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Since the beginning of the 21st century, China’s outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) is growing steadily and Chinese multinationals (MNCs) are playing an increasingly important role in the global economy. Thus, the number of papers focusing on China’s OFDI and Chinese MNCs has been increasing during the last years. The aim of this chapter is to carry out a review of the empirical papers dealing with Chinese MNCs published between 2002 and 2012 in high-impact international business and management journals.

This chapter reviews 43 empirical papers focusing on Chinese MNCs that were published in nine major scholarly journals between 2002 and 2012.

We report individual and institutional contributions, the theories and methods used, the research topics, and the main findings. We also discuss implications for future research.

Some previous literature reviews have dealt with research on China’s OFDI and Chinese MNCs. Nevertheless, none of the earlier reviews dealt specifically with empirical papers; neither did they provide an analysis of both individual and institutional contributions.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether isomorphism and mimetic, coercive, and normative mechanisms apply to cross‐border mergers and acquisitions initiated by Chinese firms. Unlike prior studies, the paper aims to identify multiple bases for imitation of firm strategy and verify: whether the degree of conformity in the multiple bases of firm strategy increases over time; and how mimetic, coercive, and normative pressures affect the degree of conformity.

Hypotheses are tested on a sample of 1,004 cross‐border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) initiated by 671 Chinese firms from 1985 to 2006. The four decisions for imitation in cross‐border M&As are based on: the product relatedness between the acquiring and target firms; the location of the target firm; the ownership structure; and the size of the deal.

The results show that not all decisions on cross‐border M&As react to forces of conformity in the same way. Overtime, the overall degree of conformity in cross‐border M&As decreases. Factors that significantly affect the degree of conformity include the experiences of failure other firms in the industry, regulatory changes, and membership or entry into the World Trade Organization.

This paper re‐examines the concept of isomorphism and explores the conditions under which firms from emergent markets conform to others' decisions.

In this study the aim is to analyze multiple decisions in mergers and acquisitions (M&As) strategy to verify whether isomorphism appears in these decisions when a firm imitates others and to determine under what conditions the link between imitation and the degree of similarity in M&As is weakened.

With a sample of 4,881 completed M&As in the financial service industry, the authors adopt the generalized multivariate regression model to test the hypothesized effects of the independent variables on the degree of similarity in M&As.

Support is found for the mimetic isomorphism argument. Furthermore, firm experience and local market segmentation weaken the positive relationship between imitation and the degree of similarity in M&As.

This study enhances the understanding of mimetic isomorphism by not only verifying the relationship between imitation and isomorphism, but also integrating the role of organizational active agency (firm experience) and the extent to which local market competitors affect imitation and isomorphism within the industry as a whole.

To demonstrate that multidimensional information technologies (ITs) technologies could manifest different patterns of evolution because each dimension could be exposed to different forces of variation and selection.

Commercial banks that adopted online banking services in the USA during 1995‐2000 are investigated.

It is found that the technical dimension of online banking services tends to converge on some agreed upon practices, but the managerial dimension does not converge.

This result implies that technical choices are less likely to offer opportunities for banks to differentiate one from another. The variation in managerial choices, however, allows banks to tailor their managerial practices to better support internal operations, which can generate competitive advantages for banks.

Contrary to the traditional viewpoint that these environmental dimensions evolve in a uniform direction, the paper shows that multidimensional ITs manifest different patterns of evolution.

The purpose of this paper is to adopt a multi-level approach to investigate what factors shape the content of emerging market firms’ foreign market entry decisions, particularly the ownership participation in cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As). In addition, the author would like to know if companies from emerging markets that possess higher (or lower) ownership in cross-border M&As receive higher valuation in the market.

Using panel data of cross-border M&As by emerging market firms from 2000 to 2012, the author tests the hypothesized effects of the independent variables on the level of ownership participation; and uses a standard event study methodology to assess the market reaction of a particular cross-border M&A deal.

The author finds that a country-level factor (institutional distance), an industry-level factor (industry unrelatedness) and a firm-level factor (board concentration) have significant impact on ownership participation in cross-border M&As. The author also finds that investors do give high valuation to those emerging market firms that chose high ownership participation in cross-border M&As. However, the author did not finds the support for the relationship between ownership participation and cultural distance. Neither did the author finds the support for the relationship between ownership participation and board independence.

This study enhances the understanding of conditions under which the level of ownership participation in cross-border M&As would increase (decrease) and how the market reacts to high (low) ownership participation of cross-border M&As by emerging market firms.

The aim of this study is to empirically identify crucial dimensions of security management in the container shipping sector in Taiwan and assess their impacts on security performance.

Data for this study were collected by questionnaire survey. An exploratory factor analysis was performed to identify crucial security management dimensions in the container shipping sector. Multiple regression analysis was then performed to examine the effect of security management on the security performance.

Four crucial security management dimensions were identified: facility and cargo management; accident prevention and processing; information management; and partner relationship management. Multiple regression analysis revealed that information management and partner relationship management had significant positive effects on safety performance, whereas partner relationship management had a significant positive effect on customs clearance performance.

This study primarily focuses on the effect of security management on security performance. Future research could identify the drivers and barriers to comply with supply chain security initiatives.

Container shipping firms can improve safety and customs clearance performance by focusing security management efforts on facility and cargo management, accident prevention and processing, information management, and partner relationship management.

Government administrators or other authorities may want to consider using crucial container shipping security management dimensions as criteria for assessing security performance in container shipping firms.

This study presented is the first to assess the effect of security management on security performance in the container shipping sector. Particularly, partner relationship management is found to be the key dimension for supply chain security success.

In recent years the role of business incubators (BIs) within the small-medium enterprise (SME) dimension has grown fast, supporting SMEs, especially during the early stage. For these reasons, this paper aims to investigate how BI supports entrepreneurs in the early stage and what specific instruments are used? What kinds of relations do start-ups use (RQ2)? Finally, the authors intend to explore the long-term influence of these relationships on the economic value of the start-ups (RQ3)?

The present paper is supported by a qualitative methodology of a single case study. To reach the declared goal in terms of relationship observation, the paper applies the CAOS model (Paoloni, 2021), an interpretative model useful for analysing the relational capital within the SME dimension.

This first explanatory research confirms the crucial role of the BI in the firm’s development process. Especially in the early stage, the knowledge transfer from the BI allows the start-up to overcome its main difficulties: the organizational aspect and finance capacity.

The limitation concerns the number of start-ups observed. Future lines of research will be focused on the study of other firms to acquire more data on the topic of BI programmes and start-ups.

The managerial implication refers to advancing knowledge and practice in the area of knowledge sharing actuated by BIs. The present work underlines the importance of relational capital as an intangible asset in the development of the younger company.

This paper contributes to two different fields: knowledge sharing by relational capital and gender studies.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether employees' understanding of their organization's strategic objectives could be used by business organizations to develop a desired type of organizational culture that will improve business performance.

Structural equation modeling (SEM) was conducted on the data collected in 2018 from professionals working in the healthcare industry in the USA.

SEM revealed the positive effect of employee understanding of their organization's strategic objectives on the development of a serving culture, and the mediating effect of serving culture on the relationship between employee understanding of strategic objectives and performance.

This study emphasizes that having a well-defined mission and strategic goals may not be sufficient. Business organizations must also ensure that all employees clearly understand the meaning of such objectives. Employee understanding can become instrumental, as it could allow business organizations to develop a desired type of organizational culture that will support the implementation of the firm's strategic objectives.

The study is a valuable addition to past research. First, it advances the literature on strategy by exploring the critical role of employee understanding of their organization's strategic objectives in the context of culture and performance. Thus, it allows scholars to better explain how business organizations could more effectively utilize their process of strategic planning. In the domain of organizational culture, the paper contributes by identifying a new antecedent of serving culture. Furthermore, the paper also contributes to the literature on service management by identifying a mechanism that service organizations could use to increase their performance.