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The purpose of this paper is to critically assess the theoretical underpinnings and extant progress of the research on regional multi-national enterprises (MNEs) and offer a blueprint for future research by re-conceptualizing how (regional) boundaries relate to the international diversification of MNEs.

The paper integrates key insights from the theory of the regional MNE and economic geography to re-orient the treatment of regional borders within international business (IB) literature.

The paper suggests that the (L) component within the ownership location and internalization (OLI) paradigm should be disaggregated into continuous “distance effects” and discrete “border effects”. Within this rubric, regional borders represent discrete border effects that generate discontinuities that are permeable, fluid and firm specific. Such reconceptualization opens up avenues for future research and more tightly integrates the research on regional MNEs with other research streams.

IB scholars need to make concerted effort to think of regions as one among several parameters in studying the strategy and structure of MNEs. A stronger focus on internal processes and mechanisms elucidating the main drivers of MNEs strategies is needed.

The paper offers innovative ways in which future research can advance the study of how regions matter in the internationalization strategy of MNEs.

This chapter focuses on the four topics pertaining to foreign direct investment (FDI) and multinational enterprises (MNEs) that are the focus of this volume: (1) managerial decision-making processes that result in FDI and internationalization; (2) the changing national origin of MNEs, particularly those spawned by emerging markets; (3) the changing scope of MNEs, as they fine-tune and globally disperse their value chains, expand into new services, and rely increasingly on networks, alliances, and offshoring to enhance global competiveness, and speed up internationalization to the point of being “born global”; and (4) the changing relationship between MNEs and home and host countries. After surveying Yair Aharoni's significant contributions in each of these areas, the chapter offers a preview of the volume's contents on each topic. It concludes with an agenda for future research by international business scholars.

We suggest that the entire world may not always be the appropriate frame of reference in analyses of Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) location choices. In some industries and activities, more narrowly defined geographic areas, such as regions and cities, are more relevant level of analyses. Employing global cities as the geographic frame of reference, we extend the theory of the location choices of MNEs by challenging the assumption that location attributes have identical values for all MNEs. Rather, we explicitly acknowledge the relative value of such attributes for individual MNEs, and search for the firm-specific characteristics that affect this variation. The empirical testing is based on analysis of 673 financial and professional service MNEs that entered New York and London via mergers and acquisitions (M&As). The findings confirm that it is the interaction between location and firm-specific attributes, rather than each of these independently, which affects location choices.

As an institution, the multinational enterprise has evolved in complexity. From having roots in just a few Western nations, it now has roots in dozens of nations, including many developing countries. Its scope has likewise expanded from natural resource-based industries and manufacturing to a variety of services. And firms are becoming multinational earlier in their lives and at smaller sizes than in the past. This chapter analyzes the evolution of multinationals over the last century, the forces driving that evolution, and distinctive characteristics of the latest wave of multinationals coming out of developing countries. It also explores the risk of a backlash against globalization and multinationals in Western societies, even as these trends gain in popularity in developing countries. It concludes with questions that international business scholars might want to pursue in their future research.

Digitalisation has become a central theme in the current economic and policy debate. Large digital and tech multinational enterprises (MNEs) are gaining an outsized role in the global economy. Also, the adoption of advanced digital technologies across all industries is fundamentally changing production processes. Both these (interrelated) phenomena have profound implications for economic structures, employment, inequality and development and industrialisation opportunities. This chapter analyses the international production and investment (i.e., foreign direct investment [FDI]) implications of the digital economy. First, it empirically documents significant differences in internationalisation patterns between the largest digital MNEs and traditional MNEs; particularly, the tendency of digital MNEs to exhibit an asset-light international footprint. Second, it argues that the powerful transformational forces related to digital adoption and the new industrial revolution have the potential to change international production more broadly, favouring a shift towards internationalisation models characterised by decentralised production, accelerated servicification and extended disintermediation. The chapter concludes with investment policy implications and a number of questions for future research.

This article aims to provide greater clarity regarding the conceptualization and critical role of digital marketing ecosystems for the global expansion of multinational enterprises (MNEs) and offer novel research directions to prompt future research.

The authors first review the marketing literature related to marketing ecosystems, highlighting the evolution of this body of work across a range of domains such as services, innovation and new product development, communications and marketing strategy more broadly. Next, two case examples of MNEs whose global expansion efforts have been supported by their marketing ecosystems are used to highlight the role of marketing ecosystems in global market expansion. Finally, novel research directions are offered to prompt future research and provide greater insight into this emerging area.

The case examples we examine yield important insights into the role of marketing ecosystems for MNEs expanding from emerging markets (EMs) to developed markets (DMs). EM-MNEs such as TEMU face more communication and payment ecosystem challenges while opening their supply chain to DMs. Contrary to EM-MNEs, DM-MNEs face institutional and sociocultural challenges that require different marketing ecosystem orchestration approaches.

Marketing ecosystems can provide MNEs with greater multinational flexibility, enabling them to adapt their global strategies to navigate increasing complexities in global markets, such as trends toward increased protectionism and geopolitical disruptions. However, there is surprisingly little research addressing this issue.

This chapter focuses on the influence of the home government on the internationalization of Russian multinational enterprises (MNEs). It views government involvement and political connectedness as a form of informal connections and networks that seriously impact operations in general and internationalization, in particular in the case of Russian multinationals. Using the literature on MNEs from emerging markets and our familiarity with Russian business and political specificities, we develop a set of five propositions devoted to the subject. We further discuss the research and management implications of our analysis.

Under growing public scrutiny of their behaviour, the vast majority of multinational enterprises (MNEs) have been undertaking significant investments through corporate social responsibility (CSR) in order to close legitimacy gaps. The purpose of this paper is to provide a descriptive account of the nature and scope of MNEs’ CSR programmes that have sport at their core. More specifically, the present study addresses the following questions. First, how do Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) 100 firms utilise sport as part of their CSR agendas? Second, how do different industries have different approaches to CSR through sport? And third, can the types of CSR through sport be classified?

Centred on legitimacy theory and exploratory in nature, the study employed a content analysis method, and examined three types of document from each of the FTSE100 firms, namely, annual reports, annual reviews and CSR reports over the ten-year period from 2003 to 2012. In total, 1,473 documents were content analysed, thereby offering a sound representation of CSR disclosure of the FTSE100.

From the analysis, three main streams emerged: “Philanthropy”, “Sponsorships” and “Personnel engagement” with the first showing the smallest growth compared with the other main streams. Findings show the general rise in CSR through sport, thereby demonstrating that the corporate world has practically acknowledged that the sporting context is a powerful vehicle for the employment of CSR.

Previous empirical studies have sought to investigate CSR through sport, yet they have generally suffered from sampling limitations which have, in turn, rendered the drawing of reliable conclusions problematic. Particularly, the lack of an explicit focus on longitudinality is a typical limitation, meaning that no conclusions can be made regarding the trend. The study outlined in this paper offers the most comprehensive longitudinal study of CSR through sport to date, and thus contributes to the increasing volume of literature that examines the application of CSR in relation to the sport sector.

“First principles” of international business (IB) thinking should be applied systematically when assessing the functioning of internationally operating firms. The most important first principle is that entrepreneurially oriented firms seek to create, deliver and capture economic value through cross-border linkages. Such linkages invariably require complementary resources from a variety of parties with idiosyncratic vulnerabilities to be meshed. Starting from first principles allows bringing to light evidence-based insight. For instance, most companies are not global and even the world’s largest firms rarely change the location of key strategic functions. International new ventures (INVs), emerging economy multinational enterprises (MNEs) and family firms face unique vulnerabilities but also command resources that can be used to create value across borders. The quest for “optimal” international diversification appears to be a futile academic exercise, and in emerging economies with institutional voids, relational networks – and more broadly, informal institutions – are unlikely to function as scalable substitutes for formal institutions. In global value chains (GVCs), many lead firms and their partners have been able to craft governance mechanisms that reduce bounded rationality and bounded reliability challenges, and it is also critical for them to use governance as a tool to create entrepreneurial space. Finally, many of the world’s largest companies have been on successful trajectories toward reducing their climate change footprint for a few decades. But these firm-specific trajectories are fraught with challenges and cannot just be imposed via unilateral, macro-level targets decided upon by individuals and institutions lacking a clear understanding of innovation and capital expenditure processes in business.

We examine the impact of multinational firms (MNEs) on exchange rate pass-through when an MNE engages in Cournot competition with domestic and foreign rivals. The MNE can locate its production for the foreign market domestically — intra-firm trade (IT) — or in the foreign country — international production (IP). In addition to incomplete exchange rate pass-through, we show that an MNE increases the sensitivity of domestic market prices and reduces the sensitivity of foreign market prices to exchange rate movements. Finally, IT prices are more sensitive to exchange rate movements than their IP counterparts and react in the opposite direction.