International business (IB) research shows that most of the world’s largest multinational enterprises (MNEs) tend to pursue a regional strategic focus due to the compounded distance and challenges associated with expanding across geographic regions. We go a step further and examine a strategic leadership structural form that helps MNEs to successfully perform and grow in a region outside their home regional area. Taking a micro-foundational view, we argue that having top management team (TMT) members with regional responsibility (regional heads) positively contributes to the firm’s growth in a foreign region. We also postulate that this effect becomes more pronounced when: (a) the regional head is not facing role multiplicity, (b) the MNE is led by a foreign CEO and (c) the region experiences high growth. We test our framework using unique data from international automotive companies between 2003-2019. Implications for international strategic leadership, IB micro-foundations and the regionalization strategy are discussed.

We investigate the impact of corporate governance on accounting conservatism through the staggered implementation of board reforms in 41 economies. Our results reveal a significant increase in accounting conservatism in countries with reforms involving board independence and audit committee and auditor independence. In contrast to a comply-or-explain approach, a rule-based approach promotes accounting conservatism. Additional analyses indicate that the effects of the reform on accounting conservatism are more evident in: (1) firms with more severe agency problems; (2) countries with weak investor protection; and (3) countries with less sophisticated financial and accounting systems. Our findings suggest that accounting conservatism serves as a preferred monitoring mechanism for firms that enhance corporate governance following the board reform.

Scholars have sought to empirically understand the implications of foreign direct investment (FDI) for the economic performance of emerging market firms; however, they arrive at diverging outcomes. This study adds its perspective to extant research by using a panel dataset comprising a sample of 1,768 Indian firms over the period 2000-2019. It finds that firms with FDI (FDI firms) have better economic performance than those without FDI (domestic firms). It also finds that minority FDI firms achieve superior economic performance compared to domestic firms while majority FDI firms do not. In addition, this study finds that incremental inflow of FDI into firms facilitates improved firm economic performance. Lastly, it finds that the inflow of FDI into firms initially increases firm economic performance; however, it reaches a certain point where further FDI inflow diminishes firm economic performance, and this can be attributed to the influence of greater foreign control.