aims to examine the effect of big step internationalization on the speed of subsequent foreign direct investment (FDI) expansion for EMNEs. The authors also investigate the potential boundary conditions.

The authors use the random effects generalized least squares (GLS) regression following a hierarchical approach to analyze the panel data set conducted by a sample of publicly listed Chinese firms from 2001 to 2012.

The findings indicate that implementing big step internationalization in the initial stages accelerates the speed of subsequent FDI expansion. Notably, the authors find that this effect is more pronounced for firms that opt for acquisitions as the entry mode in their first big step internationalization and possess a board of directors with strong political connections to their home country’s government. In contrast, the board of director’s international experience negatively moderates this effect.

This study provides insights into our scholarly and practical understanding of EMNEs’ big step internationalization and subsequent FDI expansion speed, which offers important implications for firms’ decision-makers and policymakers.

This study extends the internationalization theory, broadens the international business literature on the consequences of big step internationalization and deepens the theoretical and practical understanding of foreign expansion strategies in EMNEs.

This study aims to investigate the behavior of different types of stone columns, including the short and floating columns, as well as the ordinary and the geosynthetic encased stone columns (OSC and GESC). The effectiveness of the geosynthetic encasement and the impact of the installation using the lateral expansion method on the column performance is evaluated through a three-dimensional (3D) unit cell numerical analysis.

A full 3D numerical analysis is carried out using the explicit finite element code PLAXIS 3D to examine the installation influence on settlement reduction (ß), lateral displacement (U_x) and vertical displacement (U_z) relative to different values of lateral expansion of the column (0% to 15%).

The findings demonstrate the superior performance of GESC, particularly short columns outperforming floating counterparts. This enhanced performance is attributed to the combined effects of geosynthetic encasement and increased lateral expansion. Notably, these strategies contribute significantly to decreasing lateral displacement (U_x) at the column’s edge and reducing vertical displacement (U_z) under the rigid footing.

In contrast to previous studies that examined the installation effect of OSC contexts, this paper presents a comprehensive investigation into the effect of geosynthetic encasement and the installation effects using the lateral expansion method in very soft soil, using 3D numerical simulation. The study emphasizes the significance of the consideration of geosynthetic encasement and lateral expansion of the column during the design process to enhance column performance.

The rapid, yet low-profit, expansion of the production capacity of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) represents a remarkable phenomenon. However, the motivation behind this key operational decision remains underexplored, especially concerning the prioritization of sociopolitical and financial goals in operations management. Drawing on the multiple-goal model in the behavioral theory of the firm (BTOF), the authors' study aims to examine how SOE capacity expansion is driven by performance feedback regarding the sociopolitical goal of employment provision and how SOEs differently prioritize sociopolitical and financial goals based on negative versus positive feedback on the sociopolitical goal.

The authors' study uses panel data on 826 Chinese SOEs in manufacturing industries from 2011 to 2019. The authors employ the fixed-effects model with Driscoll–Kraay standard errors, which are robust to heteroscedasticity, autocorrelation and cross-sectional dependence.

The authors find that SOEs increase capacity expansion as sociopolitical feedback becomes more negative, but they may not increase capacity expansion in response to positive sociopolitical feedback. Moreover, negative profitability feedback strengthens SOEs' capacity expansion in response to negative sociopolitical feedback. In contrast, negative profitability feedback weakens their response to positive sociopolitical feedback.

The authors' study offers a novel behavioral explanation of SOEs' operational decisions regarding capacity expansion. While the literature has traditionally assumed multiple goals as either hierarchical or compatible, the authors extend the BTOF's multiple-goal model to illuminate when firms pursue sociopolitical and financial goals as compatible (i.e. the activation rule) versus hierarchical (i.e. the sequential rule), thereby reconciling their tension in distinct performance situations. Practically, the authors provide fine-grained insights into how operations managers can prioritize multiple goals when making operational decisions. The authors' study also shows how policymakers can influence SOE operations to pursue sociopolitical goals for public benefit.

Performance feedback can be constructed using firms’ own (historical) performance, or the performance of peers (social). Those two types of performance feedback can be consistent (both positive, both negative) or inconsistent (one positive, the other negative). The research on the impact of consistent versus inconsistent feedback has been inconclusive, suggesting that inconsistent feedback might lead to more intense or less intense responses, or no response. In this paper, we theorize and test how firms respond to (in)consistent performance feedback.

We test our hypotheses on a longitudinal sample of 2,819 private, high-growth firms in the US with 6,688 observations between the years 2007 and 2016. Our dataset comprises 25 different industries. We use topic modeling on textual data from firms’ web pages to capture portfolio expansion.

We find that consistent negative performance feedback strengthens portfolio expansion, but consistent positive feedback does not influence portfolio expansion. We also find that inconsistent performance feedback weakens portfolio expansion, but only with negative historical feedback and positive social feedback.

We contribute to the Behavioral Theory of the Firm by improving our understanding of mechanisms of feedback configurations. Specifically, we elaborate on the role of (in)consistent social feedback when firms respond to historical performance feedback. We also contribute to the theory by better understanding private firms’ responses to performance feedback.

We investigate the impact of private credit expansion and contraction on the unemployment rate in Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) countries.

Credit expansion and contraction are measured using a three-level criterion. The fixed effect panel regression model was used to estimate the impact of private credit contraction and expansion on the unemployment rate in ECOWAS countries.

Private credit contraction significantly increases the unemployment rate in ECOWAS countries. Private credit expansion does not have a significant effect on the unemployment rate. Real GDP growth has a significant negative effect on the unemployment rate which supports the prediction of the Okun’s Law while the inflation rate has a positive and insignificant effect on the rate of unemployment in ECOWAS countries which contradicts the prediction of the Phillips curve.

Policymakers in ECOWAS countries need to be cautious when introducing policies that lead to private credit contraction as it could increase unemployment. Policymakers in ECOWAS countries should also find the “threshold” below which private credit contraction will worsen the unemployment rate and introduce policy measures to ensure that private credit contraction does not fall below the threshold.

The literature has not examined the factors leading to tight labor markets or unemployment in West African countries.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-12-2023-0939.

This paper aims to investigate the antecedents of recombinant innovation from the perspective of ego–network dynamics, and further disentangle whether ego–network stability or ego–network expansion is more conducive to recombinant innovation under heterogeneous knowledge base.

This paper uses 1,801 patent data in China’s biotechnology field as a sample and adopts fixed effects regression model to examine the effects of ego–network dynamics on recombinant innovation and further uses the Wald tests to discern which ego–network dynamic is more conducive to recombinant innovation under heterogeneous knowledge base.

The empirical results indicate that ego–network dynamics have a positive impact on recombinant innovation. Specifically, for firms with high knowledge breadth and high knowledge depth as well as high knowledge breadth and low knowledge depth, ego–network stability is more conducive to recombinant innovation. By contrast, for firms with low knowledge breadth and high knowledge depth, recombinant innovation benefits more from ego–network expansion. As for firms with low knowledge breadth and low knowledge depth, both ego–network stability and ego–network expansion can promote recombinant innovation, while the effects are not significant.

This research may enlighten managers to choose suitable ego–network dynamics strategies for recombinant innovation based on their knowledge base.

This research not only contributes to the literature on recombinant innovation by revealing the impact of different ego–network dynamics on recombinant innovation but also contributes to network dynamics theory by exploring whether ego–network stability or ego–network expansion is more conducive to recombinant innovation under a heterogeneous knowledge base.

The gradual expansion of the tourism sector is raising concerns about whether tourism-based economies are conducive to supporting green growth. Hence, the current study aims to analyze the direct impact of tourism motives on green growth along with the indirect impact of tourism-based economic expansion while controlling for country risk and renewable energy.

An unbalanced panel data for a sample of 21 countries comprising OECD and non-OECD economies are employed for the analysis.

Regression results reveal that leisure tourism (LT) significantly and positively influences CO₂ intensity compared to business tourism (BT). Propensity score matching results show that the most traveled tourist destinations contribute more to CO₂ intensity than those less traveled. Mediation analysis by employing Baron and Kenny’s three-step regression, Sobel’s test and Monte Carlo test shows that tourism-based economic expansion significantly mediates between the nexus of LT and CO₂ intensity.

Results of the study provide useful practical implications for sustainable economy and green growth. It recommends to mitigate the challenges of LT, reducing the negative impact and to harness the potential of BT, enhancing the positive influence, through various policies and practices.

This study is the first to examine the impact of LT and BT on green growth, to explore the role of destination popularity and the mediating role of tourism-based economic expansion in this relationship.