Conference Agenda

Non-Chinese companies are wondering what the increased business presence of Chinese firms in Sub-Saharan Africa in the context of the Belt and Road Initiative signifies for them. Based on a network theoretical perspective on firm internationalization, we explore outsider strategies in geopolitical initiatives. We conduct a qualitative analysis of 25 semi-structured interviews with managers of German companies from the infrastructure sector and with responsibilities on African markets to investigate the multifaceted role of Chinese business presence. Our findings show that Chinese companies are not only regarded as competitors but also customers and cooperation partners of German firms along the value chain of infrastructure and related construction projects in Sub-Saharan African markets. We also discuss a four-tiered approach of how non-Chinese companies aim at overcoming the liability of outsidership to benefit from Chinese business presence and capitalize on business potentials in Sub-Saharan Africa.

This paper is devoted to substantiating the methodology and illustrating its applicability to the analysis of China's participation in international capital movements, including in the inter-country BRICS space, from the perspective of international political economy. It is shown that from a theoretical and methodological point of view, the conceptual basis of such analysis is multi-layered, combining neorealist, neoliberal and constructivist approaches with varying emphasis depending on the object and field of research. Based on a study of empirical data of the flows of Chinese FDI and OFDI in the BRICS countries, the asymmetric nature of mutual investment cooperation is shown with China’s increasing desire for dominance, both in the sphere of geo-economics and geopolitics, and in the civilizational-cultural sphere, in the expanded BRICS+ format.

The current study focuses on the internationalisation of UK SMEs in Africa, including drivers and challenges for initial and sustained engagement. While UK-Africa trade opportunities present a compelling trend, especially amid disruptions of Brexit and geopolitical conflict, established SMEs seeking to internationalise face significant hurdles. Based on in-depth case studies of 10 UK SMEs that have internationalised to Africa, the study identifies drivers of internationalisation as well as barriers and supportive elements. The dataset was divided into two groups, with half of the SME businesses identified as White British (WB) and the other half identified as African Diaspora (AD). Preliminary findings include (1) the value of personal networks in the initiation and ongoing process of internationalisation, for both WB and AD firms, and despite this cultural proximity, (2) challenges in scaling otherwise successful businesses due to constrained access to high-skilled labour markets.

The present study investigates how strategic ambidexterity influences the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and relocation decisions (i.e., farshoring and nearshoring). in international markets. Drawing on eclectic theory and dynamic capabilities view, the authors amalgamate two prominent, but opposing, viewpoints that navigate the global frontiers on relocation decisions of firms: the exploitation-dominant actions and the exploration-dominant actions of strategic ambidexterity. Using data from a sample of 13,042 firm-year observations of North American manufacturing firms for the years 1997 to 2017, the authors reveal strong empirical support for a positive effect of entrepreneurial orientation on farshoring decisions, but also unveils a negative effect of entrepreneurial orientation on nearshoring decisions. The findings also offer compelling evidence that the entrepreneurial orientation-farshoring link is positively moderated by exploitation-dominant ambidextrous actions, the linkage between the entrepreneurial orientation and nearshoring has been negatively moderated by exploration-dominant ambidextrous actions.

Paper investigates relations between such antecedents as attitudes towards sustainability, subjective norms referring to sustainability, perceived behavioural control and perceived multinational corporations` (MNCs) environmental sustainability and its influence on purchase intentions. We refer to the theory of planned behavior and enrich it by adding additional construct – perception of MNC`s environmental sustainability. We surveyed a sample of 551 fashion brands’ consumers from European Union, India and USA., and analysed data with PLS-SEM. According to our research, consumers` negative attitudes towards sustainability, subjective norms referring to sustainability and perceived behavioral control have positive influence on the perception of MNC`s environmental sustainability, and next – the latter influence purchase intentions, whilst positive attitudes towards sustainability have no statistically significant influence. This study contributes to the literature on sustainability with regard to MNCs and consumers` environmental sustainability perception of these corporations, and its relation with consumer behavior. It also offers insights useful for managers.