Programa del congreso

This paper explores the effect of a firm’s positive attainment discrepancy on the performance obtained by the organization following a cross-border acquisition. Building on the behavioral-theory-of-the-firm, this study suggests that the effects of performance feedback are non-linear, offering intriguing interpretations in response to recent calls in the literature highlighting the need to address several unresolved issues in the conceptualization of problemistic search. This work also argues that performance feedback results may be shaped by two contingency factors, namely the firm’s financial resources and the prior experience developing these activities.

The hypotheses are tested on a sample of 352 cross-border acquisitions executed by Italian firms in 2010-2019. Findings confirm that the feedback-performance relationship follows an inverted U-shape, indicating that more rewarding performance is achieved at low to moderate levels of positive attainment discrepancy, while higher levels of this variable would lead to the opposite effect. Specifically, this dysfunctional outcome would be attributed to a state of overconfidence arising from such results, ultimately resulting in diminished future organizational performance. Furthermore, the results show that the availability of slack resources strengthens this curvilinear relationship between performance feedback and firm’s post-acquisition performance, whereas prior experience in acquiring firms does not play a significant role.

Goals: This study revisits the classification of early internationals by including a proxy of the variable risk and using a different approach (latent trajectory modeling) to detect different internationalizing behaviors.

Theoretical framework: So far, extant classifications have omitted that variable or, at most, it has been treated as implicit. On the other hand, extant classifications have set arbitrary thresholds and have analyzed averages of the main variables or the change between values measured on two occasions. We claim that risk and trajectories during the initial years of internationalization must be included in these classifications. This will give managers of early internationals a clearer picture of potential patterns of successful early

internationalization. We contribute to two of the main theories that can explain early internationalization, namely the Uppsala-Model and the International Entrepreneurship Approach.

Methodology: To do so, we selected a sample restricted to 394 early regular exporters, which went international for the first time when aged 7 years or under. We tracked this sample, apparently homogeneous, over the initial 7 years after the first internationalization.

Results/implications: we found that risk matters at least as much as the usual variables of extant classifications, and we found at least four different internationalizing behaviors.

Purpose: The present study analyzes the influence of international expansion, both within and outside the home region, on the performance of emerging market exporters. In addition, it examines the moderating effect of the level of development of destination countries and the dynamism of the industry where the company operates in the home country

Methodology: This study uses a panel data set of 2181 Colombian exporting companies during the period 2017-2021. To test the hypotheses, panel regressions with random effects and clustered standard errors are estimated at the company level, which are consistent with heteroscedasticity and autocorrelation problems.

Results: The main results confirm that both expansion within the home region (regional orientation) and expansion outside the home region (global orientation) have a positive effect on the performance of exporters, and that these effects, unexpectedly, are not significantly different from each other. The results also reveal that the relationship between regionalization and performance is positively moderated by lower levels of development of the destination countries within the home region. Contrary to expectations, no evidence is found to confirm the moderating effect of industry dynamism and the level of development of countries outside the home region.

Choosing the intermediate input source has become an activity of increasing relevance for firms, but many of its effects have yet to be evaluated thoroughly. This work analyses whether the different sources of intermediate inputs contribute to enhancing the innovation performance of firms, depending on whether suppliers are internal or external, national or international (i.e., importing), Each intermediate inputs source option may offer different advantages when it comes to accessing new knowledge, which influence the learning and exploiting from it on innovation performance. Our sample included around 4,100 firm-year observations of manufacturing firms (non-MNE) belonging to groups located in Spain between 2006 and 2020. The results conclude that a firm´s ability to innovate from intermediate inputs will be dependent on the source type, whose effectiveness depends on being internal/external and national/international, and the specific nature of the innovation (radical or incremental). Incorporating these results is particularly important for business groups and their affiliated firms, as it can help company managers make better decisions on input sourcing choices. By categorizing the implications of each intermediate input source, this paper suggests that policies used to develop firm´s absorptive capacity can be effective measures to promote firms´ innovation.