Scholars have sought to empirically understand the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on 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 firms. These findings provide an understanding of the economic performance implications of foreign ownership and control for emerging market firms. Thus, they offer important contributions to FDI theories.

While institutional theory suggests MNEs prefer well-developed institutions, it is insufficient to explain why MNEs invest in less developed institutions. This study theorizes that the location decision is the trade-off between the benefits of monopoly rents in the host markets due to the special advantages and the costs of entry barriers driven by factor market distortions. Previous analysis suggests the net effect is positive, indicating MNEs are attracted to cities with higher overall factor market distortions where their special advantages are sufficient to overcome entry barriers. To figure out which type of factor market distortions attract FDIs, this study decomposes factor inputs into capital, labour and intermediate inputs based on the Cobb-Douglas production function. The conditional logit model is applied to examine the role of different types of factor market distortions on FDI subnational location choice. The results suggest that MNEs are attracted to cities with higher labour market distortion, supporting the literature that MNEs prefer cities with higher labour flexibility due to their demand for skilled workers and their higher labour productivity. Meanwhile, the attractiveness of labour market distortion is reduced in high-level cities due to the higher local autonomy to obtain support from the central government.

While institutional voids build up entry barriers in less developed markets, they also form opportunities for MNEs with special advantages to fill the market gap and take monopoly rents where local firms cannot. While theoretically MNEs financing from home markets, they still heavily rely on external capital markets in the host country (Teece, 2006). Compared with developed markets, developing markets have higher institutional voids, which increase the information asymmetry. MNEs from developed countries have more knowledge-based advantages in signalling the quality of assets, which makes them suffer less from capital market distortions while MNEs from emerging countries have to substitute external markets using internal networks or business groups. Meanwhile, the strength of ties matters in determining the capability of sourcing from other subsidiaries or headquarters from the internal network. Hence, I built a CSA-FSA matrix to theorize that the joint impact of the level of marketization of the home country and firm-level advantage in terms of knowledge-based advantages determine the location choice. The preliminary results indicate that DMNEs are attracted to cities with higher overall market distortions while EMNEs are discouraged. The impacts are significantly different.

Although researchers have been showing a keen interest in SME internationalisation, we still know little about how innovation facilitates internationalisation, particularly relating to the northeast of England. Thus, a better understanding is needed of how innovation facilitates SMEs' internationalisation. This thesis focuses on examining the factors that facilitate or hinder SMEs in the northeast of England in their internationalisation and innovation process. A systematic literature review (SLR) was undertaken. Considering the outcome of the SLR process, the research design used is a sequential exploratory mixed-method design, which involves qualitative data collection first, followed by quantitative research. The primary reason for choosing an exploratory sequential research design is to collect qualitative data and provide new insight into the research context, followed by quantitative research to test the outcome of qualitative research. FAME database was used to identify SMEs for this study. The final list of SMEs samples was categorized into two categories - information technology-based companies and engineering-based companies. Collecting 24 interviews, including 21 from SMEs representative and 3 expert interviews, set a basis for quantitative survey data which is currently being collected. But initial analysis has revealed several key themes facilitating or hindering SMEs innovation and internationalisation process.

The globalization of multinational enterprises (MNEs) and the disaggregation of their value chains have pushed forward the importance of research on subsidiary strategy and subsidiary innovation from micro-processes and their driving mechanism, i.e., the activities of subsidiary managers. By building on the MNE middle managers framework and its line of research (e.g., Boyett & Currie, 2004; Delany, 2000; Dutton & Ashford, 1993; Dutton, Ashford, O'Neill, Hayes & Wierba, 1997; Dutton, Ashford, O'Neill & Lawrence, 2001; Wooldrige, Schmid & Floyd, 2008; O’Brien, 2014), this doctoral project studies subsidiary management and behaviour and investigates how subsidiary managers take actions after receiving an R&D mandate to contribute to subsidiary’s performance in terms of innovation, financial, and strategical influence MNE. This dissertation argues and emphasizes that the activities of subsidiary managers are the mechanism and cause of subsidiary performance and are an explanation for the macro-level MNE performance.

In the context of digital technology and infrastructure development that integrates information and communication to facilitate network building, both local and global, and opportunity exploring, from domestic to international (Neubert, 2018), there is a rapidly growing interest in the internationalization of SMEs as they are of huge potential for pushing economic growth and promoting employment. However, it is still not yet clear what are the antecedents and drivers to facilitate SMEs’ exporting. Therefore, this dissertation aims to untangle the process of transition from indigenous SMEsto MNEs. Based on three paper structure, this study aims to investigates the role of state- the home country institution, innovation- the internal powerhouse of growth, and export strategy- diversification or intensity, in SMEs’ internationalization. By doing so, we contribute to the internationalization process model by conceptualizing a two-stage export development process: export decision and export expansion in products and markets. Furtherly, by conceptualing the role of innovation, export strategy, and institutional factors in SMEs' performance and growth, this study offers significant practical implications for SMEs to allocate limited resources better and match export strategies with the firm’s capabilities to obtain competitive advantages and achieve firm growth.

Despite the fact that immigrants make up a considerable proportion of the population in many countries, little is known about how their mental health is affected by stock markets in their home countries. We use panel data from the Understanding Society dataset to conduct a longitudinal study investigating this relationship for foreign-born residents in the UK, during the period 2010 to 2021. We provide novel evidence that immigrants’ subjective mental health is negatively impacted by stock market volatility in their home countries. This effect weakens as immigrants assimilate into the host country and increases with the immigrants’ age when they first arrive in the UK. We also find that diagnosed clinical depression as an objective measure of mental health is not affected. We recommend that immigrants be provided with both psychoeducation and financial education upon arrival in the host country to alleviate mental health issues.

In the last decades, global labour standards have been characterised by a “race to the bottom” due to Globalisation. In this context, the rise of modern slavery as a concern is even more evident and the result of this trend is a progressive shifting of the power from workers to employers and an increased imbalance between forces. In this situation, the economic role of the State, once prominent and leading, has been engrossed by corporations. Although modern slavery is considered an “urgent societal problem”, the attention of Management and Business research on the field is patchy. While the research about slavery in Supply Chain Management is growing, indeed, still palpable is the lack of attention on other subjects and their connection with modern slavery.

Part of this lack of attention is probably because the concept of modern slavery is still not well-defined.

Although many invitations to start conversations have been made, the IB research is still silent or not completely open on modern slavery.

This Research seeks to investigate how modern slavery is explored and addressed in Higher Education Institutions.

Over the years, there has been a rapid increase in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) originating from emerging economies. This has motivated researchers to investigate the determinants of FDI in these economies. However, extant literature indicates that research on outward FDI from emerging African multinationals has been overlooked and under-researched despite evidence indicating that outward FDI from African countries has seen a remarkable increase in recent years. Therefore, this study seeks to address this gap by looking at determinants of outward FDI from an emerging African country perspective, hence the choice of South Africa as the focus of the research. Using a multilevel framework that analyses determinants of outward FDI at two different levels of analysis (country and firm) the study will adopt a quantitative approach and employ a panel data econometric framework based on secondary data collected on a set of macroeconomic and institutional explanatory variables. The period of analysis is from 2002 to 2021.The multilevel approach allows for a better understanding of outward FDI determinants and the strategic interplay of variables at different levels of analysis.

In the business context, the concept of networks has been defined by Brass et al. (2004) as a set of nodes (two or more) connected through a set of ties. Research on international business has long recognised networks as an important means for multinational enterprises (MNEs) to enter and operate in international markets (Sharma and Blomstermo, 2003; Li and Fleury, 2020). With the rise of MNEs from emerging markets, more research attention has been attracted to the internationalisation process of EM MNEs and how they overcome the latecomer disadvantages and resource limitations (Luo and Tung, 2007; Ge and Wang 2003). To shed light on the potential relationship between networks and the internationalisation performance of EM MNEs, this research tends to discover the network attributes of EM MNEs and explore their internationalisation process, using a sample of MNEs from China. Additionally, the key proposition of this study is that the dynamic capability mediates the network impact on internationalisation performance for EM MNEs. This study aims to make a valuable contribution to the theories of network and internationalization. Specifically, it seeks to deepen our understanding of how networks can enhance the internationalization performance of EM MNEs by improving their dynamic capabilities.

Much of the theory about multinational enterprises (MNE's) competing in forgein markets has been focused around MNE's entering developing and emerging markets, however the reverse relationship has not been explored to the same length. Innovation has also served as a substitute for emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNE's) when competeing in developed markets. This research will explore how innovation has been used by Chinese multinational retailers to compete with incumubents in the international retail industry.

Family firms exhibit variability in the extent to which they detrimentally prioritize family-centric interests (i.e., bifurcation bias), leading to diverse internationalization endeavors. However, extant research treats family firms as a homogeneous group in the context of internationalization, neglecting the variations in their noneconomic goals. Whereas certain noneconomic goals detrimentally prioritize family-centric interests, others complement the family firm’s financial objectives. Based on the attention-based view and motivated reasoning literature, this study proposes a cognitive mechanism linking noneconomic goals to family firms’ susceptibility to fall for the bifurcation bias in internationalization, mediated by managers’ information search. I argue that noneconomic goals represent situational characteristics, offering cues to managers about whether internationalization contradicts or aligns with the firm’s strategy. Ultimately, these cues influence managers’ information search (i.e., situated attention) and subsequent internationalization decisions. I aim to test the proposed cognitive mechanism with an experimental vignette study embedded in MouselabWeb with family firm managers. This method allows for tracing participants’ information search and provides causal inferences about the mediation relationship. This study therefore enriches the field's understanding of managers’ decision-making by shedding light on their situated attention. Further, it overcomes distinctions among family and non-family firms, providing insights into the heterogeneity among family firms.

In recent years, despite the benefits associated with internationalisation, there has been a notable upswing in de-internationalization within the global business environment, particularly among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This trend has led to a growing cohort of SMEs endeavouring to re-enter foreign markets, particularly in emerging economies with prevalent resource constraints. Leveraging the Dynamic Capabilities Theory (DCT), this study investigates

1 What are the critical firm-specific factors that aid Nigerian SMEs in re-internationalising within one year of their exit?

2 Do SMEs that re-internationalise within one year of their exit achieve higher export sales post-re-internationalisation?

This study contributes to the international business literature by introducing a temporal dimension to the concept of re-internationalization speed and meticulously scrutinising the impact of the re-internationalization process on firm performance. It provides industry-specific insights into the indispensable factors for facilitating a swift return to foreign markets within one year of exit.

The significance of digital technologies in internationalisation has been widely discussed in many research works. Small and Medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)can benefit from these digital technologies to capture new markets at any stage (pre-internationalisation, internationalisation, post-internationalisation, de-internationalisation, and re-internationalisation stage) of their internationalisation process. SMEs are peculiar cases as they are characterised by inadequate resources, and low networks in comparison to multinational enterprises (MNEs) seeking a share of the market. With technological advancement, there is an increase in questioning by researchers of the traditional approach to internationalisation, as firms utilise digital technologies as an enabler, seeking an understanding of the process and outcome in the interplay between digitalisation and internationalisation. Also, much literature on the study of digital internationalisation decries the low volume of research works coming from emerging economies.

This study differs from the existing or past perspectives as it elucidate the process of digitalisation and understand the key digital capabilities/skills that SMEs need to possess to boost their internationalisation process (Born digital, platform-based business-to-business SMEs) through the lens of Process theory and Dynamic Capabilities theory; it will verify if findings from emerging economies are consistent theoretically and practically with those of the developed economies' counterparts.

The International Strategic Alliance (ISA) literature regards trust as a proxy for institutions and a crucial ISA governance mechanism that is influenced by formal and informal institutions. The current study argues that considering trust-building as an informal institution can explain the role of trust and institutions in ISAs more appropriately. I explore institutionalised patterns of behaviour that sway trustworthiness by adopting an interpretive case study approach. The following contributions can be expected. (1) Identifying multilevel patterns for trust-building in ISA governance, which are underexplored in the literature. While previous research identifies trust as a governance mechanism, it does not theorise how to enact that mechanism. (2) Redirecting research on trust from its primary focus on trust antecedents to trust-building behaviours. While numerous multidimensional antecedents were identified in previous studies to improve trust when a trustor is in possession of information about the antecedents, the literature is not able to explain behavioural patterns for obtaining that information. (3) Contributing to further understanding of the interaction between formal and informal institutions and their joint impact on ISA governance. (4) Identifying relevant contexts and contingencies of ISA trust pillars from the perspectives of Global Value Chain (GVC) and industry characteristics.

According to the EU Joint Research Centre, the Steel industry accounts for 5% of CO2 emissions in the EU and 7% globally. Current production locations in Europe were historically determined; a legacy based on available technologies in the past and associated competitive advantages of coastal and inland locations, combined with access to markets and end- customers. With the implementation of the European ETS Phase 4 and the EU Green Deal, the European Steel industry is forced to lower its CO2 footprint to 55% of 1990 levels. At the same time a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is being implemented to prevent carbon leakage to non-EU countries with lax regulations. These radical changes in the institutional environment require MNEs in the European Steel industry to transform. But how? They are faced with the choice of shifting at least part of their production to countries with lax regulations and to accept the carbon tax, or to adopt new – non-commercialized - technologies, such as electrical metallurgy or hydrogen-based steelmaking. The shift from coal requires both higher utilization of natural gas and increased renewable electricity. This analysis explores how EU MNEs deal with these strategic choices relating to internalizing new technology.

Changes in the income distribution may have a larger causal effect on retail prices in terms of organic food more than conventional food, which can lead to dietary habit disparities in different regions. The aim of this study is to demonstrate the direct impact of regional economic inequality and the mediating effect of price premium on the relationship between economic inequality and organic product takeoff. It also examines the moderating effect of both store-level (i.e., stoe size and catogory assortment) and market-level (i.e., competitive intensity and market turbulence) factors reflecting consumer behavior in the dynamic market, on the relationship between organic premium and product takeoff.

The relationship between international investment and environmental pollution has been receiving extensive attention from various countries, with current research focusing on the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI). However, many developing countries, with the continuous development of their economic level, have also regarded outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) as an important task for economic development, and the government encourages enterprises conduct OFDI. However, Does OFDI reduce corporate pollution emissions of home country? In this research, we take China as an example (a typical representative of developing countries) using micro-firm level data to examine the direct impact of OFDI on the investing firms pollution emission with as the indirect effect (or spillovers) to other firms with when it has relationships. Therefore, this research not only enriches the research on OFDI and environment in developing country enterprises, but also provides insights for the governance of environmental pollution under the trend of globalization.

This dissertation examines how multinational companies incorporate the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into their strategy. Our research aims to understand how subsidiaries installed in Latin American countries of three multinationals that are global leaders in their markets incorporate the SDGs in their strategy, in particular those related to actions for the promotion of decent work and economic growth (#8), responsible consumption and production (#12), combat global climate change (#13) and strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development (#17). Through a qualitative study, we aim to identify the role of the headquarter, how firms respond to the complexity of institutions in emerging countries, their impact on project selection and how these companies engage in alliances with other stakeholders. Finally, we are interested in understanding if there is convergence of practices among leading companies in their respective markets in their subsidiaries in Latin American countries. Thus, we aim to contribute to the advancement of studies in the areas of strategy and international business through the connection between theory and practice considering the performance of multinationals installed in emerging markets in Latin America and their lessons for incorporating the SDGs in their business.

Prior research has consistently conveyed inequality, discrimination, and lacking diversity to be an internationally prevalent issue within the Higher Education (HE) sector (Avolio et al., 2020; Garcia-Holgado et al., 2022). Studies have consistently reported Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) exhibit persistent processes of systematic marginalisation and cumulative inequality which reproduce academic dropout disparity, creating worsening diversity through stages of academic progression (Avolio et al., 2020; Bhatia et al., 2019). However, despite scholars conveying the potential prevalence of inequality and academic dropout disparity within business schools (Minefee et al., 2018), current research has predominantly focussed on the Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) based disciplines (Avolio et al., 2020). Additionally, current research has primarily explored inequality and academic dropout disparity from the faculty perspective (Donnelly & Hughes, 2022; Minefee et al., 2018), leaving limited understandings of how cumulative disadvantage and inequality is reproduced amongst student populations. Thus, the general aim of the present research is to address the limited understanding of inequality and academic dropout disparity within higher business education.

Unlike dysfunctional personal arrangements such as favouritism or nepotism, self-dealing puts the onus on regulators to create fair arrangements that benefit both parties (Rousseau et al. 2006, p.978).

The research question is What are the differences in negotiation tactics and immediate aftermath between successful and unsuccessful negotiations of developmental I-deals among professional women in Hong Kong? The research aims to understand the negotiation strategies used by Hong Kong professional women when negotiating developmental idiosyncratic work arrangements, and the direct consequences of these negotiations. This research contrubution is to fill the gaps in the current literature, promote gender equality, and provide valuable insights for organizations, policymakers and individuals to create a more supportive and equitable working environment for women in Chinese culture companies especially Hong Kong business organizations.

Research design incorporates various elements to conduct a comprehensive examination in research. To select participants, the study utilized non-probability sampling techniques, specifically exponential discriminant snowball sampling. (Leavy, 2022). The study relied on qualitative research methods, including semi-structured interviews and the critical incident technique (CIT). Interviews combined with CIT allow for a comprehensive exploration of participants’ narratives and experiences, enhancing the depth and breadth of data collected (Jamshed, 2014).

Given the essence and the growing scale of the migration phenomenon, immigrant entrepreneurship has become an important area of research in social sciences. In terms of paths and processes of internationalisation, they demonstrate heterogeneous practices. Immigrant-owned Entrepreneurial SMEs (IESMEs), besides smaller size and newness; face more liabilities and limitations in dealing with multifaceted complexities arising from their legal, political, and social embeddedness, to support their international growth. Therefore, this study addresses calls for more research on immigrants and entrepreneurship in the context of international business for a better understanding of the performance antecedents and processes of internationalising IESMEs.

How might the quadratic configurations of entrepreneurial orientation, absorptive capacity, digitalisation, and institutional voids contribute to the internationalisation of UESMEs? Further, how would digitalisation contribute to the interdependent relationship among these conditions in initiating and shaping internationalisation?

The current thesis explores the nature and features of mixed embeddedness in the entrepreneurial journeys of immigrant and returnee entrepreneurs. Mixed embeddedness has been playing a crucial role in explaining innovation, internationalization, and firm performance in international business. It has been understood differently in different contexts, however a core idea underlying the concept is the engagement and connectivity between different actors in the entrepreneurial system. Despite its importance, little has been known about from where and how mixed embeddedness is formed and developed. Moreover, researchers often argue that mixed embeddedness brings benefits to entrepreneurship without thoroughly considering necessary conditions. As entrepreneurship is a multi-dimensional entity where it impacts and be impacted by both internal and external environments, mixed embeddedness should be put in a contextual specific to argue its effect on firm performance. It could be also evolving during different phases of entrepreneurship. Literature has failed to address this changing feature of mixed embeddedness. Thus, this research aims to address various aspects of mixed embeddedness and determine how and when embeddedness is utilized as a contextual factor or a determinant of different outcomes in entrepreneurial endeavors, thereby contributing to both theoretical and practical development of the field.

Research attention is shifting from concentrating only on central cities to comprehending the dynamic interaction of location and economics in smaller towns as the contextual focus on geography and "place" has grown. Our knowledge of smaller-town entrepreneurship as a phenomena is still limited. Contextualised entrepreneurship research has been recommended in acknowledging that spatial context provides a better understanding of economic behaviour.

Town centres, aesthetics, social features, and degrees of centralised services in small towns are very different from those in large, global cities which provide a variety of stakeholders that support enterprises economically. Applying large-city theories to smaller towns can mask the subtle differences between the two. The studies within the thesis aim to identify specific opportunities for theoretical advancements related to entrepreneurship in smaller towns and in particular with a key understanding of the impacts that the digital age has presented.

Critical dimensions of the internationalisation process, such as the digital context and the specific role of the individual entrepreneur have been identified as missing core features in empirical theories such as the Uppsala Model.

Thus, "The Impact of Digitalisation on Internationalisation of SMEs in Small and Medium-Sized Towns" serves as the primary thesis for this doctoral dissertation.

The development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) has played a vital role in the domestic economic activity, specifically providing employment opportunities hence generating secondary and primary sources of income for citizens in Palestine. The study focuses on identifying the factors that affect SMEs' export performance while examining the barriers they experience when engaging in global trade. The research adopts a case study and mixed method approach, focusing on a sample of exporting Palestinian SMEs. It also employs a mixed methods that combines semi-structured interviews with SMEs owners and managers in Palestine and online sources such as articles and journals to answer the research question. The study proposes to explore the challenges through the analytical lenses provided by theories such as OLI framework, Resource Based View Model (RBV), New trade, and Uppsala model. Specifically, RBV and Uppsala model are the most relevant theories applicable to SMEs in Palestine since their definitions align with global business operations. Overall, this study contributes to the existing literature on export performance and exporting barriers by providing insights into the specific challenges faced by SMEs in Palestine, thus developing alternative strategies to the situations.

This article presents a comprehensive systematic review of nonmarket strategies used by multinational enterprises (MNEs) to navigate global uncertainties.This article presents descriptive results of our literature review, organized by key coding categories we adopted. The article synthesizes the findings into an integrated framework of nonmarket strategy and identifies potential avenues for future research.

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are fundamental strategies for achieving organisational diversification, growth, and profitability. Indeed, M&As generate significant cash flow globally, exemplified by the record-breaking 58,308 deals valued at 5.236 trillion USD in 2021. Despite their prevalence and large size, over 50% of cross-border M&As are reported to be unsuccessful, imposing substantial costs on both acquirers and targets. Given the background, this paper addresses the critical need to understand strategies that can mitigate the risk of M&A failure, with a focus on the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Recognizing the influence of stakeholders on M&A outcomes, this paper seeks to identify the relationship between CSR and M&A deal completion/duration. For this purpose, the paper draws on expectation violation theory and impression management as theoretical foundations. It postulates that stakeholder expectations are central to shaping evaluations of a firm's CSR, ultimately impacting the success of cross-border M&A transactions. Existing CSR research mainly explores its impact on a firm’s financial performance, and the specific influence of CSR on cross-border M&A success within the international business context remains unclear. Therefore, this research aims to contribute empirically based insights into stakeholder expectations, corporate reputation for CSR and corporate performance.

This article offers an in-depth review of the rapidly growing domain of International Political Risk Management (IPRM) research by performing bibliometric analysis, conceptual thematic mapping and bibliographic coupling using the Bibliometrix R-package over 72 peer review journal articles published between 1983 and 2023. It also identifies the main contributions to IPRM research, its conceptual structure and research agenda. Building on Decision Theory (DT) and Business Analytics (BA), we conducted the review based on a multistage decision-making process framework that encompasses critical attributes to be considered. Our results indicate that some of these issues have gained significantly more scholarly attention than others. Mixing the results of bibliometric and contextual analysis, we categorize the literature methods into three different statisitical stages from BA: (i) descriptive analytics (ii) predictive analytics and (iii) prescriptive analytics. Following this framework, we propose a research agenda and new avenues for future research on the conceptualization of IPRM as a multistage decision-making process.

While prior studies have confirmed that non-market strategies can bring resources and benefits to firms, how companies reciprocate political connections (except for bribery) remains less understood. This study investigates the mechanism of action between political connections and green innovation in emerging market firms. We hypothesize that companies with strong political connections can obtain more government subsidies. Having enjoyed privileges, these companies naturally assume responsibilities, thereby choosing to enhance green innovation as a form of reciprocation. We plan to use polluting companies in China as representatives of emerging markets and support our hypotheses with firm data and extensive empirical testing. Our discussion on the exchange mechanism between firms and government extends the social exchange theory. Moreover, they augment institutional theory by expounding upon the ways that environmental regulations and informal religious practices moderate the environmental strategy in emerging markets.

This study extends on the analysis of innovation and corporate catching-up in China’s photovoltaic and wind power equipment manufacturing industries from a configurational perspective. In particular, a case-oriented set-theoretic methodology is applied. In empirical terms, the longitudinal analysis unravels the modal complexity of innovation and corporate catching-up and (some of) the temporal context in which it is embedded, including the modal interplay between localized internal and international external learning on the one hand and within international external learning on the other. Learning orientations are found to differ not only across firms, but also across firm performance classes. Overall, the empirical findings seem to support the idea that firms should take a more holistic approach to learning, technological capability building, and innovation to synergistically combine different kinds of complementary inputs and resources acquired through different modal sources, including various sources of international technology transfer. Such multi-modal insights also contribute to a finer-grained understanding of Chinese internationalization. In methodological terms, the added value of applying configurational, set-theoretic logic to latecomer development research is demonstrated. This includes demonstrating the potential use and usefulness of a novel patent analytic approach to conceptualizing individual firm-specific consecutive learning phases in the techno-economic catch-up process of firms.

Despite the increasing amount of international business (IB) research on diversity management (DM) in multinational enterprises (MNEs), research on DM professionals as agents of organisational change has not been done in significant manner. This study addresses the knowledge gap by exploring the role of DM professionals as agents of change in a country characterised by unique societal norms and liberal privatisation. I draw on the theory of institutional entrepreneurship to conceptualise change agency of DM professionals. I conducted semi structured interviews with DM professionals working in subsidiaries of thirty MNEs in Pakistan. The findings indicate that the entrenched set of DM practices are challenged by DM professionals by first creating the vision of divergent institutional change and then mobilising resources and allies to support that change. It was found that resources related to their social position such as formal position in organisational hierarchy and social capital play a vital role in convincing other actors in institutional field to support implementation of divergent organisational change. This study contributes to the scarce literature on DM in developing and emerging market context. It enhances the literature on institutional entrepreneurship and agency of DM professionals for wider range of other developing and emerging economies.

Recent research has started to explore the positive effects of presence of multiple MNE (multinational enterprises) subsidiaries on individual subsidiary performance. In addition, there is research which argues that local listing (of a subsidiary) would enable access to pertinent local knowledge. Combining these two streams of research we argue that the unlisted subsidiary could learn from the listed subsidiary when both are owned and operated by the same parent MNE in the host-country. This learnt knowledge in turn should result in higher sales growth for the unlisted subsidiary. We add that the learning should be higher if the listed and the unlisted subsidiary operate in the same industry and are proximally located to each other. We will test these hypotheses on a sample on MNE subsidiaries operating in India in the period of 2000-2013.

Outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) has been recognised as a driving force of learning and innovation for emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs). Recently, the emergence of global value chains (GVCs) has shifted focus from final goods to intermediate tasks, potentially reshaping OFDI patterns and outcomes. However, little has been written about the role of GVCs in the OFDI-innovation nexus. Based on upgrading and governance perspectives, the paper investigates questions whether innovation outcome varies with the GVC types of OFDI projects and whether governance relations within GVCs affect OFDI-to-innovation mechanisms, both theoretically and empirically. Results based on data from over 4000 listed Chinese firms containing 314 MNEs show that high-value-added OFDI leads to a greater increase in innovation, compared with low-value-added OFDI. When Chinese MNEs have foreign capital, the positive effect of high-value-added OFDI is amplified but low-value-added OFDI may even hinder innovation. The negative impact, however, vanishes if foreign firms do not hold Chinese MNEs’ capital directly. These findings encourage EMNEs to leverage high-value-added OFDI projects to enhance innovation, but they should exercise caution regarding direct participation of foreign capital when undertaking low-value-added projects, as EMNEs may be governed to cater to foreign investors’ interests and stuck in innovation bottlenecks.

Increasingly, there is scholarly recognition that dynamic capabilities constitute a background factor like other antecedents conditioning the quality of international entrepreneurship. Hence, this paper focuses on the underexplored context of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in deprived areas and strives to conceptualize the impact of dynamic capabilities on SME internationalization. Building on the wealth of 2020 data from the Small Business Survey, we employed 740 SMEs in the UK's top 15% deprived areas to test six hypotheses. On this premise, our findings conceptualize associations between sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring with the international scale-up decision and the subsequent internationalization performance of the UK SMEs in the deprived areas. In this vein, the moderating impact of co-creation with other counterparts and technology has been explored. Accordingly, this study is among the pioneering research investigating the roles of dynamic capabilities in SMEs' entrepreneurial internationalization against wicked problems such as local deprivation.

This article offers an in-depth review of the rapidly growing domain of International Political Risk Management (IPRM) research by performing bibliometric analysis, conceptual thematic mapping and bibliographic coupling using the Bibliometrix R-package over 72 peer review journal articles published between 1983 and 2023. It also identifies the main contributions to IPRM research, its conceptual structure and research agenda. Building on Decision Theory (DT) and Business Analytics (BA), we conducted the review based on a multistage decision-making process framework that encompasses critical attributes to be considered. Our results indicate that some of these issues have gained significantly more scholarly attention than others. Mixing the results of bibliometric and contextual analysis, we categorize the literature methods into three different statisitical stages from BA: (i) descriptive analytics (ii) predictive analytics and (iii) prescriptive analytics. Following this framework, we propose a research agenda and new avenues for future research on the conceptualization of IPRM as a multistage decision-making process.

This study delves into the intricate dynamics of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) internationalisation within an emerging economy, focusing on the pivotal roles played by innovation and certification in overcoming corruption barriers. Leveraging data from the World Bank's Enterprise Survey (WBES, 2023) and drawing from a rich literature base, the research centres on India, utilising survey responses from CEOs conducted in 2022.

Employing the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) estimation technique, the study scrutinises the relationship between corruption and SME internationalisation, considering the moderating influence of innovation and certification. Results reveal that the positive relationship between corruption and internationalisation weakens significantly in the context of internationally certified SMEs with innovative practices. Firms armed with certification and innovation exhibit a diminished reliance on corrupt practices to facilitate their internationalisation endeavours.

These findings carry important implications for policymakers seeking to foster ethical and sustainable SME internationalisation strategies. By highlighting the mitigating effects of certification and innovation on corruption barriers, the study provides actionable insights for shaping policies that promote responsible business conduct and facilitate SME growth in emerging economies

Firms engaging in post-merger integration (PMI) confront a long-standing dilemma: integrating the target firm may render detrimental impacts due to loss of autonomy. To address such an integration-autonomy dilemma, we conducted an in-depth qualitative study on a home appliance ecosystem leader’s cross-border merger and acquisitions. We develop a three-stage model of facilitating the PMI process with ecosystems that unfolds through a series of inter-connected mechanisms, i.e., harmonizing ecosystem identity, building ecosystem complementarities and nurturing ecosystem generativity. We introduce an ecosystem approach that features the multilateral interactions between the target firms with other constituents in the acquirer’s broader ecosystem over time to balance the integration and autonomy. Our findings contribute by reconciling the integration-autonomy dichotomy in the traditional PMI literature and extending the scope of PMI from target-acquirer dyads to ecosystem triads amid integration with the acquirer’s ecosystem.

Literature suggests that stakeholders reward firms with meaningful corporate social responsibility (CSR) contributions during crises. However, our understanding remains limited regarding whether CSR efforts toward two important stakeholders, the community and customers, yield varying rewards. We argue that community-focused CSR is more rewarding than customer-focused CSR during crises, particularly in institutional environments where stakeholders expect companies to make a significant social contribution. Focusing on the pandemic crisis and using a sample of 345 transportation industry firms across four years in 40 countries, Study 1 finds that community-focused CSR offers a stronger buffer against the negative financial impact of the pandemic than customer-focused CSR, particularly in countries with higher healthcare infrastructure deficiencies and rural populations. Focusing on the hurricane crisis and employing an experimental survey data from 390 US investors, Study 2 highlights that airlines are seen as more legitimate when their CSR strategy prioritizes the community over customers, especially when stakeholders expect greater social contributions from firms. Furthermore, the crisis's adverse effect on investors' inclination to invest in the focal airline is stronger for airlines with lower legitimacy. This paper contributes to legitimacy theory by delineating firms' legitimacy dynamics during crises, considering stakeholder prioritization and institutional contexts.

This study uses OLI framework to analyze the impact of FDI motivations of EMNEs on their ownership level decisions in CBMAs. We propose that location specific factors and internalization decisions are closely related in EMNEs’ CBMAs. We also argue that different institutional environments in host and home countries could be evaluated through L-specific factors in OLI paradigm. We tested our proposed hypotheses in the context of Turkish MNEs. All completed CBMAs by Turkish MNEs between 1989-2021 are included in the study sample. We found that both market seeking and strategic asset seeking FDI of EMNEs will lead to higher level of ownership in CBMAs. However, institutional distance between home and host countries would not have a moderating role on these proposed relationships. This study indicates the importance of analyzing EMNEs through both conventional and unconventional approaches in IB literature.

This study extends on the analysis of innovation and corporate catching-up in China’s photovoltaic and wind power equipment industries from a configurational perspective. In particular, a case-oriented set-theoretic methodology is applied. In empirical terms, the longitudinal analysis unravels the modal complexity of innovation and corporate catching-up and (some of) the temporal context in which it is embedded, including the modal interplay between localized internal and international external learning on the one hand and within international external learning on the other. Multi-modal learning orientations are found to differ not only across firms, but also across firm performance classes. In methodological terms, the added value of applying configurational, set-theoretic logic to latecomer development research is demonstrated. This includes demonstrating the potential use and usefulness of a novel patent analytic approach to conceptualizing individual firm-specific consecutive learning phases in the techno-economic catch-up process of firms.

This paper examines the effects of family management on firm internationalization speed and scope. In addition, we also test the moderating role of collaborative innovation on the above relationships, confirming whether external knowledge resources help solve the dilemma of family business internationalization. Our final dataset comprises 2866 firms and 16290 firm-year observations across all Spanish autonomy regions. The results show that firms with more family management tend to slow their internationalization speed but increase the scope, which breaks our general understanding of family business internationalization (i.e., family firm discourages internationalization). Additionally, collaborating with partners in innovative products and processes does not always help facilitate family firm internationalization, depending on the collaborative diversity and intensity. Specifically, involving multiple collaborative partners (i.e., collaborative diversity) would not help attenuate the negative effects of family management on speed nor strengthen the positive effects of family management on scope. However, collaborative innovation intensity strengthens the family management’s positive effects on internationalization scope but does not work on attenuating the negative effects on speed.

This paper investigates how sales subsidiaries improve their competitive advantages by leveraging local relational network embeddedness in highly competitive host markets. Based on in-depth qualitative data collected from sales subsidiaries of four leading Chinese electronics MNEs operating in the UK electronics market, as well as archive data, this research has successfully constructed a model for the subsidiary local network embedding process. The process model elaborates on the strategic selection of long-term local partnerships, interaction mechanisms with local organisations within embedded ties, and how different types of local partnerships enable subsidiaries to enhance their competitiveness by achieving better brand performance, business performance, and innovation performance compared to competitors. The paper contributes to the literature on subsidiary local embeddedness as source of firms’ competitiveness literature by providing a qualitative, process-oriented view of subsidiary local embeddedness. Additionally, it shifts the unit of analysis from R&D subsidiaries to sales subsidiaries. On a practical level, this paper offers replicable suggestions for latecomers in terms of designing and implementing local embedding strategies, as well as levering local embeddedness to enhance their competitive advantages.

IB scholars are increasingly interested in time, temporality and context to provide richer explanations and increase our understanding of IB phenomena. These IB phenomena are deeply embedded in their temporal context. While there has been calls for more contextual research, there is little research addressing the challenges of including time-sensitive context in the research design. This research highlights the multi-temporality of the IB research in by defining the temporality of the phenomenon, the informants and the researcher(s). The authors provide a framework that enables to capture the temporality in research leading to more robust, rigorous and time sensitive IB research.

While there has been considerable research on dynamic capabilities in internationalisation expansion, there remains fragmentation and lacking knowledge on their role in supporting entrepreneurial innovation in foreign markets. By drawing on dynamic capabilities, this study contributes to bridging this gap by studying how the dynamic managerial and networking capabilities of Chinese SME entrepreneurs influence how their firms innovate when expanding internationally. Our findings suggest that there is a negative relationship between internationalisation and innovation for Chinese SMEs. Additionally, the dynamic capabilities can positively moderate the above-noted negative relationship. We found no evidence to prove any mutually reinforcing effects between these strategies. This paper provides unique insights into the Chinese context and international entrepreneurship (IE) literature.

Sustainability has been identified as a major concern on a global scale. This paper aims to explore how international Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) explore and exploit opportunities to develop their business model in light of the circular economy principles. The study is based on six case studies of international SMEs in China using an exploratory and grounded research methodology. Building on the micro-foundations research, our findings illustrate that international SME managers (SMEMs) exhibit a sustainable entrepreneurial motivation to develop a circular business model (CBM). They are Leveraging the government’s policy as an external enabler of sustainability and integrating innovation in their value chain to develop a circular business model. This study contributes to studies on internationalisation and sustainability and, more specifically, sheds light on a less explored case of international SMEs' circular business model.

This study investigates the dynamic interplay between internationalisation and innovation in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). Specifically, it addresses the critical question: How does internationalisation affect innovation in SMEs? Leveraging a comprehensive dataset of Canadian SMEs, we utilise cluster analysis to categorise the firms into pathways based on their scale, scope, pace, and timing of internationalisation, followed by regression analysis to examine the impact of these strategies on innovation performance. Our findings demonstrate significant associations between several pathways and the innovation levels within these enterprises. The study’s insights underscore the pivotal role of internationalisation strategy in driving innovation and growth in SMEs, offering practical implications for business leaders and policymakers aiming to foster innovation through global expansion.

In this study, we examine how increasing climate risk in potential host locations impacts MNEs’ location choice for foreign direct investments (FDIs) and consider how the network contingencies, the connectedness of MNEs in the industrywide collocation network and the connectedness of MNEs' country of origin (COO) in the global outward FDI network, moderate this relationship. using a novel dataset from the global automobile industry between 2003 and 2019 we argue and demonstrate that the negative externalities of climate risk reduce the likelihood and magnitude of MNEs locating their FDI in high-climate-risk locations. Further, we find that increasing COO connectedness increases the MNEs’ informational advantages and amplifies the negative impact of increasing climate risk in host locations on MNEs' FDI location choices. Thus, MNEs from more connected COOs are less likely to locate their FDI in high-climate-risk locations. However, the increasing MNE connectedness increases isomorphic pressures and imitative tendencies among collocated MNEs. This attenuates the negative impact of increasing climate risk in host locations on MNEs' FDI location choices. Thus, MNEs more embedded in FDI collocation networks are more likely to locate their FDI in high-risk locations.

Green business strategies of multinational enterprises (MNEs) have witnessed an upsurge in scholarly interest mainly due to the growing concern about environmental issues on a global basis. In this respect, the main purpose of this study is to synthesize and encapsulate the empirical body of research on green business strategies in the context of MNEs. Employing a systematic literature review methodology, 65 empirical articles published between 1995 and 2023 were subjected to content analysis with thematic aspects and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), theoretical underpinnings, and empirical issues. Despite considerable progress, the findings of the systematic review unveil the shortcomings in the thematic distributions, the gaps associated with the theoretical foundations, and the fragmentations covering the empirical results, entailing additional improvements for the thrust of research on green business strategies of MNEs to move towards maturity.

How do green competitiveness factors like Green Innovation Management (GIM), Business Ethics (BE), and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices impact on Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance? And, how does adopting United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) affect the relationship between green competitiveness and ESG performance? Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) must prioritize sustainability. In conflict-ridden and economically fragile areas, SDG implementation requires extra attention. We used standardized coefficients to apply a linear regression model on data collected from 560 MNEs from the MENA region in 2023. Our model receives support on the crucial involvement of MNEs in shaping positive sustainable development through adopting a green competitiveness approach and aligning with global sustainability objectives.

For several decades, the global human development agenda and the international human rights agenda have been heading in the same direction, sharing similar assumptions and ideas about the links between human development and human rights. Since the early 2000s, the discussions on both sustainable development and business and human rights have started to converge. This paper explores the extent to which signs of convergence can also be observed at the corporate level. It analyses and elaborates on the incidence and extent of corporate commitment to human rights and the SDGs, drawing on annual reports and sustainability reports published in 2010 and 2020 of multinational corporations listed in the DAX-40 stock market index. The chapter first outlines the discussion on the link between business, sustainable development, and human rights. It then uses quantitative word frequency analysis and text-mining methods to map and analyse corporate reporting activities on the SDGs and on human rights. The last section of the chapter discusses the implications of the findings for the debate on the role of business with respect to the potential links between sustainable development and human rights and proposes potentially fruitful avenues for future research.

Multinational mining companies (MNMCs) play a significant role in advancing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). MNMCs help communities to achieve SDGs through the provision of infrastructure and employment. In this article, we analyse the different roles that two top ranking MNMCs play to achieve some SDGs in local communities in developing countries using mining in Ghana as an exemplar. We use an ethnographic approach to explore the types of sustainability activities these MNMCs engage in, the challenges they face in the process and how the beneficiary local communities perceive these efforts. Our findings reveal that MNMCs engaged in community capacity building, programmes delivery, financing and partnership in community development. However, continuing and historic conflicts obscure community perceptions. Our findings emphasise the importance of community involvement in delivering SDGs. We extend the stakeholder theory from a firm-centric perspective to a more community-focused one.

This study explores how a firm’s foreign operation that was motivated by a notion of sustainability fell short of advancing sustainable development in the host country and considers contributing factors to the shortcomings. It draws on the framework of sustainability governance from the global value chain perspective while revisiting the concept of immiserizing growth. The paper adopts a single case study design relating to a Japanese hand sanitiser manufacturer, Saraya, and its operation in Uganda over a decade. Saraya’s scope for sustainability and its approach to the host-country context are analysed through content analysis of archival data. Given the complexity of sustainability, one solution could create unintended problems, and the impact of such problems can be significant in developing countries. To minimise the adverse impact of local operation in the host country, an MNE needs to not only focus on optimising its value chain but also have a comprehensive perspective of sustainable development and an understanding of the potential repercussions of value chain activities. By considering the context-specific factors, the study sheds light on the nexus between value chains and poverty in the host country during the coronavirus pandemic, in particular.

This study explores the underlying mechanisms through which non-market strategies (NMS) affect firm performance. Unfortunately, studies examining the benefits of NMS continue to generate mixed results despite NMS being a common feature amongst Multinational companies. The United Kingdom (UK) Open Government Dataset is used to capture 480 corporations’ political encounters with the UK government between 2012 to 2019. Following Hillman and Hitt (1999) conceptual framework, the mean of political encounters (3.04) is operationalised to construct a dummy variable to categorise firms’ political approach as relational or transactional and General Least Square – Random Effect is utilised to conduct regression models. The results demonstrate that only the transactional approach yields an increase in firms’ fortunes and only if it constitutes a unilateral or hybridised (unilateral + collaborative) mode of participation. Agency theory, Resource-based View and institutional perspectives are utilised to reveal a clear underlying mechanism explaining how firms’ performance is impacted when conducting NMS. More widely, the research shows that different firms need to adopt different strategies according to firm-specific factors and whatever it is they want to achieve. Both transactional and relational approaches can generate benefits under the right circumstances and any simple valorisation of more corporatist approaches is arguably misplaced.

With growing legislation mandating human rights due diligence (HRDD) practices, the corporate respect for human rights has gained more prominence. Conflict-affected areas present high risks for Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) to be complicit in human rights violations. However, conflict-sensitive HRDD has hardly been considered in previous business and human rights (BHR) literature. Therefore, this future-oriented study aims to analyze how MNEs will implement HRDD practices in such challenging institutional settings within the next decade. In a Delphi study, 82 experts from business, civil society, and academia discussed future scenarios on conflict-sensitive HRDD practices. Based on the Institutional Work perspective, we show how MNEs can essentially contribute to the translation and institutionalization of mandatory HRDD practices inside and outside of conflict-affected areas. Our findings indicate that the majority of MNEs will shape the institutional setting to enable the effective implementation of conflict-sensitive HRDD practices to the extent this allows for the reduction of risks to business. Thereby, we contribute to the BHR literature focusing on compliance challenges with current and future HRDD laws.

We apply the resource-based view (RBV) to explore the determinants of FDI into sanctioned locations. We argue that both greater resources and greater experience will help multinational enterprises (MNEs) to overcome sanctions, a dark side to resource munificence. We also build on institutional theory to examine contextual conditions and find that effective home country institutions deter FDI to sanctioned locations and decrease the magnitude of the moderating effect of firm resources and experience. Moreover, FDI to sanctioned locations will be greater from firms in home countries that are themselves sanctioned because of the resulting specific ownership advantages: such home country advantages also weaken the impact of firm resources and experience. We test these ideas on a large panel dataset and find support for our arguments.

Legitimacy theory suggests that firms strive to gain legitimacy by maintaining positive relationships with external stakeholders. As such, firms conduct corporate social responsibility (CSR), which helps them mitigate the negative impact of a crisis on their stock prices. However, our understanding remains limited regarding whether CSR efforts directed toward different external stakeholders provide similar protection during a crisis. The Covid-19 pandemic provides a valuable context for expanding our understanding of legitimacy theory by comparing the CSR activities of firms toward two important external stakeholders: the community and customers. We argue that community-focused CSR has a more profound and far-reaching social impact during a pandemic compared to customer-focused CSR. Thus, we hypothesize that community-focused CSR offers a stronger buffer during a pandemic than customer-focused CSR. Furthermore, we contend that this relative advantage of community-focused CSR over customer-focused CSR during a pandemic may hold greater significance in environments where stakeholders have a higher reliance on community-focused CSR activities, precisely in countries with higher healthcare infrastructure deficiency and rural populations. Our hypotheses are supported by a sample of 345 transportation industry firms located in 40 countries. This paper contributes to legitimacy theory in the context of international business.

Although scholars for Human Resource (HR) specialists and business leadership have captured the significance of hybrid work environments relevant to sustainable work models since the coronavirus pandemic, little is known about the leadership in hybrid work arrangement and Leadership Self-Efficacy (LSE). As LSE is deemed as crucial or effective for better outcomes in the hybrid work setting, this paper attempts to ascertain the mediating role of Hybrid Work Leadership Self-Efficacy (HWLSE) between the determinants of HWLSE and manager productivity in Australia and the US. Here, self-efficacy theory is mainly addressed for our research model. For the collection of data sets, purposive sampling is used from both Australia and the US with a total of 310 managers sampled. The data sets are analyzed through Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) employing R studio. We have found the partial mediating role of HWLSE, such as the relationship among hybrid work environment, HWLSE, and manager productivity. Both HR practitioners and business leaders in Australia and the US can refer to our findings to help managers improve their LSEs in hybrid work arrangements.

Despite the increasing amount of international business (IB) research on diversity management (DM) in multinational enterprises (MNEs), research on DM professionals as agents of organisational change has not been done in significant manner. This study addresses the knowledge gap by exploring the role of DM professionals as agents of change in a country characterised by unique societal norms and liberal privatisation. I draw on the theory of institutional entrepreneurship to conceptualise change agency of DM professionals. I conducted semi structured interviews with DM professionals working in subsidiaries of thirty MNEs in Pakistan. The findings indicate that the entrenched set of DM practices are challenged by DM professionals by first creating the vision of divergent institutional change and then mobilising resources and allies to support that change. It was found that resources related to their social position such as formal position in organisational hierarchy and social capital play a vital role in convincing other actors in institutional field to support implementation of divergent organisational change. This study contributes to the scarce literature on DM in developing and emerging market context. It enhances the literature on institutional entrepreneurship and agency of DM professionals for wider range of other developing and emerging economies.

Abstract

In recent decades, integrating mindfulness and self-compassion into capitalist work environments and increasing academic studies have fostered mutual growth. The growing popularity in both fields has brought beneficial outcomes as well as many complexities (e.g., unwarranted criticisms toward concepts instead of addressing their misapplication and misunderstandings). This approach has hindered the unbiased exploration and experience of their true nature. The current chapter aims to clarify the complexity through a comprehensive literature review focusing on the concepts, their applications, existing criticisms, misunderstandings, and dilemmas about their existence in capitalism’s paradigm. It recommends the novel application of Kurt Lewin’s three-step classical change management model (Lewin, 1947) in both science and practice fields. Considering mindfulness and self-compassion’s empirically well-established role in collective well-being, the suggested model has an essential place to solve existing dilemmas and seeks to protect and foster their inherent essence and experiences within and beyond the capitalist context.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the advancement of emerging technologies in the digital era have accelerated the progress of digital transformation as an important direction of enterprise growth. As a result, the core of enterprise digital transformation is to reconstruct and reconfigure the existing organizational assets, such as human resources. To facilitate the digital transformation of enterprise human resource management, we develop a personnel efficiency evaluation framework based on the DEA-Malmquist model to classify enterprise employees in sequence. The proposed framework considers the enterprise contribution degree of different sequences of personnel and the possibility of online service and predicts the change in employee demand after digital transformation. We apply the constructed model to analyze the digital transformation practices of human resource management in a real company and verify its applicability and validity. Our findings indicate that digital transformation has different directions and levels of impact on HR demands of different job sequences. Digital transformation significantly affects the HR needs of service sequence personnel, marketing sequence personnel, scientific sequence personnel, and management sequence. Our research contributes to the literature on digital transformation and human resource management and provides practical guidance for managers to effectively manage human assets in organizations.

Emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs) provide a rich yet under-specified context to resourcing challenges in selecting, assessing and developing senior leaders. In this conceptual paper, we introduce zone of adaptability to capture the dynamic within-person adaptability and the stable between-person differences. We advise EMNEs to take a structured and focused approach to capitalize zone of adaptability to select and develop global leaders with the capacity to adapt to changing, sometimes undefined role functions overseas

Using Italian manufacturing firm-level data for the period 2005-2020, we investigate the determinants and effects of the backshoring phenomenon. We propose a measure of backshoring as the reverse definition of “narrow” offshoring, signifying a negative change in the imports in the same HS4 product category as firm production that is persistent and not matched by a corresponding increase in offshoring to any other countries. We uncover that: (i) Backshoring remained relatively rare, among offshoring firms about 5% did backshoring during the period. (ii) Backshoring firms, on average, are smaller, younger, less productive, less internationally exposed, and employ a higher proportion of part-time workers. They predominantly operated in medium to low-skill sectors. (iii) After the decision to backshore, employment growth, value-added and turnover display a declining trend over time. Backshoring appears to drive a reshuffling in labour force composition, moving from white-collar to blue-collar workers and from highly educated to less educated employees, often involving an increase in the employment of temporary workers in the short term. This has significant policy implications.

This paper seeks to explore the global value networks (GVNs) reconfigurations through multinational corporations’ (MNCs) systematic transformations. It aims to investigate their GVN transformations from a new theoretical view - the interactions between the value chain system and the organisational system, in order to guide MNCs to reconfigure their GVNs under uncertain business environments. Using qualitative case study methods, six individual cases were studied and a three-stage transformational model of GVN is derived and presented with related findings.

The study investigates the impact of board members with transnational interlocks on Global Value Chains (GVCs). The study addresses gaps in the literature on GVC governance, emphasizing the importance of micro-level decisions by individual directors and their strategic management within GVCs. The study contributes to the literature by highlighting the significance of individual managerial capabilities in GVC governance, the role of human and social capital through transnational interlocks, and strategies of emerging market firms in using GVCs for resource upgrading and expansion. It presents the findings under three theoretical constructs: orchestration capability, location/re-location, and network configuration, elucidating how these aspects influence strategic decision-making in GVCs. The study concludes with implications for managers in emerging market firms, underscoring the importance of leveraging transnational interlocks and strategic network configuration for effective GVC governance and sustainable growth in the international arena.

Small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) play a significant role within global value chains (GVCs), and their operations and supply chain activities contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, SMEs efforts towards accounting for and reducing their carbon footprint are crucial in achieving sustainability goals across the value chain. Understanding of the challenges faced by larger firms’ smaller suppliers, manufacturers, and producers across the GVC in meeting those goals remains limited. This conceptual paper highlights emerging knowledge of the sustainability journey across the GVC, integrating perspectives from both SMEs and larger firms. We thereby aim to contribute to a more holistic understanding of current sustainability challenges within GVCs, and we also identify new research questions to deepen knowledge of the decarbonisation process and identify effective strategies towards decarbonisation across value chain participants. We suggest that large companies can improve their ability to identify and resolve sustainability issues within their supply chains through increased collaboration with suppliers and their communities.

This paper explores the emergence of a global value chain (GVC) for the production of sports goods associated with the game of cricket. The focus is on the production of cricket bats and the development of a novel form of GVC characterized by an atypical multipolar distribution of power. It assesses the interdependencies between the UK and South Asia in the manufacture of cricket bats, the extent of regional specialization and the implications for manufacturing and regional economic development. Geo-political factors, migration and economic policy are seen to have played an important role in the evolution of the GVC.

This longitudinal single case study examines how the senior management of a Japanese MNC was able to recreate and rebuild trust with its stakeholders after a major disruption. We chose an internationally renowned case of whistleblowing which had considerable impact on the global markets on which it operated. As an emblematic example of Japanese corporate governance failure, it provided an interesting opportunity to investigate trust repair in non-Western research context. We found that both verbal and behavioural tactics are needed in the trust repair process and they are used in combination and in parallel to each other. However, regaining the trust of stakeholders takes years and in the case of a major disruption of trust, verbal trust repair tactics are necessary but not sufficient alone. Restoring trust requires continuous use of behavioural tactics and significant changes, such as major organisational renewals and a change of routines and processes. We also argue that in the case of MNCs, one should not underestimate the importance of cultural differences.

People, especially from emerging markets and developing countries, move to advanced economies for work or economic opportunity, to join family, or to study. Change of immigration policy in favour of skilled workers, professionals, people with special talents and innovative businesses have seen a growth of international immigrants. Institutional factors and individual reasons influence the decision to engage in entrepreneurial activities among immigrants. Past research suggests immigrants from low-income developing countries would open their own ventures due to limited opportunities available in the host country, and the ventures would mostly serve their own community. This leads to the question of what immigrants from higher-income emerging economies would do differently. This research employs qualitative research design to explore the underlying motivation and challenges of immigrants starting a business in northern England. First-generation immigrants from middle-income countries in Asia will be the focus of this research.

Existing studies have analysed the identity of multinational corporations (MNCs) from social and organisational levels respectively in an international business setting. However, little has been written about exploring the micro-processes of their identity formation, i.e. from the view of individuals. Our paper investigates the process of MNC identity formation with the challenges of cultural diversity and national identity in the firm’s team membership. We argue that MNCs (re)form their identity via building integrated management routes and network relationships of individual professionals between headquarters and subsidiaries. We contribute to developing an integrated understanding of social and organisational identity in MNCs within a dual embeddedness context. The findings offer insights into revealing the actual process where identities were formed and constructed by bringing together micro-level analyses of the process and observations of the macro-level phenomena. We concluded with an exploratory case study with 19 interviews of managing partners and legal professionals at a Chinese multinational law firm and five individual interviews with legal professionals at four other Chinese law firms with an office in London.

The global world continues to witness a shift in terrorism owing to the peculiar nature of the concept. As the world continues to evolve due to recurring economic, social and political events, terrorist organisations have also found ways of adapting their activities to this ever-changing world. As a result of this, the concept of terrorism to attributes of a chameleon due to the different forms in which this phenomenon has manifested itself over the years. This has not just led to the definition of the concept being very challenging but also to highly diverse methods in the practice of terrorism by perpetrators. The complexity of the concept has made it very difficult to emerge with a singular definition that clearly explains what terrorism is without including factors beyond the scope of the concept or excluding factors associated with the concept. Exploring the variations of terrorism warrants an understanding of the classifications of terrorism and terrorist acts which are canopied under two typologies: domestic and transnational terrorism. This paper focuses on the former and its impact on international business.

The financial impact and cost of domestic terrorism on both a macro and firm level have over the years run into millions of US dollars. This is no surprise considering the multifaceted dimensions of the effects posed by this type of terrorism. Mainstream literature on the implications of domestic terrorism have evaluated terrorist activities from a macro perspective considering economic indicator such as FDI inflows, economic growth and so on. However, there is minimal research on the implications of domestic terrorism at the firm level. This paper intends to investigate these implications with the firm as the focal point of discourse.

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.

• What is the current state of knowledge about the R&D activities of MNEs? • How are these activities likely to change in the future? • How are technological and geopolitical developments in the world economy driving product, process, and business model innovations? • How are these developments impacting both the geographical configuration of GVCs and their organization? • How can government policies encourage innovation and promote the domestic capture of the rents therefrom?

This WAIB-sponsored panel features senior female scholars sharing diverse perspectives on research, impact, and knowledge exchange. Panelists will share their experience and highlight events that have been critical in their career development. Although some of the perspectives may reflect challenges predominantly faced by women, this panel also speaks to the wider AIB membership and is not limited to female academics.

Research has emphasized the various factors that impact foreign subsidiary survival and divestment. Using the attention-based view of the multinational enterprise (MNE), in this paper, we first argue that subsidiary density – the number of subsidiaries operated by an MNE in a host country – reduces the attention given to individual subsidiaries by the MNE and can lead to reduced chances of a subsidiary’s survival (or increased chances of divestment). We further argue that this effect will be moderated by the order in which the subsidiary has entered the host market, such that, entering later into the host market will reduce the negative effect of subsidiary density on survival. We test our hypotheses on a sample of 1718 foreign subsidiaries of 255 Finnish MNEs operating in 70 host countries. The empirical results support our conjectures. Our paper contributes to international business literature by emphasizing the influence of attention and commitment of the headquarters (HQ) to the propensities of foreign subsidiary divestment.

As global emphasis on sustainable development intensifies, the synergy between academic research and industry expertise becomes vital for advancing low-carbon technologies. Nevertheless, the prior literature focuses on MNEs' capabilities in collaborating with local universities to promote sustainable development goals, underestimating the critical role of IJVs in leveraging university-industry partnerships. This paper investigates the IJV’s networking capabilities in managing university-industry partnerships to facilitate low-carbon innovation over time. The study delves into how IJVs, as unique collaborative entities between MNEs and local firms, leverage their networking capabilities to link universities' theoretical knowledge and parents' practical, market-driven focus to promote low-carbon innovation. Adopting a longitudinal multiple case study, we conducted data collection in three rounds from 2017 to 2023, featuring 60 semi-structured interviews with 23 informants. Our findings highlight the networking capabilities of IJVs comprising different functionalities for relationship initiation, development and establishment/termination over time. IJVs with reactive networking capabilities participate in joint R&D projects with parents and universities in parent networks to share research outputs addressing common technical problems. In contrast, proactive networking capabilities enable IJVs to actively search, select, extend and deepen IJV-university partnerships from parent networks and independent channels, creating competitive advantages in the existing and prospective low-carbon technology sector.

Since the proposals made by Boschma in 2005, the interrelationship between trust and proximity has been undeniable. However, with the advancement of both literatures over the years, new questions have emerged about the role of these constructs in the practice of international alliances. This article aims to conduct an in-depth review of these themes and correlate them, including the dimension of distrust that has been suppressed from previous analyses. To illustrate our arguments, we present a model that theoretically portrays the possibilities of different configurations of these constructs. We close the discussion with propositions and a research agenda.

This paper uses Marx’s theory to analyze the phenomenon of discrimination against foreign workers through a different lens, reevaluating current theories tackling highly skilled migration and conclusions from recently published papers. We are witnessing two very strong and opposing forces: the need for a foreign labor force, and an unwelcoming environment for foreign employees, embodied in wage discrimination, and workplace discrimination in general. Current research in workplace discrimination is focused on unconscious biases, prejudices, and stereotypes as a cause of workplace discrimination, and has an individual-level approach to this problem. However, in countries whose economy depends on the foreign labor force, and has no alternative to it, it is reasonable to assume that the integration of the foreign labor force in the host country's labor market is conditioned by more formal and higher structures of the national state, and international business companies, far beyond from individual level of human resources managers, far away from organizational culture. By delving into the structural dimensions of discrimination, it aims to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the challenges faced by highly skilled migrants in the contemporary workforce.

The past few years have witnessed a plethora of scholars and practitioners embracing the concept of deglobalization. Our literature review reveals that authors have used different definitions of deglobalization, different metrics, and different levels of aggregation, looking at different institutional origins and different timeframes. To provide a more comprehensive assessment, we performed a series of analyses with metrics commensurable to the conceptualization of globalization on a multi-country dataset consisting of 3,303 unique firms from the top 16 home markets of the Fortune Global 500 firms over the 2001-2022 period (n=35,042). We introduce the difference between equally-weighted degree of internationalization which tracks the evolution of the average firm, and value-weighted degree of internationalization which better captures the evolution at the macroeconomic level. We find that using such distinct metrics leads to different judgements on the development of deglobalization. On the one hand, we identify an overall upswing of globalization for the average firm, a pattern that is robust across different economies. On the other, our analysis of value-weighted degree of internationalization highlights that different economies underwent distinct and even contradictory paths of (de)globalization. We identify the research implications.

This paper empirically investigates the impact of inward foreign direct investment,
with a focus on multinational firms holding dominant market shares, on wage dispersion
between firms across European regions. The analysis uses firm-level data from the
ORBIS Europe data set over 2012-2021 combined with a range of economic and social
data at the regional level. Using a shift-share instrumental variables approach, we find
that foreign direct investment, particularly international superstar firms, contributed
to increased wage inequality between firms across European regions.

The article proposes a survey-based research perspective with few precedents on "disruptive" mobility, providing a longitudinal analysis (2010-2023) of cross-national comparison (UK-ITA) through a fairly large sample (No. 450 total) and respectively divided into No.150 –UK 2023, No.150 –ITA 2023 and No. 150 Italy 2010. The sampling base takes into consideration the two capitals (London and Rome) for heterogeneity, number of inhabitants, and active projects in reference to "smart" urban redesign. With the aim of providing a useful context analysis tool to policymakers, academics, managers, and practitioners. The article mainly investigates the evolutionary flow of the concepts of sustainability inherent in the smart city and their integration with mobility. The cross-national comparison is instrumental for highlighting mind-set differences through which to consider future planning actions in urban mobility area. The main results reside in the cultural, ideological, ownership differences, and individualism that decree a reluctance to change. The empirical analysis shows an improvement for Italy compared to the past, but still timid especially in relation to the prospect of alternative mobility sharing, which is also a valid solution for the penetration of vehicle electrification.

The purpose of this paper to explore how Multinational Enterprises from advanced markets can address the needs of disadvantaged communities in emerging markets, while also providing expectations of long-term economic return to their shareholders. We aim to uncover the mechanisms and actions employed by these companies to serve disadvantaged communities.

We build from stakeholder and institutional theories. Our focus is on the contribution of European multinationals to social and economic inclusion in Brazil. We have collected data through in-depth semi-structured interviews with multiple actors (such as multinationals’ executives at the headquarters and subsidiary, Non-Governmental Organisations, community leaders, and local social entrepreneurs). In this paper, we present and discuss the findings from one single in-depth case study. Preliminary results highlight the extent of vulnerable ‘waste picker’ communities in Brazil and the challenges faced by MNEs in implementing initiatives targeted to these communities. Our analysis emphasises the need for MNEs interact with multiple stakeholders including local government, cooperatives, NGOs, and social entrepreneurs to overcome the challenges inherent to addressing the needs of disadvantaged communities.

In the next stage of research, we will conduct interviews with residents of disadvantaged communities and collect data to triangulate the cases of other European MNEs.

Attracting more ‘quality’ inward foreign direct investment (iFDI) is a key policy aim in many least developed countries (LDCs). Such investment may benefit local firms, enhance economic growth, and have societal advantages. Undertaking a comparative institutional analysis, we seek to explain why some multinational enterprises (MNEs) adopt policies and practices that are likely to have greater host-country benefits. We examine how institutions condition a) two MNEs, one Danish and one British, that both operate in the pharmaceutical industry, and b) the quality of their FDI in Bangladesh, an LDC. Home-country macro-level institutions constitute our focal firms, moulding our focal firms’ decisions and interaction with local organizations. Our research contributes to institutional theory by highlighting how institutions condition the mechanisms that constitute and generate quality iFDI, revealing have a seemingly distant institution within MNEs home countries shapes and underpins the enactment of practices and mechanisms at the micro level in a host country.

This study examines how overinvestment in philanthropy impacts green innovation, two important social responsibility activities. Drawing on social capital theory, we explain social responsibility activities as a form of insurance that provides protective benefits for a firm's reputation, political connections, and public relations. Additionally, we investigate how ex-military executives affects the management of philanthropy and green innovation. Based on the Chinese listed firms from 2006 to 2017, our analysis reveals a substitutive effect between the social responsibility activities, which provide similar 'insurance' benefits. Our findings further suggest that executives with military experiences actively promote green innovation even in the context of overinvestment in philanthropy. By integrating social capital and imprinting theory, this study provides new insights into the complex interplay between social responsibility activities and the role of executive backgrounds in influencing the activities.

Drawing on the resource-based view theory and the new stakeholder theory, this study investigates the effect of (in)congruent internal–external CSR strategies on market performance. We classify a sample of 38,056 firm-year observations from 86 countries, covering the period 2010 to 2019, into four quadrants based on the level of internal and external CSR activities: forerunners (both high), laggards (both low), walkers (high internal, low external), and talkers (high external, low internal). Through polynomial regression and three-dimensional response surface, our findings reveal that the positive effect of congruent internal–external CSR activities on market performance is stronger for forerunners compared to laggards. That is, investors reward the CSR actions of forerunners to a greater extent compared to laggards. Additionally, for firms with aggregated internal and external CSR activities in the mediocre range, the market value is higher for walkers compared to talkers. Contrary to the traditional perspective that emphasizes the significance of external stakeholder satisfaction for firms, our study demonstrates that investors prefer firms that prioritize workforce well-being. This study offers valuable insights for international businesses navigating CSR intricacies in a global landscape.

We investigate the financial impacts of green buildings on firm performance, filling a gap in existing literature that primarily focuses on environmental outcomes. Based on dynamic capability theory, we explore how green buildings contribute to a firm's capacity to efficiently utilize resources, thereby enhancing performance. Analysis of U.S. listed firms and LEED data reveals that green buildings positively influence financial performance, with higher-rated buildings providing greater dynamic capabilities. However, financial slack resources can disrupt routines established by green buildings, diminishing their effectiveness in boosting performance. Our findings extend dynamic capability theory by incorporating the physical environment's role and elucidate the nuanced impacts of financial slack resources.

Whilst tax haven use by multinational enterprises (MNEs) is often associated with economic and societal harm, studies have theorized a limited relationship between tax haven use and corporate reputation. This is surprising, given the wealth of evidence which illustrates how corporate reputations are frequently damaged following socially and economically harmful MNE activity. To advance our understanding, this study focuses on the underexplored heterogeneity associated with tax havens, specifically - their location characteristics. Drawing on attribution theory and the country reputation perspective, we theorize and explain how MNE engagement with tax havens and countries characterized by corruption, shape stakeholder perceptions, thereby heightening reputation risks. Our longitudinal analysis, involving 1,961 tax haven subsidiaries of 326 MNEs, supports our theorizing. This paper advances theory regarding the informal regulation of tax haven use and the dark side of IB.

It is often held that foreign direct investment (FDI) flows into tax havens, such as the Cayman Islands, substitutes for conventional FDI that has real economic consequences. In this paper, we suggest the opposite – FDI into tax havens mediates real FDI. We show theoretically, using a real options model, and with a simulation, that business risk lowers FDI and that the ownership of non-location bound intangible assets increases FDI as one would expect. However, both channels are mediated by the ownership of a tax haven subsidiary when the firm is considering its FDI decision, such that: (1) the ownership of a tax haven subsidiary mitigates business risk to the firm; and (2) the ownership of a tax haven subsidiary enhances the ability to deploy non-location bound intangible assets. Our theoretical findings are then tested using a large firm level dataset that includes information at the FDI project level. Our results are consistent with the real options model’s predicted parameters and the complementarity between conventional FDI and FDI into tax havens.

Tax haven use is prevalent among multinational enterprises (MNEs) across both developed and emerging market firms. It provides firms with the possibility of both greater financial gains and performance-related reputational gain as well as reputational damage due to engagement with socially irresponsible practices. In this study, we investigate the relationship between founder CEOs and family firms’ use of tax haven from mixed-gamble perspective of family firms from emerging market. Using 189 large Indian public-listed family firms, we found that family firms headed by founder CEOs refrain from using tax havens in their international strategy. According to the findings, founder CEOs weigh the positive reputation gain from avoiding tax haven use to be higher than financial gains associated with use of tax havens. Moreover, we examine two contingencies that allow us to explore heterogeneity among family firms’ use of tax havens: performance below aspiration and female board representation. This study also provides evidence that when family firms' performance is below their aspiration, founder CEOs are willing to re-evaluate options for tax haven use. On the other hand, higher female board representation reinforces founder CEOs stance on use of tax havens.

Although recent scholarship helps explain institutional decoupling among countries, there remains a theoretical black box as to the stakeholder processes driving this form of change. Based on a mix of qualitative evidence – interviews with 161 stakeholders (e.g., policymakers, think tank analysts, industry association representatives, and managers), a review of archival data, and case studies of two leading Chinese MNEs’ experiences in the US – we explore the recent history of institutional decoupling between the US government and Chinese stakeholders. We then develop a theoretical process model explaining this history by modifying stakeholder theories. Our model distinguishes the classic conceptualization of stakeholder salience, which we term “positive salience,” from a new type: what we call “negative salience.” We explain how negative salience evaluations arise and diffuse, and their consequences. Foreign governments that accumulate a tipping point of negative salience evaluations among positively salient stakeholders – via the expression, labeling, incongruence, and re-expression of interests – become targets of institutional decoupling by a perceiving home government, and these evaluations are transferable to MNEs. In addition, we show how our model more fully explains decoupling than liabilities of origin theory, and discuss the implications of our research for both MNE managers and policymakers.

Governments are increasingly using public procurement to promote financial and non–financial policy goals, including requiring adherence to sustainability standards to ensure sustainable procurement. Recent literature has highlighted supplier firms endeavouring to conduct CSR practices to indirectly signal their adherence and trustworthiness to governments, increasing their likelihood of winning an international government procurement contract. In this paper, we make the case for ESG performance and indicate its importance for supplier firms in signalling interorganizational trust to foreign governments. We develop the argument and highlight its importance for managers and policymakers, indicating the possibility of a global ESG criteria which functions at the state and firm levels.

Hillman and Hitt’s (1999) theoretical framework is used to explore the mechanisms through which non-market strategies (NMS) affect firm performance. Multiple studies investigating the benefits of NMS unfortunately continue to generate mixed results despite NMS becoming increasingly common (especially amongst multinational corporations) due to widespread agreement that collaboration between firms and governments is required to achieve smarter policies for sustainable economic growth. The UK Open Government Dataset is used to identify 480 corporations’ political encounters with the UK government between 2012 to 2019. The mean of political encounters (3.04) is operationalised to construct a dummy variable (FPA) to categorise firms’ political approach as relational or transactional and General Least Square – Random Effect (GLS – RE) is utilised to conduct regression models. The results demonstrate that only the transactional approach yields an increase in firms’ fortunes. The research focuses mainly on agency theory and Resource-based View perspectives to reveal a clear underlying mechanism explaining how firms’ performance is impacted when conducting NMS.

Intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) promote stability, development, and security for member states and their citizens via supranational institutional influences. However, their impact on individuals has been questioned due to political, social, and economic uncertainties. We study how IGOs influence entrepreneurial decision-making. Using a robust sample of 68 countries, their entrepreneurial environment, and their connection to IGOs, we find that IGOs cultivate a positive environment for entrepreneurship. Moreover, IGOs encourage different strategic decisions - encouraging formal entrepreneurship while discouraging informal entrepreneurship. We combine insights from international relations, institutional theory, and strategic entrepreneurship to highlight how institutions at different levels influence entrepreneurial decision-making.

Although there is a growing interest in entry mode choice under different sources of uncertainty, information on how micromultinationals (mMNEs)[1] make an entry mode choice in foreign markets remains rare. Dealing with uncertainty and making entry mode choices under uncertain conditions becomes even more challenging for mMNEs that are subject to the liabilities of foreignness and smallness, and, therefore, they are more likely to make costly mistakes choosing entry modes and may sometimes even fail[2] (Stoian, Dimitratos, & Plakoyiannaki, 2018). Although mMNEs are more resource constrained compared to MNEs, they still use advanced modes of entry in making investments in foreign markets (Dimitratos, 2009; Dimitratos et al., 2014; Dimitratos, 2021); mMNEs, by definition, are required to use advanced (non-exporting) modes of entry compared to large MNEs or SMEs who rely on exporting only (Dimitratos, 2003; Ibeh et al., 2004).

To make future investment decisions, mMNEs need to adopt rational decision making since they tend to have fewer options to invest in due to scarcity of resources, and they cannot afford any mistakes in selecting entry mode choices (Wooster et al., 2016). One of the most rational approaches in the international business literature is real options reasoning (ROR) (Child & Hsieh, 2014). ROR refers to the process of embracing an option-based view of investment decision-making recognising the significance of proactive planning in strategy (Miller, 2002). It refers to “how firms make decisions regarding investments when the future is uncertain” (Brouthers et al., 2008, p.940) and options can be considered as contingent decisions (Child & Hsieh, 2014). mMNEs can choose between different investment decisions and the best way to enter a foreign market on a provisional basis (Chi et al., 2019). A fundamental concept in ROR is strategic flexibility – i.e., a firm-specific capability that captures the ability of the firm to switch its operations in uncertain conditions, gained by operating in multiple markets and enabling resource redeployment as it allows mMNEs to respond quickly to external uncertainty, providing various options (Ipsmiller et al., 2021). One of the key enablers of strategic flexibility include multinationality (i.e., the number of markets that mMNEs operate in). This strategic flexibility allows mMNEs to shift resources, optimizing foreign market investments and mitigating uncertainties (Ipsmiller et al., 2021).

This study not only explains the behaviour of mMNEs in the real options stream, improving our understanding on how entry mode choices are affected by different sources of uncertainty and multinationality, but it also unpacks how home-country level of development of those mMNEs plays a role in their perception of which source of uncertainty is important, explaining their preference of using WOS in a way that helps them to mitigate different uncertainties. Notably, literature also suggests that emerging markets face different sources of uncertainties in the home country that may hinder their growth choices due to dysfunctionalities compared to advanced markets (Xu & Meyer, 2013). Paradoxically, although the real options studies have identified the crucial role of home-country level of development (Sears, 2019), the real options studies that investigate how home-country level of development moderates the relationship between different sources of uncertainties and entry mode choices, comparing advanced with emerging markets, remain rare.

To tackle the research gaps, in this quantitative study, we test our hypotheses on a dataset[3] of 1,200 mMNEs[4] (from 44 different countries) that have been expanded between 2003 and 2020, aiming to answer the following research question: To what extent does uncertainty impact on entry mode choice (ownership choice) of mMNEs, and how is this moderated by multinationality, and home-country level of development? Highlighting differences between different types of uncertainties, we find that mMNEs appear to reduce their ownership associated with their entry mode choice as different sources of uncertainties increase. We also propose that multinationality plays a crucial role in entry mode choices under uncertainty. We further sharpen our understanding about the impact of different sources of uncertainty on the ownership choices of mMNEs and show that home-country level of development is a significant driver for their entry mode choices, suggesting that advanced market mMNEs tend to choose a higher level of equity in WOS under uncertainty. Our findings also show that emerging markets mMNEs follow a conservative approach by choosing low commitment operation modes (i.e., IJVs) entry modes rather than high commitment modes (i.e., WOS) to cope with host country economic uncertainty.

Our study makes several theoretical and practical contributions. Drawing on the real options theory, our study empirically contributes to a still nascent but growing stream of research in international business, which focuses on which uncertainty factors may affect the ownership choices of mMNEs, and to what extent, as they expand abroad (Ibeh et al., 2004). Our study also theoretically integrates home-country level of development into real options reasoning (Sears, 2019). It attempts to bridge a gap in the existing literature by providing evidence about the real options logic of both advanced and emerging markets mMNEs in one study (Sears, 2019). Existing literature has not yet to apply real options reasoning to investigate mMNEs’ entry mode choices in a great number of emerging markets, and, therefore, this study aims to fill this gap, considering that the emerging markets provide a suitable context to apply this approach and make the relevant comparisons with the advanced markets (Tong & Li, 2008). By exploring the different behaviour of both advanced and emerging market mMNEs, this study contributes to the ongoing debate on the significance of the home country of location (Santangelo & Meyer, 2011). Our study also has a practical contribution as it helps the top management and the owners of mMNEs to choose the most suitable entry mode in a foreign market. Given the increasing unpredictability of the external environment (e.g., economic crises, fluctuations in product prices or demand variations, and other disruptive phenomena), our work helps top managers and owners of mMNEs choose the most suitable entry mode, considering the trade-off between what they can afford to do due to mMNEs' resource scarcity, and the costs associated with such a significant decision.

Our study is not without limitations. First, our study includes the assumption that our mMNEs have the choice to make an investment (Brouthers et al., 2008). However, this can be regarded as a limitation given that not all mMNEs have the required resources to enter a foreign market. There is a limit to how many countries and in how many options an mMNE can invest, as they might have limited resources, suffering from the liability of smallness (Leiblein, 2003). Second, consistent with previous studies, we included in our study two main types of entry modes, namely IJVs and WOS as has been suggested in the study by Wooster et al. (2016) and by the fact they are more frequently used by mMNEs (Ibeh et al., 2004). It would be helpful for advancing the real options literature if future studies include in their sample other types of advanced entry modes such as strategic alliances, and mergers and acquisitions (M&A).

[1]Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that engage in value-adding activities across multiple countries through investment, contractual modes, and cooperative arrangements (Dimitratos et al., 2003, p.165). SMEs are engaged in advanced market entry modes, such as international joint ventures, international strategic alliances, and foreign subsidiaries are called micromultinationals (mMNEs), orchestrating their cross-border value-added activities in multiple locations (Dimitratos et al., 2003; 2009).

[2]According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (2021) regarding SMEs, 20% failed in the first year, 50% within five years, and 65% within 10 years.

[3]Our secondary data is derived from the FDI Markets Database, which is a service provided by the Financial Times.

[4]mMNEs employ less than 250 employees (European Commission, 2003) and use advanced (non-exporting) foreign market entry modes (Dimitratos et al., 2003).

The focus of this research was to investigate how Chinese sales subsidiaries embed themselves in the UK electronic market to enhance firms’ competitive advantage. The key research objectives were: (1) To identify the types of embedded ties that Chinese sales subsidiaries embed in the UK electronics market, as well as the underlying reasons for such embeddedness. (2) To identify the enablers that facilitate Chinese sales subsidiaries’ embedding into the UK electronic market. (3) To examine how Chinese sales subsidiaries interact with their local partners within local embedded ties. (4) To identify the outcomes of the local embeddedness of Chinese sales subsidiaries in the UK electronics market.
This research builds on the previous research on the subsidiary’s local network embeddedness as a source of firms’ competitive advantage (Andersson et al., 2001, 2002; Figueiredo, 2011; Isaac et al., 2019; Ferraris et al., 2020) and the literature on relational network embeddedness (Uzzi, 1996; Uzzi and Gillespie, 2002; Uzzi and Lancaster, 2003; 2004).
This research addresses the following research gaps: (1) Although the previous IB research indicate that a higher level of local embeddedness is positively related to MNEs’ performance (Andersson et al., 2002; Figueiredo, 2011; Isaac et al., 2019), embeddedness is a strategic choice and a dynamic process. There is a lack of in-depth qualitative research that focuses on the subsidiary embedding process, specifically how the subsidiary is embedded in external networks and how this subsequently improves the subsidiary’s competitive advantage (Nell et al., 2010). (2) Previous IB studies focus upon R&D subsidiaries and highlight their role as “centre of excellence” within the MNEs (Figueiredo, 2011; Achcaoucaou et al., 2014). With the globalisation of sales, sales are no longer just transactional selling relationships. A firm’s relationships with counterparts at host markets are increasingly perceived as a key component of its competitive advantage (Reichstein-Scholz et al., 2021). However, there is still a lack of understanding about the local embedding process of sales subsidiaries in current IB studies. (3) The local network embedding strategies of Chinese electronic subsidiaries in the UK market are not well-understood. Local embedding is highly important for the sales subsidiaries of leading Chinese electronics MNEs because they have upgraded from electronic product manufacturers to brand owners in the global value chain (GVC), and they are expanding into fiercely competitive developed markets such as the UK, where relationships with organisations in the host market are necessary for their brand competitiveness and market expansion (Sturgeon and Kawakami, 2010, 2011; Su et al., 2020).
This study adopts a qualitative, inductive approach, and is based on a multiple case study. Finding suitable case studies and access was challenging at first. Initially 7 cases were approached. Four sales subsidiaries were finally selected after applying the following selection criteria: (1) The subsidiaries had to be autonomous subsidiaries, as they are capable to influence their developmental pathways at global corporate networks (Cantwell and Mudambi, 2005). (2) The selected companies had to be Chinese electronics subsidiaries mandated with market expansion in the UK, as the same geographic area provides similar opportunities for becoming embedded within the local environment (Luo and Lemański, 2016; Figueiredo, 2011). (3) The selected subsidiaries needed to have been operating in the UK for a specific duration, affording them sufficient time to establish and develop deeply embedded ties (Håkansson and Snehota, 1995). (4) The headquarters of the subsidiary had to be a private firm, as private firms exhibit a greater appetite for host country markets and strategic assets compared with state-owned firms (Amighini et al., 2013). (5) The subsidiaries were required to be brand owners rather than purely product manufacturers that conducting OEM and ODM business (Su et al., 2020).
Sixteen semi-structured elite interviews and participant observation were adopted to collect primary research data (Welch et al., 2002). The participants of the elite interview in this study include managing director, country manager, heading of marketing, key account managers, sales managers, and marketing managers at the case subsidiaries, who were deeply involved in the local embedding activities. The interviews were collected in two rounds, first in 2018 and then in 2022, and capture changes in the international environment, such as the Covid-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine conflicts, has influenced the outcomes of this thesis. The qualitative data analysis is based on the “Gioia methodology” (Gioia et al., 2013; Gioia, 2021). While this approach has been criticised ((Mees-Buss et al., 2022), this method enables the author successfully build theory from qualitative data.
Overall, the overarching findings of this study extend the understanding of subsidiary local network embeddedness as sources of firms’ competitive advantage literature (Andersson et al., 2001, 2002; Figueiredo, 2011; Ferraris et al., 2020; Vanninen et al., 2022) through providing a qualitative view of subsidiary local embedding process.
Firstly, this thesis successfully identified three types of locally embedded ties that sales subsidiaries allocate substantial resources to maintain in the UK: with local sales channels, with local marketing, PR, and social media agencies, and with local chambers of commerce and industry associations, respectively, and the reasons for selecting these relationships within the research context of this study. This clarification addresses the confusion highlighted by Andersson et al. (2001) regarding the strategic selection of local embedded ties, especially considering embeddedness as a “double-edged sword” (Uzzi, 1996, 1997).
Secondly, based on embedded ties with local sales channels is the most important yet most difficult to establish. This thesis successfully constructs a longitudinal embedded tie formation process model consisting of three iterative stages: embedded tie response, embedded tie negotiation and embedded tie sustain. This finding successfully fills the research gap regarding the relational embedded tie formation process in IB studies (Nell et al., 2010).
Thirdly, this thesis finds “regular interaction” and “networking” as two most important mechanism to maintain the embedded ties, which is in line with previous network studies in IB (Andersson et al., 2002; Shaw et al., 2017). This thesis further clarified based on the participants, content, purpose, and frequency of interaction and networking. It identified themes such as business-related interaction at the sales manager level, strategy-related interaction at the senior manager level, and so on.
Finally, one notable finding of this thesis is the embedded ties with local counterparts have enable the focal firms to enhance their competitiveness through enhancing their business performance (Andersson et al., 2002; Bresciani and Ferraris, 2016), innovation performance (Figueiredo, 2011; Isaac et al., 2019) and brand performance.
The subsidiary local embeddedness is a context sensitivity research area (Meyer et al., 2011). As suggested by Figueiredo (2011), same geographic area provides similar opportunities for becoming embedded within the local environment. Future research could explore whether there are variations in the narrative of subsidiary local embedding when there is a change in the host country. This study has focused on the electronics industry, and future research could also delve into in-depth investigations to examine how the narrative of subsidiary local embedding changes across different industries. Furthermore, as relational embeddedness is a double-edged sword (Uzzi, 1996, 1997), future research can delve into the side effects of local embeddedness.
This thesis provides recommendations for latecomers on: (1) how to establish local embedding strategy by leveraging firms’ resources; (2) how to effectively manage personnel at the operational level, including the role of local employees, to sustain crucial local partnerships; (3) how to enhance competitiveness in developed markets by leveraging various types of long-term local partnerships.
Firstly, based on longitudinal, in-depth interview data, this thesis provides a process model for the establishment and maintenance of long-term partnerships within IB research field using subsidiaries as the unit of analysis, drawing upon network theory and embeddedness theory (Nell et al., 2010; Meyer et al., 2020). Secondly, this thesis shifts the attention from R&D to sales subsidiaries when global sales are no longer just transactional selling relationships, and a firm’s relationships with counterparts at host markets are increasingly perceived as a key component of its competitive advantage (Reichstein-Scholz et al., 2021).

Purpose

In this thesis, the objective was to understand how host governments of developing countries can maximize the sustainable development contributions of FDI towards sustainable growth and development. It is argued and recommended in recent FDI and sustainable development discussions that, in order to maximise the contribution of FDI to the sustainable development of developing countries, the host governments of those countries need to understand the gains that they expect from FDI, as well as the motives and strategies of foreign investors coming to invest in their host economies, so that appropriate policies that attract the FDI that aligns with the host governments’ expectations can be adopted and implemented for maximum and sustainable FDI impacts. While these key components are relevant to advancing knowledge and contributing to the economic growth and sustainable development of developing countries, there is little exploration beyond the recommendation section of existing studies. This thesis took on the task of exploring these key areas in the context of African countries. Hence, the thesis focused on foreign firms, local firms, and the host governments.

Conceptual and/or Theoretical Arguments

First, I carried out a systematic literature review of the comparative motives and strategies of different foreign investors in Africa. The justification for this is that, although existing studies on this research phenomenon recommend that host governments need to understand the motives and strategies of foreign investors, there are several investors from different source countries that invest in various host countries. Assessing and identifying the motives and strategies of each of these investors require time and resources that these developing countries cannot afford, given their high reliance on external sources such as FDI. A literature review that synthesises existing studies will provide a comprehensive and detailed understanding of investment motives and strategies for policymakers, and will speed up policymaking decision aimed at attracting the right type of FDI that aligns with the host governments’ expectations. Thereby, improving their efforts towards maximising FDI contribution to sustainable development of their economies.

Second, I explored how host governments’ expected FDI benefits are moderated to specific FDI priorities as a result of individual countries’ differences in capacity and how this influences the impacts of the FDI received. In this thesis, it is argued that while host governments have an understanding of the various benefits to expect from FDI, there are differences in capacity in terms of the level of economic development and the consequent economic need and level of reliance on FDI, location dis(ad)vantages, and political capability that enables the host government to deploy policies that facilitate the attainment of expected FDI benefits. Therefore, only the benefits that the host governments have the capacity to facilitate will be prioritised. As a result, a policy capacity framework was developed based on a conceptualization of the level of economic development and consequent economic need and reliance on FDI, location dis(ad)vantages and political capability. This was used as a theoretical conceptualization for the discussion under this chapter.

Third, horizontal knowledge spillovers are considered to be one of the FDI benefits with significant sustainable development impact on the host countries, through positive productivity impacts on the local firms and industries. Particularly in studies carried out in Africa, it is often recommended that host governments need to work with local firms to appropriately identify how to support local firms and maximise the sustainable development impacts of FDI spillovers. I argue, in this thesis, that local firms will only pursue knowledge spillovers that they perceive have relevant productivity and competitive impacts on their operations, otherwise, they will not. Hence, I conceptualized a “relevant” horizontal knowledge spillovers process by exploring the process through which local firms identify and capture (internalise and utilise) knowledge spillovers that are “relevant” to their productivity and/or competitiveness, and the challenges they face in capturing these spillovers. This provides an avenue for host governments to provide adequate support for local firms and to maximise the contribution of FDI to the sustainable development of the host economies.

Lastly, I analysed existing investment policies adopted in nine (9) African countries and evaluated the effectiveness of these policies in facilitating host governments’ prioritised FDI benefits. While existing discussions in the field of international business have focused on recommending the adoption of appropriate policies to attract the right types of FDI that aligns with the host governments’ FDI expectations, they have largely ignored the evaluation of the effectiveness of existing policies in these countries in terms of attaining their goals. This evaluation will significantly contribute to practical policy advocacy and recommendations, especially in the context of the reality of these developing countries. Moreover, the essence of any policy deliberation is policy effectiveness.

Methodology and Findings

The first research area was explored following existing systematic literature review protocols; PRISMA and SPAR-4-SLR, and the findings from the analysis of the reviews show that the motives of foreign investors in Africa are similar but that they have different strategies. The second research focus was explored in the contexts of two African countries, Nigeria and Kenya. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and analysis of the interviews revealed that these countries, although understand the different benefits that FDI is expected to offer a host country, their limited policy capacity (influenced by the factors identified earlier) restrict them to specific FDI benefit priorities. More importantly, these countries are constrained, by tight competition between them for the limited supply of FDI, to put strict policies that control rogue behaviour by foreign firms and facilitate the attainment of significant sustainable development contribution of FDI to their host economies.

In exploring the process that local firms go through to identify “relevant” horizontal knowledge spillovers, and how they capture these spillovers, in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with Kenyan local firms. Analysis of the interviews revealed that the awareness of pull triggers and push innovations help local firms to identify relevant spillovers from foreign investors. Capturing these spillovers is made easy with acknowledged competitive pressure and the productivity-seeking behaviour of the local firms. Still, there are challenges faced by these local firms in capturing and internalising identified relevant spillovers. This leaves room for the host governments in terms of providing support aimed at capturing these spillovers and thereby maximising the contribution of FDI to the sustainable development of their economies.

Lastly, a crisp-set qualitative comparative analysis method was adopted to evaluate the effectiveness of the policies adopted in selected African countries. Three policy conditions were used to evaluate the effectiveness of a policy. The cQCA shows different policy effectiveness conditions for the different African countries’ policies evaluated. But, in all cases, the consistency of policy means is the most critical for facilitating effectiveness of the policies adopted.

Contributions and Limitation

Several contributions were made in the thesis including;

1. Methodologically by proposing and adopting an augmented review protocol involving two protocols, PRISMA and SPAR-4-SLR, to benefit from the core advantages of both protocols, and strengthen the transparency, replicability, and reliability of the review process.
2. Theoretically by developing and adopting a conceptual policy capacity framework to strengthen practical policy research in IB and provide a contextual understanding of sustainable development contribution of FDI for practical use.
3. Empirically by advancing existing understanding of horizontal knowledge spillovers, integration of an interdisciplinary approach to international business policy research, and contextual exploration of sustainable development and FDI for practical use.

Some of the major limitations identified include limited data access to policy makers in many African countries, and, little (to no) empirical research and fragmented debates on sustainable development contribution of FDI in the context of developing countries, despite the relevance of this topic to the sustainable development of many developing countries. More empirical studies, not merely recommendations, need to be carried out on this research phenomenon. More importantly, the conceptual frameworks developed in this thesis need to be explored in the context of other developing countries.

While internationalisation is frequently viewed by large enterprises in developed countries as a means of exploiting their ownership advantages (Ahsan et al., 2020), it is perceived as a critical channel for small firms in emerging markets to acquire resources and knowledge (Mathews, 2006; Guillen and Garcia-Canal, 2009; Tiwari et al., 2016; Gammeltoft and Cuervo-Cazurra, 2021), thereby enhancing their innovation performance. Despite the fact that many emerging countries are now identifying effective approaches to encourage the innovative performance of smaller firms through internationalisation, most studies have focused only on the outward activities of large firms in developed countries. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to investigate the influence of internationalisation on the innovation performance from the perspective of emerging market smaller firms. It focuses on identifying what specific international activities that contribute to improving the innovation performance of smaller firms in emerging markets, as well as the mechanism that underpins this relationship.

Unlike developed-market multinational corporations (MNCs), emerging-market smaller firms cannot invest a great amount of money in R&D or rely on their national innovation system to improve their innovation because of their limited resources and weak domestic markets. Instead, they must try to utilise international knowledge sources to compensate for home deficiencies. Therefore, according to institutional theories (Capello, 1999, Welter & Smallbone, 2014), the innovative behaviour of small firms in emerging countries needs to be examined in the context in which it occurs. Moreover, compared to MNCs in developed markets, emerging market smaller firms have a very low absorptive capacity, which may limit their potential to acquire new knowledge from international activities and translate it into innovations (Lori and Atul, 2001; Harris et al., 2021). Consequently, it is essential to examine the latter process in the context of smaller firms in emerging markets.

Research methods: The thesis first conducts a cross-country study that focuses on Asian emerging markets, the largest in the world, to identify the specific international activities that promote the innovation performance of manufacturing SMEs. It then concentrates on Vietnam, one of Asia’s fastest-growing economies (Romei and Reed, 2019) but one of the countries with low absorptive capacity in the region (Hien, 2010). A longitudinal study is performed to determine what specific international activities improve the innovation performance of manufacturing SMEs, given the low absorptive capacity of Vietnamese firms. Finally, the thesis explores how international activities could improve the innovation performance of firms by unpacking the entrepreneurial absorptive capacity learning process of Vietnamese tech start-ups. Tech start-ups are the most dynamic organisations in the economy, are generally internationally oriented, and innovation is the most important factor in their success (Ries, 2011; Kohler, 2016).

Methodological contribution: This research contributes methodologically to the literature on exports and innovation by being, to the best of the author's knowledge, the first to overcome the problem of self-selection bias (international companies might already have greater innovative capabilities before they enter overseas markets (Rehman, 2017)). Unlike previous studies that failed to demonstrate the credibility of using a lagged explanatory variable to deal with endogeneity caused by the self-selection effect (e.g., Ayllón and Radicic, 2019; Salomon and Shaver, 2005), this research overcame this problem by following the guidelines proposed by Bellemare et al. (2017). As a result, the research’s theoretical contributions are more reliable.

Theoretical contribution 1: Inward activities enhancing innovation performance of emerging market smaller firms

Specifically, imports appear to be the most important inward activity for the innovation performance of SMEs in emerging markets. In addition to demonstrating the beneficial effects of imports on technological innovations, this research also reports their impact on non-technological innovations, which has not been addressed in previous research. Non-technological breakthroughs have been found to be critical for firm success (Pino et al., 2016; Achmad, 2017), shaping the firm’s core values (D'Ippolito and Timpano, 2016), and contributing to a firm's innovation capacity (Mothe and Nguyen, 2010).

Following imports, foreign technology licensing is the next critical inward activity. While past research has concentrated primarily on the impact of foreign technology licensing on technological innovations (which are often measured by patent counts), this research shows that foreign technology licensing also encourages non-technological innovations of SMEs in Asian emerging economies. However, the findings demonstrate that while foreign technology acquisition has a substantial impact on emerging market SMEs’ ability to dramatically improve domestic manufacturing processes, it may have a lesser impact on new product innovations, which is distinct from prior research focusing on developed countries. This can be explained by the fact that these countries emphasise labour-intensive, low-technology manufacturing during early phases of industrialisation, with their production consisting primarily of the assembly of overseas inputs to create standard, undifferentiated products (Kim, 1980; Seric and Tong, 2019).

Finally, this research provides, to the best of the author's knowledge, the first evidence of a positive relationship between outsourcees and product innovations while prior studies only focused on outsourcing companies. While strategic outsourcing can help MNCs cut costs and focus more on core competencies (Belcourt, 2006; Dante Di et al., 2009; Edvardsson et al., 2019), acting as suppliers to foreign customers allows emerging market SMEs to learn from their international partners, strengthen their capability, and position themselves for future outward international activities like exports or FDI.

Theoretical contribution 2: The critical role of absorptive capacity in the internationalisation-innovation performance relationship

This research demonstrates the critical role of absorptive capacity in the relationship between internationalisation and innovation performance of emerging market smaller firms. Unlike MNCs in developed markets, emerging market smaller firms must strive to increase their absorptive capacity (e.g., through investment in R&D) to the point where they can acquire new knowledge from international activities, fully comprehend it, integrate it into their own activities, and commercialise it. Indeed, the thesis provides evidence to indicate that emerging market SMEs must first strengthen their absorptive capacity before leveraging exports to improve product and marketing innovations. Furthermore, foreign technology in-licensing must be integrated with in-house R&D efforts (to strengthen firms’ absorptive capacity) before emerging market SMEs can enhance their product innovations. Finally, when absorptive capacity is limited (as is the case for Vietnamese manufacturing SMEs), companies must first improve their absorptive capacity before leveraging imports to promote product innovations.

Theoretical contribution 3: Conceptual model depicting how international activities can enhance innovation performance

This thesis presents a significant advance over existing literature on the relationship between internationalisation and innovation by being, to the best of the author's knowledge, the first to develop a conceptual model that depicts the learning processes of absorptive capacity, showing how firms obtain new knowledge from internationalisation and translate it into innovations. The model also reveals several contingent human factors that influence the effective transformation of international activities into innovation value and performance: trust-based relationship, particularly with partners from inward activities (which explains why inward activities are more beneficial), prior international business and start-up experience, culture for innovation, leading through enthusiasm and vision (transformational style), and reward and recognition mechanisms.

Practical implications: Policymakers in Asian emerging markets need to support SMEs’ inward internationalisation in order to boost their innovation performance. More precisely, the imports of production inputs tend to be the most viable of the four activities investigated as they affect all four types of innovations. From a managerial viewpoint, one important implication from the findings is that firms should never stop improving their absorptive capacity during their internationalisation. Furthermore, the development of the conceptual model in this thesis serves as a guideline for tech start-ups on how to facilitate the learning process to enhance the impact of internationalisation on firm innovation performance.

This paper aims to explore the global scaling of game-changer business models to tackle grand challenges. It specifically investigates the drivers, enablers, business model components, and sustainability outcomes to identify facilitators (or challenges) for their global scaling and ability to tackle grand challenges. Through the analysis of qualitative data from two cases, we shed light on the specific context within the agri-food industry. In this way, we contribute to the existing literature on the intersection between global scaling and sustainable business model innovation. We call upon the actions of policymakers and business leaders to provide financial support and promote the global scaling of these models.

This article examines rural communities' interpretations and strategies for grand societal challenges like poverty and climate change. The study is limited to developing countries. While previous literature has assessed the market potential of rural populations in an entrepreneurial context, this study highlights the critical role that rural communities play in addressing grand societal challenges. Rural communities act as producers and entrepreneurs by relying on agriculture for their livelihoods and showing a strong will to address these challenges. However, their effort to harness their potential to secure their livelihood and tackle social and environmental challenges face market barriers such as reaching buyers from multinational food retail chains and export markets. Using sensemaking as a theoretical lens, we show how rural communities interpret grand societal challenges such as poverty and climate change. Focus group interviews in five communities with a total sample of 235 participants in northern Zambia. This study contributes to understanding grand societal challenges from the perspective of rural populations and calls for their actions to be integrated into global efforts.

Digitalization is a trend that changes the internal and external pressures of multinationals as they design or evolve their organizational model. Despite the issue of the appropriate organizational model being core to managing the multinational, the new organizational models that MNEs adopt to embrace digitalization remain to be explored. To understand the organizational models of the MNE in the digital world, we are conducting theory-building case studies of US multinationals. Our preliminary analysis reveals the global organization model with distinct implications for strategic capabilities, cross-border alignment, knowledge creation and sharing, as well as cross-border managers, compared to the transnational model. This study contributes to international business by developing knowledge on the organizing implications for multinationals as they leverage digitalization.

ABSTRACT

Entrepreneurship is the major source of wealth to every society and hence, the engine that drives innovation, creates new product, job opportunities and services. A country will remain economically disadvantaged if the potentials of entrepreneurship to drive economic growth are not explored. This study assessed Entrepreneurship and Economic Development of SMES in Enugu State, Nigeria. The precise goals were to identify the nature of relationship between Job creation and economic growth of SMEs in Enugu State and to ascertain the degree of relationship that exists between business ownership and financial capability of SMEs in Enugu state. The study adopted a descriptive survey design in order to elicit information from respondents. . The study suggests that the Enugu state Government should introduce practical skill acquisition programmes that are designed to foster creativity and encourage entrepreneurs to create more employment opportunities, also that the Government needs to sustain Entrepreneurship by providing soft loans to entrepreneurs to boost their financial capability.

Today’s inventions depend upon earlier creative developments; thus, information disclosure in the patent document is a potential source for technology transfer. For Indian economy, this channel gains prominence as majority patents are granted to non-residents. Further, the presence of foreign firms competing in the domestic and international market challenges the domestic firms to invest in research. From a developing country perspective, it remains unexplored if domestic firms gain knowledge from the innovation activities of their domestic and foreign counterparts. We study these knowledge flows among the firms based in India using citation information of patents granted to Indian assignees at the USPTO from 1999-2016. The knowledge spillovers are further studied by analysing the differential impact of citations made to domestic and foreign companies on the total factor productivity of firms.

The paper aims to extend the evidence on the role of green foreign direct investment (FDI) in renewable energy (RE) technologies to spread innovation in the host economies. It is based on two previous articles aimed at exploring the impact of green FDI on the development of green technologies by investors (Amendolagine et al., 2021) and by their foreign subsidiaries (Amendolagine et al., 2023). Here we aim at investigating the relevance of green FDI to trigger technological spillovers in the host economies, by transferring green knowledge to local companies.

With a focus on innovation in FDI host economies, Branstetter (2006) finds that Japanese firms' FDIs in the United States increase the likelihood to license MNEs technology to local firms, and the licensing leads to an increase in the innovative activity of local firms. The author also finds that the impact of FDI on knowledge spillovers is stronger for firms that are more technologically advanced. This is because more technologically advanced firms are more likely to have the absorptive capacity to use and adapt the knowledge transferred by MNEs. In the context of environmental technologies, Grafstrom (2018) investigates knowledge spillovers in the wind power industry within the European Union. The paper explores the transfer of knowledge and technology across countries and its impact on the wind power sector. The findings suggest the existence of international knowledge spillovers, highlighting the importance of FDI in facilitating knowledge diffusion in the renewable energy sector.

With a focus on green FDI, Amendolagine et al (2023), show that (i) foreign ownership positively impacts on the companies’ innovative capabilities – measured by the quality and quantity of green patents; (ii) this green advantage vis-à-vis domestic companies is larger in less developed countries; (iii) green FDIs are more effective when technologies are characterized by low tradability and a large component of Doing-Using-Interacting (DUI) in knowledge production.

In this paper, the empirical analysis is based on an updated version of the green FDI dataset used in Amendolagine et al. (2021) and Amendolagine et al. (2023). Green FDIs are defined as foreign direct investments undertaken by firms with at least one climate change-related technology patent in the following RE technologies (CPC class Y02E). The database includes 1,055 green FDIs in the period from 2003 to 2015.

This paper aims at extending Branstetter (2006) to estimate the impact of green FDIs on two different outputs: (i) the number of citations to foreign investors’ green patents by of green patents invented in the host economy; (ii) the number of co-patents applied by foreign investors and local companies.

Different potential moderating factors are tested using a negative binomial model estimator ( see Amendolagine et al., 2023; Branstetter, 2006; Piperopoulos et al., 2019).: (i) the type of green FDI, i.e., greenfield or cross-border acquisition; (ii) the green technology specialization of the foreign investor (e.g., solar or wind); (iii) the technological and economic development level of the host economy; (iv) the direction of green FDI (e.g., North-South or South-North).

Global public health faces unprecedented challenges, exacerbated by pandemics, climate change, and armed conflicts, amplifying the strain on healthcare systems worldwide. The evolving innovation policy landscape has shifted towards addressing grand challenges, emphasising transformative approaches. In healthcare, Public Procurement for Innovation (PPI) emerges as a strategic tool to navigate these challenges. This study investigates the integration of Health Technology Assessment (HTA) into PPI across seven diverse healthcare systems (England, Canada, Australia, Germany, Colombia, Mexico, and India). While developed countries seamlessly integrate HTA into procurement decisions, developing nations are at varying stages of HTA adoption. The study highlights HTA's potential as a pivotal criterion for PPI, providing an evidence-based approach to assess health technologies' value and impact, fostering innovation, optimising resource allocation, and improving population health outcomes. Ongoing refinement of HTA methodologies, stakeholder engagement, and policy alignment are crucial to fully leverage HTA in shaping public procurement and promoting healthcare innovation.

This study explores the intricate relationship between a firm's prior international experience, the adoption of Big Data Analytics (BDA), and the speed of internationalization. We posit that BDA, as a driver of organizational performance, can reshape the conventional role of international experience. Applying the Knowledge-Based View, we propose that BDA utilization functions as a contingency factor, impacting the marginal benefits of experiential learning and shaping the speed of internationalization. In addition, this paper embraces the inertia perspective and explores the contingent factors that influence the weakening impact of BDA on the relationship between international experience and post-entry speed of internationalization, namely technological discontinuity, which serves as a means to overcome organizational inertia, and organizational legitimacy, which may confine firms within existing organizational routines. The evidence show that the detracting effect between BDA and international experience will be more pronounced when firms have high levels of technological discontinuity, whereas the assumed detracting effect between international experience and BDA will be less pronounced when firms have high levels of organizational legitimacy.

International entrepreneurship represents a very lively research field and community of scholars. It is positioned at the crossroads between international business and entrepreneurship and contributes to the former providing a complementary perspective on the internationalization phenomenon. The year 2024 marks an important anniversary for this relatively young topic: 30 years since the publication of Oviatt & McDougall (1994) and 20 years since the publication of Knight & Cavusgil (2004), both on JIBS and both receiving the JIBS decade article award. In this panel, we ask what is the state of this discipline today, disciplines which received so much attention from scholars and contributions as well as criticism. And what is its future? In many works, International Entrepreneurship is depicted as an outcome of globalization processes. In the past, International Entrepreneurship has adopted its research approaches and methods from the two disciplines in which it has been rooted. Is that sufficient for capturing IE-related phenomena in the future, or should we look beyond disciplinary borders and seek additions to our methodological toolbox? The panel will try to address these issues from different angles, encompassing research approaches and theoretical lenses.

The proposed Professional Development Workshop (PDW) is a follow up of an AIB Impact Event, entitled “An Agenda for Sustainable International Business”, organised by the Mainstreaming Impact in International Business (MIIB) Initiative of the AIB and the AIB UKI Chapter. The Event attracted a great deal of interests and stimulated further discussions in various institutions and organisations. As a result, a Sustainable International Business Poster Competition was launched as an action for the Agenda. Supported by a range of AIB components, including MIIB, AIB UKI, AIB LAC, T&E SIG, Sustainability SIG, Digitisation SIG, and WAIB, the Competition aims to address the world’s critical sustainability challenges by pooling resources of engaged International Business (IB) scholarship in research and teaching to help organisations engaged with IB activities to add (net positive) value to society. The Competition is operationalised in a way to empower students, educators, and businesses. The proposed PDW has the following objectives: (1) to share experiences gained so far by participating educators, students and non-academic stakeholders; (2) to engage with audience and explore best practices, and (3) to introduce resources developed by the Sustainable International Business Partnership (SIBP) which are used by global students participating in the Competition.

Recent research has started to explore the positive effects of presence of multiple MNE (multinational enterprises) subsidiaries on individual subsidiary performance. In addition, there is research which argues that local listing (of a subsidiary) would enable access to pertinent local knowledge. Combining these two streams of research we argue that the unlisted subsidiary could learn from the listed subsidiary when both are owned and operated by the same parent MNE in the host-country. This learnt knowledge in turn should result in higher sales growth for the unlisted subsidiary. We add that the learning should be higher if the listed and the unlisted subsidiary operate in the same industry and are proximally located to each other. We will test these hypotheses on a sample on MNE subsidiaries operating in India in the period of 2000-2013.

Micro, small and medium enterprise (MSME) sector is the backbone of the Indian economy and technical efficiency is a key indicator of firm performance. However, understanding the determinants of technical efficiency in these enterprises is essential for ensuring their sustainable growth. This study explores the complex dynamics of technical efficiency and offers insights for policymakers seeking to enhance the performance of MSMEs operating in the Indian manufacturing sector. Technical efficiency is measured using data envelopment analysis (DEA) and firm-specific characteristics are analyzed to investigate the determinants of technical efficiency. The results reveal compelling evidence of age, size, market concentration, debt capital, vertical integration, R&D, export and import orientation significantly affecting a firm's technical efficiency. Ownership structure and geographical location of the firm reveal interesting patterns as well. Moreover, technology classification shows that high technology firms exhibit lower level of technical efficiency in comparison to low technology firms.

ABSTRACT
Taking a case of firms operating in the Indian software industry, this paper examines the role of technological capability and cluster location on the firm’s cross-border acquisitions (CBAs) behavior. The results obtained using secondary data analysis of 1555 firms, for a period from 2008 to 2018, reveal that a firm’s technological capability in the form of certifications leads to increasing CBAs up to a point, after which they decline. Firms located in clusters show opposite behavior with reduced certification and CBAs initially, which begin increasing in later years. Our results present new theoretical insights and implications for managers attempting to undertake CBAs in the technology intensive sector.

This paper investigates the effect of multiple principal problem (MPP) on internationalization strategies of Emerging Market Firms (EMFs). EMFs, often resort to import of critical components from offshore markets to overcome inherent shortcomings in producing or procuring them from within or that of the home market. Such imports to boost export performances, lie at the core of their internationalization strategy. However, these strategic import-based performances receive dissimilar favor from different types of owners/investors. Specifically, we highlight the dichotomy between foreign versus domestic owners, and active versus passive investors. Empirically modelling a panel dataset of 872 Indian firms, from 1988 to 2019, we find that active domestic investors promote strategic imports-based internationalization to boost the firm’s export centric competitive advantages. But other investors oppose this medium of internationalization due to their specific interests thus triggering MPP for EMFs. MPP complements agency perspective and calls for further investigation into specific governance mechanisms.

This study develops theoretical explanations for the curvilinear relationships between digitalization and emerging economy enterprises (EEEs)’ export propensity. We analyze data from 73 emerging economies, totaling 30,518 observations from 2006 to 2020, based on the World Bank Enterprise Survey (WBES) database. Our perspective originates from a dynamic, intertwined viewpoint. Furthermore, we also consider the moderating role of home country corruption in this curvilinear relationship. Our findings reinforce the inverted U-shaped relationship between digitalization and export propensity. Additionally, we find that corruption steepens this curvilinear relationship.

This paper investigates the resources and capabilities that determine firm-level adjustments after a sudden unexpected closure of a major export market. We focus on the effects of the 2014 Russian embargo on Western food exporters using the example of Estonian firms. The paper applies a novel multimethod approach consisting of Study I quantifying the embargo effect on the exports of all embargoed firms, and Study II conducting a multiple case study into three dairy exporters highly affected by the embargo. Study I employs a difference-in-difference model with matched embargoed firms as treatment. Study II builds on extensive document analysis that serves as input for interviews with the CEOs of the sample dairy firms. We find that pre-shock productivity is on average a good predictor of post-shock firm resilience (Study I), however, we specify that the key firm-level resources and capabilities necessary for successful post-shock adjustments might not be reflected in the standard quantitative productivity level measures (Study II). We conclude that key firm-level resources and capabilities for embargo-resilience are the quality of exporting experience, competitive product-market matching, absorptive capacity, and managerial vision and empowerment.

This study delves into the intricate dynamics of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) internationalisation within an emerging economy, focusing on the pivotal roles played by innovation and certification in overcoming corruption barriers. Leveraging data from the World Bank's Enterprise Survey (WBES, 2023) and drawing from a rich literature base, the research centres on India, utilising survey responses from CEOs conducted in 2022.

Employing the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) estimation technique, the study scrutinises the relationship between corruption and SME internationalisation, considering the moderating influence of innovation and certification. Results reveal that the positive relationship between corruption and internationalisation weakens significantly in the context of internationally certified SMEs with innovative practices. Firms armed with certification and innovation exhibit a diminished reliance on corrupt practices to facilitate their internationalisation endeavours.

These findings carry important implications for policymakers seeking to foster ethical and sustainable SME internationalisation strategies. By highlighting the mitigating effects of certification and innovation on corruption barriers, the study provides actionable insights for shaping policies that promote responsible business conduct and facilitate SME growth in emerging economies.

We evaluate the efficacy of "the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Recommendations 2012", which set the global standard on combating money laundering and terrorist financing. We exploit the staggered adoption of the FATF recommendations in 16 East and South African countries. Using trade gap, a trade-based illicit financial flows measure as a proxy for money laundering activity, we find that countries adopting the FATF recommendations reduce money laundering activity by 15.3%. The adoption of the FATF recommendations do not affect international trade and exchange rate volatility. Our findings contribute to a lively policy debate surrounding the efficacy of anti-money laundering regulations.

This paper aims to identify the determinants and impact of foreign-invested firms’ (FIFs) choice of bribery in corrupt contexts. An analytical framework is built based on an interaction of institutional and resource-based constructs, and tested using firm-level data from 2210 FIFs operating in Africa. Controlling for FIFs’ self-selection to bribe, our findings, based on the Tobit, OLS and IV regression results, indicate that the heterogeneity of FIF resources and perceived corrupt pressures lead to differing bribery strategies in response to host country corruption, and these two variables then interactively moderate the impact of bribery on FIF performance. We find that FIFs’ perceived level of host country corruption produces a positive effect on their choice of bribery. But FIFs’ home-country anti-corruption levels, and their holding of internationally recognized quality certification (IQC) reduce FIFs’ willingness to pay bribes. A more interesting finding is that, after controlling for FIFs’ perceived pressures of corruption in host countries, FIFs’ home-country anti-corruption levels and FIFs’ holding of IQC negatively moderate bribery’s effectiveness on performance.

Corruption is a global phenomenon which has been part of doing business for centuries and will probably continue so. This paper deals with the constructs and links high corruption levels to cultural behavior. The cultural dimensions of the GLOBE study and the wealth measure of GDP/capita are aligned with the Corruption Perception Index of a selection of developed, emerging and developing countries with high and low corruption. The country cases are identified to highlight the proneness to corruption in Venn Diagrams. We use the fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) approach as an appropriate tool to allow for a configurational analysis of cultural dimensions leading to corruption. Our findings show that hierarchy, group behavior, performance- and future-orientation are necessary and sufficient conditions for corruption and will have an impact on behavior in Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) and other cross-border activities. Corruption is both a reflection of individualistic self-interested behavior, but also a sign of collectivist in-group behavior.

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) are often assumed to be engaged in a ‘quest for legitimacy’ – where substantial and far-reaching efforts are made to establish and protect this ‘hard won’ and ‘easily lost’ resource. However, variance in - and breaches of - corporate social responsibility (CSR) expectations across international markets indicate that even those MNEs deemed most ‘socially responsible’ may not always ‘prize’ and ‘protect’ legitimacy according to the ways in which theory suggests. In order to deepen our understanding, this paper draws on theories of legitimation to explore the entry mode choices of multinational firms into markets with varying CSR distance. We theorize that firm motivations to ‘protect’ versus ‘build’ legitimacy reflect two distinct legitimation processes, with significant consequences for the entry modes choices implemented by the MNE. Building on these insights, we unpack how increased/decreased levels of corporate social performance (CSP) shape firm legitimation and FDI behaviors in ways not widely reflected in the extant international management literature. Utilizing a comprehensive sample of 44,720 FDI events between 2013-2019, this paper contributes to advancing theory on the quest for legitimacy in international business and management.

The paper investigates the internationalization pathways of luxury SMEs in terms of timing, scale, and scope. The paper adopts a multiple case study approach and reports findings from four cases of Italian SMEs operating in the luxury fashion industry. Luxury SMEs show precocity in their internationalization and view the global market as a primary target since the beginning; they consistently uphold a global image and possess global genetics over time through specific scope and scale of internationalization; their internationalization is driven by the necessity to avoid the costs associated with not being recognized as a global player in the market. The paper expands the knowledge on the internationalization of luxury companies, whose globality is usually taken for granted. The simultaneous presence in several global markets legitimizes the luxury character of the brand and strengthens the recognition of its excellence.

The paper aims to explore the connections between immigrant-led enterprises’ network patterns and their entrepreneurial marketing capabilities, including marketing innovativeness and opportunity focus. A CATI survey has been conducted among 85 Georgian entrepreneurs operating in Poland's food and beverage production, catering/restaurant services, and retail services.

To assess the differences in the network patterns and the differences in entrepreneurial marketing capabilities of the studied firms, we applied the Hartigan-Wong K-mean clustering algorithm, and we extracted three clusters from the sample based on the gap statistic criterion. The analysis evidenced that immigrant entrepreneurs with the most significant bridging network in the host country show higher marketing innovativeness than the remaining firms. The opportunity identification by immigrant entrepreneurs is stimulated both by their bonding as well as by their bridging network. A surprising finding was that all respondents perceived competitors as significant in their marketing success abroad.

This systematic-narrative hybrid literature review article aims to summarize the literature (journal articles and book chapters) on Central and Eastern European (CEE) firms’ outward internationalization failures: definitions and understandings of “failure”, “failed” firms’ internationalization processes, causes of “failed” initial and subsequent foreign activities, and consequences of “failed” internationalization. It demonstrates that different objective and subjective measures were used for defining and measuring “failure”. Consensus regarding which firms (from slow internationalizers to born globals) can be considered “failed” is lacking. In different studies, internal and external causes of CEE firms’ outward internationalization “failure”, and internationalization-related and other consequences of “failed” internationalization also vary considerably. Due to the complexity of the “failure” phenomenon, it is impossible to identify the most characteristic type of “failed” internationalization or offer “optimal” advice for avoiding them.

The complex interplay between human rights, corporate behavior, and international political dynamics raises questions on how human rights matter for firms, challenging extant theories in international business and political science. However, to date, there has been a lack of attention on how corporate human rights policies influence MNE exit from countries whose governments are involved in human rights violations. This paper aims to fill this gap by explaining how the evolution of international human rights norms and subsequently corporate human rights policies shape multinational responses to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. According to our argument, (i) there is a convergence of corporate human rights policies across firms over time, and (ii) firms with more stringent corporate human rights policies are more likely to withdraw from Russia. Our empirical tests support these arguments. As the first empirical analysis of corporate human rights policies, our research makes significant contributions to international business and political science.

We study how the interplay between formal institutions and national culture influences inventors in developing artificial intelligence (AI) innovation. We argue and find that, following the GDPR’s introduction, GDPR-affected countries exhibit lower AI innovation rates than unaffected countries. Further, we postulate that this negative effect is weaker in GDPR-affected countries marked by higher levels of individualism, masculinity, and indulgence, but stronger in the affected countries with higher levels of uncertainty avoidance, power distance, and long-term orientation. Employing the national cultural measures of Hofstede and GLOBE, these contingency logics are broadly supported. Surprisingly, however, our results indicate that the negative effect is stronger in countries with higher levels of masculinity. The main contribution of our study is introducing privacy law and its contingencies derived from national culture as drivers of AI innovation.

In our investigation of multinational enterprises (MNEs) and their internationalization strategies, we extend the behavioral theory of the firm (BTOF) to unravel the triggers and underlying factors influencing the decision to divest previous foreign direct investments (FDIs). Specifically, we focus on the impact of changes in host political risks on the likelihood of foreign divestment. Emphasizing the significance of prior divestment experiences within the framework of the BTOF, we assert that such experiences play a pivotal role in predicting divestment probabilities. Additionally, we propose that MNEs, when navigating changes, are inclined to mirror the reactions of their peers in exploring alternative responses. Examining data from 3065 foreign subsidiaries of 340 Finnish MNEs across 78 host countries during the period from 1970 to 2021, our study substantiates that changes in host political risks heighten the probability of foreign divestment, with divestment experience and peers' reactions intensifying this effect. These findings not only contribute to the enrichment of the BTOF but also significantly advance the foreign divestment literature.

Despite being resource-constrained, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are active in internationalization. This study aims at exploring how SMEs foster strategic agility and enhance export performance while facing unprecedented disruptions and challenges in the global business environment. By the synthesis of the network theory and entrepreneurship literature, this study proposes network capability and entrepreneurial leadership as critical determinants of SMEs’ strategic agility in response to environmental dynamism, which further influence the export performance outcomes. Drawing on a sample of 465 Taiwanese SMEs, our findings indicate that the increased strategic agility and export performance are derived from a SME’s effort in enlarging its network in export communities and exhibiting its entrepreneurial leadership, as well as confronting environmental uncertainties. This study thereby enriches the extant knowledge on SMEs’ internationalization in the turbulent times. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed to make contributions in the international business research.

This study employs fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to explore configurations leading to distinct financial and non-financial export performance outcomes among Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in New Zealand. Examining five key factors – speed of international entry, post-entry speed of market diversification (PSM), post-entry speed of product diversification (PSP), psychic distance (PD), and local competitive intensity – the research reveals complex causal pathways contributing to SMEs' success in international markets. We found evidence that these factors do not function in isolation, but rather interact in a dynamic and complex manner, shaping the internationalization journey and performance results of SMEs. We identified seven equifinal configurations linked to high financial performance and four to high non-financial performance. These results indicate that success in internationalization is multifaceted and complex; there is no singular, optimal path to achieving desired export performance through rapid internationalization. Instead, companies can achieve superior results through diverse, strategically distinct approaches, depending on specific conditions. The study exemplifies how different dimensions of speed of internationalization, intertwined with contextual factors of home and host countries, shape SME export performance, offering a nuanced perspective on strategic decision-making in international business.

This paper examines the factors, process internationalization of Swiss medical device small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Prior to the main data collection, a pilot study with a group of five independent experts from the Swiss medical device sector was undertaken and thereafter mixed methods study was adopted to gather quantitative data from ninety-two (92) respondents who held senior managerial positions in the Swiss medical device sector. Subsequently 11 participants from the sector were interviewed to provide a more in-depth explanation of the internationalization processes in the sector. Our findings shows that the lack of resources and market knowledge significantly influenced how, why, and where Swiss SMEs in the medical device sector internationalized. Psychological proximity to foreign countries was the most important factor driving internationalization. Most SMEs took a process-oriented approach in their internationalization efforts and relied on exports with distribution partners in neighboring German-speaking countries. Other motivators were the home market's limited dimensions, the necessity to grow into other markets and clientele, and investment in possible international partnerships. SMEs also faced numerous economic and social obstacles, including regulatory hurdles and language barriers in the targeted country.

This paper analyzes the effect of managers’ overconfidence on the initial foreign location choice of SMEs. Despite previous literature on the Internationalization Process (IP) model, our understanding of the sources of deviations from the proposed incremental internationalization approach remains limited because prior research overlooked the role of the manager in such decisions. We propose a cognitive mechanism incorporating the perception of the benefit-loss quota as a mediator between managers’ overconfidence and their preference in the initial foreign location choice. We empirically test this relationship with an incentivized vignette study conducted with 116 managers of Austrian manufacturing SMEs. Our findings suggest that differences in managers’ cognition lead to variations in initial foreign location choices and therefore explain differences between SMEs' internationalization endeavors. This study enriches the discussion surrounding the IP model by offering a theoretical rationale for non-incremental initial foreign location choices and highlights the influential role of managers’ cognitive biases.

Our understanding about the unique dynamics of entrepreneurial ecosystem in the developing world remains limited. We argue that the entrepreneurial ecosystem model from the western world fails to capture the intricacies in the developing world contexts. In addition, the literature on entrepreneurial ecosystem treats entrepreneurs as homogenous, not accounting for different types and orientations of entrepreneurs such as returnee entrepreneurs. Given that returnee entrepreneurs contribute to economic growth in developing countries through creating businesses, it is important that future research develops an understanding of how they engage with the entrepreneurial ecosystem where they conduct their business. Thus, this study aims to develop an understanding of how an entrepreneurial ecosystem influences returnee entrepreneurs' entrepreneurial endeavour. To achieve this goal, the study examines the
interactions between returnee entrepreneurs and the entrepreneurial ecosystem elements in their country of origin (COO). It adopts a qualitative research approach involving in-depth interviews, observations and artefacts. The findings of this study will offer insights for institutions and policymakers in the formation of programmes and policies for entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial ecosystem development of developing countries.

Property rights capture the right to control strategic assets and associated rights to income generated or loses incurred from ownership. Existing research maintains that property rights within MNEs can be transferred within the firm - including to specific units or subsidiaries within the MNE network. As distinguished from mandate specific rights which are typically asset-exploitative in nature, property rights reflect strategic assets with the scope to generate new revenue and significantly drive local efforts at long-term growth and innovation. Where valuable MNE intellectual property is concerned, it is unsurprising that few subsidiaries are entrusted with the allocation of property rights.

While previous research has examined how ownership rights may serve as a mechanism for tax avoidance or for the further development of technological innovation, the motivations to assign such rights to subsidiaries may be more varied and complex. Further, less is known about how the specific actions of subsidiaries can influence the allocation of ownership rights within MNEs. Critically, there remains a gap in our knowledge in understanding the mechanisms that may facilitate a subsidiary’s evolution from mandate specific rights to ownership rights.

Drawing upon theory on subsidiary evolution, autonomy and legitimacy we examine dynamism in the allocation of ownership rights using a longitudinal multiple case study approach across three subsidiaries of a Swedish MNE. Our findings reveal how resource-based, relational and legitimacy mechanisms can play a pivotal role in facilitating this transition towards management of ownership rights at the subsidiary level. Additionally, our study provides new insights into subsidiaries with multiple responsibilities and on the critical processes of leveraging both internal and external relationships to develop greater legitimacy between the corporate parent and the subsidiary.

The number of students reporting disabilities in UK universities is rising. Consequentially, appropriate disability management is an increasingly important consideration for higher education institutes. This form of management is often ‘responsibilized’, where responsibilization refers to a neoliberal governance technique rendering the individual as a self-autonomous subject, responsible for putting policy into practice. The aim of this paper is to reflect upon the responsibilized nature of disability management, to open the discussion on where this might be failing both students and staff members. Adopting an autoethnographic approach to present a reflexive discussion, this paper provides an ‘insider’ insight into some of the problems evident with current processes. From this reflection, two significant paradoxes are problematised.

This paper explored medical students perceived the use of an academic planner designed for use on clinical placements. Revision and exam preparation lie at the heart of entrepreneurship in medical education, leaving a gap in the market for potential enterprises to focus on supporting the learning experience of medical students. Self-determining theory suggests that a sense of control, self-efficacy and belonging are important factors in students’ learning experiences.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 25 undergraduate medical students. Results showed that students enjoyed using free space in the academic planner to note personal and educational information. Educational content within the academic planner helped students prepare for clinical skills performed on placement. Students requested a clear contents page for ease of navigation and gave mixed responses about the dual nature of the prototype. Results revealed a preference for medical students purchasing products from in store retailers. Students also expressed a willingness to pay up to £15.00.

It was concluded that users of the academic planner reported improved time management skills and preparedness for placement learning. This study proposed that entrepreneurs and medical educators could provide educational resources that enrich learning experiences without the mention of assessments in medical students.

The debate on decolonising education has recently been receiving increasing attention in UK newspapers, with more conservative commentators referring to ‘secret cows’ and fearing a culture war, and progressive contributions siding with student union-led calls for decolonisation of the academy. As higher education institutions in the UK and elsewhere continue to push for the internationalisation of their study programmes, this paper discusses how the decolonisation discourse can inspire the revision process the “International Business Strategy” (IBS) course unit on the University of Manchester’s Global MBA program. The paper is organised as follows: The paper first introduces relevant concept and categorises existing recommendations to decolonise university curricula. These categories are then used to discusses selected elements of the existing IBS curriculum. The last part outlines actionable recommendations and discusses potential implementation challenges.

Geopolitics has been a crucial driver of globalization and growth throughout history, a fact that has often been overlooked by international business scholars who have traditionally viewed globalization as an open opportunity for all capable firms and supportive governments. However, historical patterns show that modern globalization has thrived under unequal power regimes, with the dominance of Britain and later the United States, which facilitated global economic integration through initiatives like the Marshall Plan and support for countries like South Korea to counterbalance influences from Russia and China. This historical context highlights that opportunities for globalization and growth have been unevenly distributed, often favoring geopolitical allies of dominant powers. Recent empirical studies suggest that sustained growth is less about liberal trade policies and more about how states align their policies with the interests of multinational enterprises (MNEs), with the domestic political economy being significantly shaped by geopolitics. The paper discusses the implications of these dynamics for developing countries choosing geopolitical alliances, the impact of techno-nationalism, and the challenges posed by China's rise as a new global power. This backdrop sets the stage for a panel discussion among leading scholars to explore the evolving relationship between geopolitics and international business.

An excellent opportunity to meet the editors of the leading IB journals.

1. Journal of International Business Studies
2. Journal of International Business Policy
3. International Business Review
4. Journal of World Business
5. International Marketing Review
6. Journal of Industrial and Business Economics
7. Critical Perspectives on International Business
8. Data in Brief

This paper explores the interaction between labour market regulations, openness to immigration and FDI attraction. Using investment level data we explore the location decisions of some eight thousand investments, allowing for both firm and country level factors. We demonstrate that firms investing in rich countries are attracted by comparatively more flexible labour market regulations, and openness to immigration. Moreover, we illustrate that there is a distinction between the quantity and the quality of FDI, with there being an inverse relationship between the productivity of the FDI that locations attract, and the extent of labour market flexibility.

Refugees represent promising talent sources, yet due to the complex challenges they face—including language barriers, vocational training needs, discrimination, and mental health issues—employers need to provide specific forms of support for successful workplace integration. Research on effective support is limited. This article delves into specific support mechanisms for refugee employees by exploring both the employees' and employers’ perspectives on and evaluations of such support. Utilizing a multiperspective approach, this study reflects 53 semi-structured interviews conducted with refugee employees, supervisors, and colleagues in 25 distinct support relationships. The triangulation of their diverse viewpoints yields a comprehensive perspective on complex support dynamics in workplaces that suggests a support typology, which in turn provides a basis for three propositions. These propositions illuminate how various forms of workplace support can enhance or undermine refugees' agency and psychological well-being. This research contributes to the empowerment of refugee employees while highlighting potential pitfalls in support strategies that could disempower them. Building on these insights, a series of practitioner workshops were conducted, offering valuable guidance to participants in designing support strategies.

Is the implementation of environmental regulations harmful to the international competitiveness of domestic producers? Or does it present an opportunity to boost their global green competitiveness? These two crucial questions have been inadequately addressed at the firm level, particularly in developing economies. This study aims to address this limitation in the literature by investigating the impact of China’s CO₂ emission trading scheme (ETS) on firms’ exports of all goods in general and environmental goods in particular. Moreover, this study is innovative in combining the views of environmental economics and international economics literature, exploring how the impact of ETS varies across firms depending on a variety of factors, such as firms' past export experiences and size, polluting levels of industries, and exporting destinations. Using a time-varying DID technique combined with the PSM approach, our findings suggest that China's ETS enhanced firms’ global competitiveness by significantly increasing their exports of environmental goods rather than all goods. However, our research reveals that this promoting impact exhibits significant heterogeneity, with a more pronounced impact on firms in less polluting industries or those exporting to high-income destinations. Therefore, policymakers may need to consider such heterogeneities and promote green competitiveness across a wider range of firms.

Transparency has been heralded as a solution to economic policies, security issues, and human rights. Combining elements from institutional and signaling theories, we develop a theoretical framework which suggests that institutional changes regarding pollution transparency incentivize firms in emerging markets to go beyond first-order responses to this problem (i.e., green washing, reduce pollution temporary, or mask it via outsourcing) and take a more proactive stance by developing eco-innovations, i.e., new technologies targeting energy saving, emissions reduction, or other long-term environmental benefits. Moreover, we posit that the effects of these institutional changes will be more pronounced for internationally oriented firms (i.e., foreign-owned and exporting firms) given the learning and exploitation benefits associated with these activities. We test these hypotheses using a quasi-experimental design that takes advantage of a change in pollution transparency regulations in China in 2008 across 113 cities. Employing a large sample of Chinese manufacturing firms during the period of 2002-2013 across 338 cities we find support for our conjectures: pollution transparency increases both the incidence and intensity of firms’ eco-innovations in transparent jurisdictions, and that these effects are more pronounced for internationally oriented firms. These findings provide some concrete policy avenues for reduction of pollution.

We explore the extent of due diligence in international alliances in the context of both magnitude and direction of institutional distance. Focusing on information asymmetries owing to institutional differences, we suggest that as institutional distance increases, so does the need for more extensive due diligence. We demonstrate that firms from stronger and weaker institutions address information asymmetries by undertaking a greater extent of due diligence, the former for the instrumental reason of information gathering and the latter as a signalling mechanism. We find support for our hypotheses from unique data collected over 15 years. Our findings highlight the value of investigating due diligence for cross-border alliances and of using theories from information economics in the international business (IB) field.

The nature of the firm-specific advantages (FSAs) of emerging economy multinationals (EMNEs) has sparked a vivid debate. However, it is unclear whether EMNEs can benefit from both traditional FSAs- based on technology, marketing, and branding -and non-traditional FSAs- based on their ability to operate in institutional voids- and whether these non-traditional FSAs are sustainable. We develop a theoretical framework that explores the interplay between FSAs based on the EMNEs’ ability to adapt to new challenges, which is also known as adaptability, and traditional FSAs. We argue that traditional FSAs strengthen the impact of the EMNEs’ non-traditional FSAs on outward foreign direct investment (OFDI). We also propose that home country institutions enhance the role of traditional FSAs but lower the effect of the EMNEs’ non-traditional FSAs on OFDI. Our analysis of a panel dataset of 38 countries and 25 years supports our hypotheses regarding the role of FSAs in enhancing OFDI and the negative moderation effect of institutions on the relationship between EMNEs’ adaptability and OFDI. However, contrary to our expectations, we find that traditional FSAs weaken the importance of non-traditional FSAs as determinants of OFDI, thus further suggesting that these non-traditional FSAs are transitory. We propose implications for theory, managers, and policymakers.

In this paper, we use the Varieties of Institutional Systems framework and comparative institutional perspective to compare and contrast the home country institutional factors in two emerging countries: Brazil and China. Our focus is on exploring how these home country institutions would impact outward foreign direct investment and cross-border mergers and acquisitions. In particular, we emphasize two distinct firm ownership characteristics: state ownership and business group affiliation. Our results show some interesting findings between firm ownership characteristics and deal characteristics such as deal structure, location choices, method of payment, and industrial diversification.

Previous research maintains that successful strategic decision-making requires perceptual accuracy regarding the firm’s environment. Nevertheless, scholars have reported errors and biases in managers’ perceptions of their firms’ internal and external environment. In international business research, it is found that managerial misperceptions of differences in foreign countries can lead to adverse performance outcomes. In this study, we aim to extend our knowledge of the effect of managers’ misperceptions of country differences on foreign location choice. More specifically, we examine the impact of managers’ under/ and overestimating formal and informal institutional distance between the home and host country on appraising a foreign location's attractiveness for the firm’s future investment. This study also examines the role of managers’ cognitive traits as the underlying reason behind managerial misperceptions that inevitably affect managerial decisions. Drawing data from a vignette experiment on 208 international managers originating in China, our ordinary least squares regression analysis sheds light on the subtle nuances of managerial decision-making. This research enriches our understanding of how and why managerial misperceptions of institutional distance influence foreign market attractiveness and underscores the significance of cognitive traits in rectifying such misperceptions.

The primary aim of this research is to investigate the effect of powers (expert, informational and referent) and values (social presence, physical mobility and emotional) as antecedents on engagement towards metaverse influencers in two countries, India and the USA. The study also investigates the mediation effect of parasocial interactions. An online questionnaire was used for data collection, which obtained a sample size of 237 Indian metaverse users and 225 American metaverse users. The results of direct effects in the Indian context reveal that social presence, physical mobility, and emotional value significantly impact engagement towards metaverse influencers. Further, in the American context, the results revealed that informational power, referent power and physical mobility value significantly influence engagement towards metaverse influencers. Parasocial interaction was found to be a significant mediator. This research enriches the literature on metaverse influencer marketing. Moreover, this study enriches the literature pertaining to social power theory and the theory of consumption values. This study also informs brands and marketers about the most significant powers and values that enhance customer engagement.

Abstract

This paper empirically investigates the international marketing communication strategies of UK digital SMEs through the lens of the signalling theory. The study seeks to address five key research questions how international marketing strategy of digital UK SMEs manifest itself through the lens of signalling theory. The study uses longitudinal qualitative case studies to address the research questions. Our findings demonstrate that while signallers’ quality in terms of country reputation play an important role in communication strategies of these SMEs; organisational reputation and digital strategy are the most important signaller qualities and industry and region reputation have little or no impact. In terms of signals, customer orientation and innovation are perceived as strong signals, while leadership appeal, e-service quality and good employer are comparatively less effective signals. Finally, although customer e-loyalty is less utilised, formal, and informal feedback mechanisms maintain information asymmetry between signaller and receiver.

Previous studies have highlighted the role of entrepreneurial orientation in enhancing emerging market firms’ knowledge and capabilities, and in facilitating internationalization via foreign direct investment (FDI). However, there has been limited research on the boundary conditions that hinder the internationalization prospects resulting from entrepreneurial orientation (EO). In our paper, we first suggest that EO positively influences both the likelihood and extent of outward FDI of Indian firms. Furthermore and importantly, we argue that this effect is negatively moderated by institutional fragility – defined as the inconsistency of institutional progress across various dimensions of pro-market liberalization reform, and at different rates of progress. Our empirical analysis to test our hypotheses is based on a sample of 2,854 firm-year observations of 274 Indian firms. Overall, we contribute to the factors determining the internationalization of firms from emerging economies, by combining knowledge-based and institution-based perspectives.

There is a need for extensive research relating to the lifecycle of products and their correlating effects on climate change issues. Based on a case study involving financial, insurance, and technology companies in Colombia, we investigate how firms combat climate change and its interconnected challenges. To manage this, we provide context for MNEs, current climate change initiatives, supply chain management concerning MNEs, and the product life cycle. Our study contributes interconnected and paralleled discussions involving the implications of FDI, sustainability factors in the supply chains, firms’ responsibility and supply chain collaboration, and future considerations.

Hidden champions are highly successful companies operating in niche market segments, playing a key role in global supply chains. Recently, the Chinese government has launched a national strategy for supporting hidden champions, to strengthen their innovativeness and financial performance: nonetheless, it is still unclear what is driving their networking strategies. In this study, we investigate Chinese hidden champions’ mergers, acquisitions, and strategic alliances, to understand if they are influenced by specific geographical, institutional, and industry-related drivers. By using secondary data from Orbis M&A and the list of hidden champions published by the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, we focus on the mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures established between 2013 and 2023 in China. Social Network Analysis (SNA) is then used to assess how business deals are impacted by geographical, institutional, and industry-related drivers. Overall, they tend to establish large deals with companies in the same province, belonging to the same industry, and potentially close to a Special Economic Zone; however, when it comes to create connections with other hidden champions the first two drivers have a negative impact on the deal value.

Outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) has been recognised as a driving force of learning and innovation for emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs). Recently, the emergence of global value chains (GVCs) has shifted focus from final goods to intermediate tasks, potentially reshaping OFDI patterns and outcomes. However, little has been written about the role of GVCs in the OFDI-innovation nexus. Based on upgrading and governance perspectives, the paper investigates questions whether innovation outcome varies with the GVC types of OFDI projects and whether governance relations within GVCs affect OFDI-to-innovation mechanisms, both theoretically and empirically. Results based on data from over 4000 listed Chinese firms containing 314 MNEs show that high-value-added OFDI leads to a greater increase in innovation, compared with low-value-added OFDI. When Chinese MNEs have foreign capital, the positive effect of high-value-added OFDI is amplified but low-value-added OFDI may even hinder innovation. The negative impact, however, vanishes if foreign firms do not hold Chinese MNEs’ capital directly. These findings encourage EMNEs to leverage high-value-added OFDI projects to enhance innovation, but they should exercise caution regarding direct participation of foreign capital when undertaking low-value-added projects, as EMNEs may be governed to cater to foreign investors’ interests and stuck in innovation bottlenecks.

How do recurrent cross-border acquisitions (CBAs) by emerging market MNEs (EMNEs) enable capability upgrading? Despite significant growth in the extant literature on EMNE internationalization via CBAs, we possess no clear answer to this fundamental question. Drawing on the springboard perspective and the literature on the temporal perspective of organizational strategy we find that CBAs positively affect EMNEs’ technological capability. However, this relationship is non-linear and is contingent upon the speed and regularity of acquisitions. Backed by these findings, our study not only tests and extends the central thesis of the springboard perspective but also provides important implications for managerial action.

How are African Multinational Banks (AMBs) strategically approaching the challenge of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? And what is the role of legitimacy and internationalization performance in achieving this objective? We build a model to test the moderating role of legitimization and internationalization performance in adopting SDGs for a set of Moroccan Banks expanding into the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU). Data collected from banks’ published reports crossed with coded data from interviews and survey questionnaires point to the importance of legitimation but do not support typical strategies as significant along the banking expansion process.

Multinational corporations (MNCs) are navigating unprecedented challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical conflicts in the current era of re-globalization. Amid these external shocks, some MNCs ensure their resilient survival and growth in the host country markets. This research adopts a multi-case study approach, examining nine cases from three Chinese engineering MNCs, to explore the resilience during the internationalization transition of MNCs within the re-globalization context. The study identifies three distinct internationalization transition patterns linked to resilience: "bounce back", "bounce aside", and "bounce forward". These patterns emerge from MNCs' diverse capability bundles, specifically categorized by robustness and adaptability.

The COVID-19 health crisis had a significant impact on companies across the world, making significant changes to their operations and performance especially during the years 2020 and 2021, when national institutions were introducing drastic changes to contain the spread of the pandemic. With scarce resources and experiential knowledge, the survival of born global firms during this time depended on their ability to rapidly adapt to these changes. This paper studies the case of born global firms in India to understand how they utilized their formal and informal network ties to be agile and survive the crisis. Using primary data collected through a survey, the results demonstrate the importance of network learning capabilities that these firms must possess in order to remain agile.

This paper examines how advanced economy diaspora networks support the internationalisation of a UK healthcare consulting SME in developing countries. Adopting critical realist ontology, this embedded single-case study combined interviews, archival data and observations. Analysis revealed the heterogeneous and evolving nature of SME-diaspora ties across informal, formal and intermediary dimensions, motivated by the firm’s need to rapidly gain foreign market knowledge and legitimacy. Findings demonstrate diaspora networks mitigated unfamiliarity challenges through market expertise, culturally attuned insights, guidance on healthcare ecosystems, interpretation of regulations and norms, contribution to socially attuned innovations, and validation of the SME's genuine intentions to boost credibility as an unknown entity. Furthermore, SME-diaspora interactions strengthened diversity and inclusion within the UK NHS, boosted healthcare access and brain gain in developing countries, producing reciprocal benefits for the firm’s competitiveness and sustainability.

The present study addresses a lacuna in research on the effects of work stressors among subsidiary top management teams in headquarters–subsidiary relationships. Drawing on the job demands–resources (JD–R) theory, it investigates the mediating role of work engagement in the associations between challenge-hindrance stressors and subsidiary performance (i.e., operating revenue and local responsiveness). It also examines how slack resources moderate the relationships between these stressors and work engagement. Surveying 222 Chinese subsidiaries, the results confirm that work engagement mediates positively for challenge stressors and negatively for hindrance stressors on subsidiary performance. Furthermore, slack resources enhance the relationship between challenge stressors and work engagement. The study’s implications for theoretical development and managerial practice are also discussed.

This study enriches the discourse surrounding the location choice decisions made by internationalizing firms by redirecting attention from consolidated firm-level factors to the microfoundations that underpin these decisions. This research conceptually elucidates firms' internationalization process and explores the macro-micro determinants of internationalizing firms' location choice decisions. While conventional theories advocate for an incremental internationalization path commencing in proximal markets and advancing gradually to distant ones, recent studies posit that strategic considerations may drive firms to engage distant markets directly. Employing the microfoundations perspective, this study scrutinizes location choice decisions at the decision-makers' level. This investigation contends that a comprehensive understanding of firms' internationalization location decisions necessitates examining decision-makers' dynamic capabilities, subject to contextual influences. The microfoundations perspective, grounded in institutional theory, provides insights into the interplay between macro-level institutional factors and micro-level managerial capabilities. Recognizing the varied impact of national contexts on decision-makers, the paper employs the Coleman bathtub framework to propose a mechanism governing internationalization location choice decisions. The proposition posits that decision-makers' dynamic capabilities, shaped by their environmental context and the attractiveness of the host location, exert influence on location choice decisions of decision maker’s, thereby delineating the path of internationalization for Multinational Enterprise (MNEs).

We build upon the international business and the international trade finance literatures to examine the direct effects of corporate policy of trade finance, and product, marketing, and organizational innovation on the export intensity of foreign subsidiaries of multinational enterprises (MNEs), defined as a share of exports over total sales. We analyse the moderating effect of export knowledge on the relationship between corporate policy of trade finance and export intensity. We hypothesize that foreign subsidiaries utilise corporate policy of trade finance, defined as a set of payment contracts (cash in advance, letter of credit, and open account) that facilitates trade and protects importers and exporters from trade-related risks, together with innovation and export knowledge, to drive their export intensity. We empirically test our hypotheses using a survey dataset with MNE foreign subsidiaries in manufacturing and service sectors operating in Southeast Asia, supplemented with parent-level archival data, and country-level data from public sources. We find that corporate policy of trade finance and innovation are positively associated with export intensity. Export knowledge strengthens the relationship between corporate policy of trade of finance and export intensity. We discuss the contribution of study for the subsidiary exporting literature and the strategic implications of our findings for practice.

Adjusting a company upstream value chain activities to embrace digitalization can drive significant improvements in the company’s performance and competitive advantages. The empirical evidence on the role and correlation of the digitalization and geographical distribution of both the upstream and downstream activities on a company’s international performance is limited, however.

The findings of this study obtained via quantitative methods on a sample of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) originating from Romania indicate that for internationalizing SMEs can better take advantage of digitalization, if they enable the activities of both parts of the value chain to use Internet technologies.

The present study contributes to the literature on international entrepreneurship and SME internationalization by extending the discussion on the implications of coordinating internationally digitalized value chain activities on international performance with a particular focus on born-digital companies.

This research has implications especially for low-digital companies that need to rethink operations considering adding two important correlated dimensions, digital technologies and foreign market selection, to their upstream and downstream value chain activities trying to ensure their international performance.

International new ventures (INVs)/Born Globals are firms that unlike traditional multinationals, start their international ventures soon after establishment. While the founder(s) competencies act as critical drivers for these organizations, there are several agencies that complements the efforts put by the entrepreneur in initiating the internationalization process of firms. We develop a conceptual model that discuss the various drivers of internationalization of INVs and also about the post-internationalization phase of these enterprises. We complement the model by including the use of various cross-disciplinary theories explaining the dynamics of the internationalization process of INVs holistically. Contributions of the study are discussed along with certain directions for future research.

Economic Grand Challenges refers to "complex problems with significant implications, unknown solutions, and intertwined and evolving technical and social interactions" MNEs independently or in conjunction with other actors: government, other MNEs, and non-profit organizations The document titled "What issues require MNEs to work alone, in conjunction with other MNEs, or in collaboration with non-profit and governmental collaborate partners to solve economic Grand Challenges The paper addresses various approaches of these collaborations, such as knowledge sharing, risk mitigation, and stakeholder engagement, and explores the strategic and ethical considerations involved. The discussion delves into theoretical models, exploring the intersection of stakeholder theory, ethics, capitalism, and social innovation and how these elements influence MNEs' decision-making processes in collaborative ventures. The paper also discusses the challenges and barriers MNEs face in collaboration, including cultural differences, conflicting goals, and organizational disparities. It underscores the importance of strategic solutions for successful global collaboration and competitive advantage. The document contributes to the theoretical understanding of MNE collaborations in addressing grand economic challenges, offering insights into these partnerships' benefits, outcomes, and ethical implications.

This study examines the intersection of political connections, financial slack, and state ownership in influencing cross-border mergers and acquisitions decisions (CBM&A), using data from 3,248 Chinese listed firms during 2006-2017. Based on transaction cost theory, our paper demonstrates that political connections generally increase the transaction costs of CBM&A and decrease firms' propensity for it. This negative impact is mitigated by the presence and interplay of financial slack and state ownership. The findings reveal that, while political connections can constrain international expansion, financial slack and state ownership can alleviate these constraints, offering new insights into the alignment of non-market and market strategies.

In this study, we examine how home-host country geopolitics shapes the FDI strategies of multinational enterprises (MNEs) by investigating the interplay of political capabilities when the past converges with the present in South-South geopolitics. Through a logistic regression analysis of 549 greenfield investments from 2003 to 2019, our research reveals that MNEs leverage their political capabilities when investing in host countries that share a colonial history with the home country. Interestingly, if contemporary geopolitics are favorable in these countries, MNEs can reduce reliance on their political capabilities to pursue South-South FDI. This paper contributes to the international business-international relations interface by showing the contrasting value of historical geopolitics and present-day geopolitical landscapes in the global South context. We offer a firm-level perspective that expands the debate on political capabilities as a complementary factor for past geopolitics and a less crucial factor in the presence of good home-host country contemporary geopolitics.

The extant literature has shown that Non-Market Strategy (NMS) provides firms with political leverage for tax aggressive practices. There is little evidence, however, on how NMS is used to deliver on tax sheltering agenda. This paper investigates this issue from the perspective of Multinational Companies, NMS – tax aggressiveness relationship. We utilise Hillman and Hitt (1999) political formulation framework (Relational versus Transactional) to study 480 corporations’ political encounters with the UK Government from 2012 to 2019 and Probit models are used to empirically test the hypotheses. We find that under the UK institutional setting, Tax haven use prevails among politically active firms and relational approach provides favourable political conditions to operationalise tax sheltering strategies. We also find that older firms' pursuit Relational approach and firms with greater intangibles Transactional approach to deliver on tax aggressive agenda

This study quantifies the impact of the global minimum corporate tax rate, a pillar of the OECD’s reform of international taxation, on cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) involving large multinational enterprises (MNEs). How do differences in capital taxation relate to bilateral cross-border M&As when adopting a gravity model? We apply the resulting estimated coefficients to evaluate the impact of a 15% global minimum tax rate on cross-border investments by firms whose revenue exceeds €750 million whenever the target country's corporate tax rate is lower than 15%. The study exploits a large purpose-built dataset comprising 13,562 investor-firm M&As data points from 2001 to 2020, related to 516 industries defined at the 4-digit level of the NACE Revision 2 classification in 109 'source' countries and 559 industries (defined at the same level of detail) in 161 'target' countries. The empirical results suggest that M&As flows are higher when the source and target countries have similar tax rates, while the overall effect of the global minimum corporate tax on M&As flows would be negative, but small in magnitude.

In this study, we examine whether eco-innovators are more prone to abandoning innovation projects, i.e., failure, compared to conventional innovators and whether this has implications for their propensity to export. Applying parametric and non-parametric estimation methods to a panel of 12,000 firms in Spain during 2008-2016, we find that eco-innovators are indeed more likely to experience failure through innovation abandonment compared to conventional innovators. Furthermore, our results suggest that eco-innovators with past experience in abandoning innovation projects are more likely to export compared to eco-innovators without such experience, which we argue is due to learning from abandonment. While we show that this latter learning effect on exporting is similar for conventional innovators, our first result implies that eco-innovators are, however, more likely to experience the opportunity to learn from abandonment. We argue that this enhances eco-innovators’ relative export propensity and thus serves as a mechanism that may explain the recent result in the literature that eco-innovators are more likely to export than conventional innovators.

Internationalisation is a complex process during which companies search for and exploit new opportunities in foreign markets. Although internationalisation can be very lucrative, it can also pose various risks to companies, which are multiplied in the volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) business environment. This study focuses on the influence of network relationships on internationalisation failure among Estonian companies. Based on an exploratory case study of three SMEs, we found that network-based failure accumulates over time and it is accompanied with various emotions. Emotions experienced by the entrepreneurs may result in non-rational decision making and either too slow or too rapid reactions, both of which can lead to either near-failure or complete failure.

Foreign divestment research has failed to come to a consensus regarding shareholders’ value creation, especially using long-term measures. This study investigates the relationship between foreign divestment and the shareholders’ value creation. Using a large sample of Nordic firms over the period from 1999 to 2019, we find a positive correlation between foreign divestment and shareholders’ value creation. In doing so, this study challenges the existing foreign divestment theory that FD takes place when one or more of the original investment motives are lost. This study employs both traditional, logarithmic excess stock returns, and recently introduced, long-term investor value appropriation (LIVA) to measure and proxy shareholders’ value. We further discover that the relationship between foreign divestment and value creation for shareholders is moderated by the age of divested foreign subsidiary. These findings are broadly consistent with the foreign divestment theory, indicating that the absence of OLI advantages that were once beneficial to firms can prompt the divestment of foreign subsidiaries.

De-internationalization decisions hold pivotal relevance amidst contemporary volatility, yet limited research scrutinizes configurations compelling strategic retreat versus forced exit. This study examines how sanction-induced deficiencies in knowledge management and networking capabilities disrupt the internationalization of micro-multinationals (mMNEs) lacking adaptation agility. Adopting a configurational lens, conceptual models map interdependencies across eight insufficient knowledge infrastructures and processes alongside eight disrupted cross-border relationships obstructing learning and fracturing partnerships. Multi-criteria optimization then reveals configurations of two knowledge and two networking gaps predicting disappointed, disinterested, disregarded, and displaced pathways. Findings expose cascading ripple effects from stunted internal knowledge flows to severed external ties, forcing a full market withdrawal. By tracing combinations instigating incremental retreat to outright eviction, a configurational theory emerges explaining nonlinear de-internationalization. Typologies categorize pathways spanning consolidation to dissolution when turbulence shatters mMNEs’ capability ecosystems. With nuanced models and optimization uncovering configurations that compel or force withdrawal, this study provides configurational explanations, beyond deterministic stage theories, for mMNEs’ growing international contraction.

The purpose of this study is to review the literature investigating the effectiveness of talent management on performance management in oil and gas companies operating in Saudi Arabia. The industry is confronted with the imperative of strategically managing its talent to ensure sustained effectiveness and optimal performance. The literature review employs inclusive and exclusive criteria, utilising thematic analysis to explore nuanced dimensions within this unique industrial context. This approach emphasises the interplay between strategic talent management approaches and their impact on organisational performance. Key areas such as recruitment, development, retention, and succession planning are critically analysed. Preliminary results revealed the importance of identifying effective talent management strategies, addressing challenges, and aligning these with industry demands while considering cultural and contextual influences. These findings suggest that organisations may enhance their performance and achieve long-term success in the process of implementing effective talent management practices.

This study will investigate the impact of FDI motivations of EMNEs on their ownership level choice and the role of the board of directors in this relationship through their corporate governance mechanisms in the context of Turkish MNEs. OLI framework and resource dependency theory will be used as theoretical bases for the study. The research hypotheses will be tested by completed CBMAs by Turkish MNEs for the years 1998-2021.

Responding to calls that criticised conceptualizations of foreignness in terms of home and host country dissimilarity and called for a more dynamic understanding of how the foreignness of MNEs is constituted, we examine how constructions of MNEs foreignness change over time within shifting contexts, and how MNEs respond to and manage such changes. Taking a historical multiple case study approach, we focus on Japanese MNEs in the U.S during the 1970s to 1990s, and show how changing bilateral relations between the U.S. and Japan, and the geo-political context within which these relations were embedded, led to different narratives of the foreignness of Japanese MNEs in the U.S. While at times Japan was constructed as a reliable foreign ally, at other times it was constructed as a suspicious friend, and as a hostile foreigner on other occasions. These narratives were enacted and mobilized differently by diverse host country actors as they attempted to shape their fields in ways that serve their interests, leading to different conceptions of the foreignness of Japanese MNEs within and between different temporal contexts. These social constructions of foreignness can present MNEs with both identity opportunities and threats, which MNEs attempt to manage through identity work.

A key idea in the literature on industry evolution and the origins of start-ups is that incumbent firms are breeding grounds for new entrepreneurs (Klepper 2011, Gompers 2005, Agarwal et al 2004, Feldman et al 2019).1 Employees develop experiences, knowledge and skills and learn about organizational routines and practices at their employers that bode for ideas for business ventures as well as capabilities to successfully realize such ideas by developing new firms that survive and grow. There is indeed significant evidence that employee spinoffs, i.e. new firms started by employees of incumbent firms, perform better than de novo entrants (Erikson and Kuhn 2006, Andersson and Klepper 2003). A main explanation for this empirical regularity is that founders of employee spinoffs inherit knowledge of technology, business practices, markets, organizational routines as well as networks to customers, suppliers and potential collegaues from their prior employers (Agarwal 2016, Feldman et al 2019, Klepper 2009, Furlan and Grandinetti 2020, Criaci et al 2021, Basu et al 2015).

This study investigates the mediating role of Artificial Intelligence Capabilities (AIC) in the context of Digital Transformation (DT) and small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) internationalization. Drawing on a comprehensive review of existing literature, this research is set to explore the mechanisms through which AIC adoption influences the relationship between DT initiatives and the internationalization strategies of SMEs. The theoretical framework integrates insights from seminal works on DT, AIC adoption, and international entrepreneurship, providing a foundation for formulating hypotheses and research questions. The proposed research method leverages insights from a diverse range of scholarly articles, systematically integrating data collection methods, measurement instruments, and analytical approaches. This study aims to contribute to the advancement of knowledge on the interpl ay between digital transformation, AIC, and the internationalization efforts of SMEs, offering valuable implications for theory, practice, and policy.

Our study utilises the theoretical lens of the resource-based view and boundary spanning to explore the phenomena of digitalisation as a facilitating mechanism in relation to internationalisation. We also explore characteristics in smaller towns which are distinctive resources, such as social capital. Our study addresses the question: what is the role of digital capabilities and social capital as firm resources to international boundary spanning for smaller town SMEs and enablers to the internationalisation process?Drawing upon a variety of literature that inhabits the domain of international business and entrepreneurship, the study analyses 10 small firms, through semi-structured interviews, in the Lancashire region of the North West of the United Kingdom. Preliminary analysis and findings reveal that the role digital capabilities and cross-border mobilities play as a sustained competitive advantage aid in the creation of boundary spanning conditions which can lead to new internationalising opportunities. Digitalisation plays a major focus in terms of strategy, and some firms may serve as “digital champions” in smaller town regions.We expand upon the resource-based view to hone a deeper understanding of the combination of digital capabilities and social capital mechanisms which contribute to boundary spanning and sustained competitive advantages for internationalising SMEs in smaller towns.

This extensive research delves into the far-reaching effects of artificial intelligence (AI) on businesses, with a special emphasis on the game-changing effects on startup culture and economic growth. The study delves into how entrepreneurship is affected by AI adoption that impacts KPIs for the better, focusing on how it may be strategically used for personalized customer interaction. In order to increase and help entrepreneurial ventures succeed, the research highlights the need for tailored AI algorithms. The ability of enterprises to speed up data input and processing allows entrepreneurs to make data-driven decisions. Improving customer happiness and brand loyalty may be as simple as using AI algorithms to analyze consumer behavior and preferences and then tailoring an approach accordingly. According to the research, such a strategy has the potential to significantly enhance entrepreneurial success in the information and communication, manufacturing, and financial services sectors and regional advancement.

When a company expands overseas, it is required to realize the business model developed in its home country in the host country. As the case that a business model is to be realized in the host country, there are many cases where the business model in the home country cannot be copied as it is due to various factors. This process of modifying the business model and adjusting it to the environment has been studied as flexible replication. Many challenges remain in the realization of flexible replication. In particular, how to resolve the relationship with the company's headquarters is an important factor in the process of adjusting to the environment. This study will focus on the role of the IJV and its management, the business model importer, in this adjustment process. Thus, the purpose of this study is to identify the role of the business model importer in flexible replication. In order to clarify the adjustment process of this study, we will take a managerial-historical approach to the study.

In Austria, women face a myriad of challenges, encompassing leadership roles, income disparities, and pension gaps. The gender wage gap stands at 19.3%, coupled with a concerning widening pension gap of 46.1%, highlighting substantial gender inequality and financial insecurity for women in their later years. The gender imbalances extend to the entrepreneurial sphere, where only 36% of startups are founded by women, and a significant 63.8% of founding teams are male dominated. This not only restricts diversity in business perspectives but also impedes the full realization of women's entrepreneurial potential. Furthermore, the Gender Funding Gap compounds the hurdles for female entrepreneurs, as male founders receive disproportionately more support, further amplifying the disparities in resources and opportunities. The Founders Lab - Female Entrepreneurs program in Vienna serves as a crucial platform for aspiring female founders, offering support and resources to navigate the entrepreneurial landscape. This study aims to uncover the challenges faced by participants in this program, with a focus on gaining insights into success and failure factors. Additionally, the research seeks to contribute valuable information to the advancement of female entrepreneurship, empower female entrepreneurs for a vibrant startup ecosystem, and maximize the impact of programs like the Female Founders Lab.

This panel will explain both the anatomy of ethics within the AIB and the operation of ethical processes. As AIB members, many of you will know that the Academy has three codes of ethics: the Member Code of Ethics, Leadership Code of Ethics and the Journals Code of Ethics covering its three journals. Our panel will kick off with an explanation of the nature of these three codes (to be found at: https://www.aib.world/about/policies/). We will also explain how AIB generates, revises and updates, its ethical rules and how it implements and enforces them. One thing that we all learn is that it is surprisingly easy, if not to transgress, then to come perilously close to transgressing. Understanding the pitfalls that are out there is particularly important today, given digitalisation and – dare we say it – the rise of artificial intelligence (AI).

In recent times, various academic fields, natural sciences, psychology and economics, have experienced scandals and negative publicity after several high-profile academic articles had to be retracted. One of the reasons was that their findings were not replicable. The implications of these events extend beyond academia, potentially eroding public trust and confidence in scientific discoveries. This panel will discuss:

a) whether the field of International Business Research is immune to such developments,

b) how the issue of replicability might affect future research in International Business,

c) what steps IB journals take to tackle the issue and

d) what are the lessons from other academic fields.

Please join this panel in its attempt to address the questions raised above with an aim to contribute to the dialogue within the International Business academic community about the topic of replicability.

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.

The advent of Industry 4.0 has brought about a shift in the perception of MNEs and their role in the global economy. This is especially evident in the information technology sector, where MNEs are increasingly harnessing the power of digital twins to drive circular economy practices and broader corporate sustainability ambitions. This paper extensively examines the relationship between Industry 4.0, circular economy concepts, and organizational social practices. Hence, it brings out how MNEs employ embedded sustainable IoT metrics. The paper, therefore, looks at how digital twins as an Industry 4.0 technology may lead MNEs into sustainable business models while fostering ethical corporate cultures by analyzing linkages among them. It is hoped that this research will provide scholars with an understanding of how complex processes shape sustainable practices within MNEs amidst Industry 4.0 background knowledge. We develop a model to show the SDG problem relevant to stakeholders and the necessary questions to be asked by the MNEs pursuing their CSR goals, which seems to be the need of the hour. As such, they can get practical advice on how to prioritize social responsibility over environmental consciousness simultaneously from practitioners and legislators.

Our research delves into the relationship between the digital internationalization of going-digital retail multinational enterprises (MNEs) and their financial performance. We initially argue that the digital internationalization–performance (DI–P) relationship of going-digital retail MNEs is U-shaped because they incur higher costs in their initial digital internationalization efforts due to their limited knowledge of launching and operating digital channels in foreign markets. Yet, as their digital internationalization progresses, they learn and accumulate relevant knowledge that allows them to benefit from scaling, bundling, and adapting their digital strategy globally. We then contend that the DI–P relationship strengthens for going-digital retail MNEs that (a) have larger physical retail selling space and (b) originate from a home country with a physical infrastructure advantage when compared to that of their host country. We employ an 11-year panel consisting of data from the largest retail MNEs worldwide and find support for our hypotheses.

This study examines the impact of Big Data Analytics (BDA) utilization on firms' international performance, particularly the degree of internationalization. Departing from conventional approaches, we explore the determinant of internationalization through the lens of BDA utilization. Our research addresses the interactions between BDA utilization and technological discontinuity, performance feedback, and organizational legitimacy, shedding light on their distinct roles in shaping internationalization outcomes. By introducing an inertia perspective, we uncover a negative interaction between performance feedback and BDA, influencing internationalization. The study also reveals the inhibiting effect of institutionalization inertia resulting from the interaction between BDA utilization and organizational legitimacy. Moreover, we identify organizational technological discontinuity as a crucial boundary condition enhancing international success for BDA-utilizing firms. Our findings offer valuable insights into the evolving landscape of BDA and international business, benefiting academics, practitioners, and policymakers.

This study aims to shed new light on the evolutionary ways and means by which Chinese latecomer firms in the photovoltaic and wind power industries have (more or less successfully) gained in techno-economic performance from a configurational, set-theoretic perspective. Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) is used for data analysis. Firm-specific learning orientations are considered in the context of international learning scope and major internal and external learning mechanisms, taking into account in-house R&D, strategic technology alliances, technological M&As, and infant technology springboards such as infant R&D internationalization, technology licensing, and subcontracting. Overall, the empirical findings suggest that differences in latecomer catch-up strategies and processes related to learning, technological capability building, and innovation are associated with differences in firm performance. Multi-modal configurations of learning orientations are found to differ across firms as well as firm performance classes. In this way, the study also contributes to a finer-grained understanding of Chinese internationalization.

We investigate how the enhancement of extraterritorial anticorruption enforcement act as a source of multinationals’ liabilities in foreign business. We backdrop U.S. banks’ global assets reallocation against the enforcement of Foreign Corrupt Practice Act (FCPA). We contextualize our study to the 9/11 attacks and antiterrorism legislations which unexpectedly enhanced the FCPA enforcement through both technical feasibility and U.S. government’s resolution. Analyzing a sample of firm-country pairs between 1998 and 2006 with a difference-in-differences approach, we find that U.S. banks lend significantly less to highly-corrupt countries than low-corrupt countries post the attacks. Further, we find this effect is weakened by the banks’ resilience to the heightened litigation risk (i.e., geographic dispersion) but strengthened by the banks’ vulnerability to the heightened litigation risk (i.e., network centrality of the bank in syndicated loans).

The paper involves taking a reflexive review on recent calls to decolonise international business. It adds context and variety to the decolonisation debate in the academic field of international business by engaging in a discussion of the decolonial thinking approach and proposing a broader framework for analysing the link between international business activities on the one hand and colonisation and decolonisation on the other. The aim is to inspire a more intensive engagement of international business scholarship with issues related to colonisation and decolonisation.

The paper argues that the current discussion of decolonisation should be extended beyond the decolonial thinking approach and its focus on knowledge and the cultural dimension towards a broader framework that covers both colonisation and decolonisation as well as the respective economic, political, social, and cultural dimensions. The paper suggests considering both colonisation and decolonisation processes as well as the respective economic, political, social, and cultural dimensions in research and teaching. It introduces the varieties of colonisation and decolonisation approach which considers the complexities of the phenomenon and covers the economic, social, political, and cultural dimensions. This provides a comprehensive and flexible alternative framework to analyse issues related to colonization and decolonisation.

This paper contributes to the recent debate on the role of Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) in addressing the grand challenge of green transition and explores the drivers of internationalization in the energy sector. We examine the influence of both firm-level and country-level factors on driving energy Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). Special attention is devoted to foreign energy investments made by MNEs operating in non-energy sectors. Our findings reveal distinctive motivations for energy FDI between energy and non-energy MNEs. Manufacturing and trade MNEs demonstrate lower responsiveness to host countries' energy support. However, they exhibit a greater likelihood of investing in energy FDI when they have pre-existing businesses in the same country, as well as in the presence of a significant technology gap in renewables and fossil fuel technology between the host and the original country. Financial and service MNEs are also less responsive to host countries' energy regulatory schemes, and less likely to invest in fossil fuel FDI. However, they place particular emphasis on the governance quality of the host country compared to other MNEs. These results provide valuable insights for motivating MNEs to actively participate in the global green transition.

In this paper, we have developed a process model of creating shared value and social innovation by five Hong Kong-based social enterprises, based on qualitative data. These enterprises have made benevolent collaborations with friendly organizations and harnessing the resources and expertise of these organizations, which are motivated to achieve the mutual goal of value creation. We have found that the founders of the focal firms had a strong sense of service and dedication to improve societal condition, which appears to be their career anchor and they had a clear vision and mission with strong attribute of caring disposition. The focal firms also adopted a strategy of cooptation and working with their competitors, who are also seeking to achieve a mutual goal of social value creation. Interviewees indicated that the social innovation of focal firms have created numerous beneficial outcomes for society, salient stakeholders and the firms themselves. The focal firms created business and social value simultaneously and also building social capital in the industry through social innovation.

This article examines foreign MNE subsidiaries’ social innovation (SI) investments focusing on United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) in host countries. We utilize the externalities framework proposed by Montiel et al. (2021), which translates the 17 UNSDGS into increasing positive externalities and reducing negative externalities, as well as hand-collected financial and corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures from 2015 – 2019 from large, listed subsidiaries of foreign MNEs operating in India. We find that MNE subsidiaries tend to favour increasing positive externalities compared to reducing negative externalities through their SI investments. Also, older subsidiaries tend to prioritize greater investments in SI projects related to reducing negative externalities and subsidiaries with higher MNE ownership tend to reduce investments in SI projects related to increasing positive externalities. We discuss possible interpretations of the exploratory results using the institutional logics perspective and conclude with implications for policy and future research.

Drawing on multiple case studies of Tech-developed country multinational enterprise (DMNE) subsidiaries in India, this research elucidates the motivations behind firms' digital knowledge transfer to deprived communities. Integrating the knowledge-based view with stakeholder theory, this study reveals how non-monetarised and indirectly monetarised values of knowledge sharing with secondary stakeholders, such as local communities motivate DMNEs to transfer knowledge. The findings challenge the notion that knowledge leaking in host countries is solely detrimental to a firm's success. Instead, knowledge sharing can generate non-monetary benefits and foster relationships with locals. Moreover, it provides managerial implications, advocating for companies to prioritize knowledge development within communities, aligning with sustainable development goals, and fostering local talent pools for reputation, political connections, and other intangible benefits in the host country.

As the world continues to converge into a global village, cross-border trade and investments have become increasingly essential for the economic growth of several countries. Pivotal to this growth especially in developing economies has been the access to foreign direct investment (FDI). Nigeria as a developing country, largely relies on the inflow of FDI for numerous benefits which ultimately culminates to the fulfilment of its macroeconomic goals. However, socio-political risk within the country threatens the inflow and sustainability of FDI. While political risk has hitherto been explored in the context of Nigeria, existing literature has failed to capture the regional specifics of socio-political risks and their impact on inward FDI. Following a thematic analysis of interview data from fifteen multinational corporations, the results reveal three themes– FDI externalities, Resource seeking and Fragile economy that impact inward FDI in Nigeria. This study contributes to the literature by allowing for a more comprehensive account of the FDI/socio-political risk situation in Nigeria demystifying previously unbalanced interpretations which are highly prevalent in subject discourse. It is recommended that the Nigerian government invest in measures to curb socio-political risks, seek foreign aid from international organisations, improve institutional frameworks and prioritise the diversification of the economy.

International trade in Russia is increasingly controversial because of the war in Ukraine and Western sanctions meant to reign in Putin’s aggressive stance. This research examines the change in trade specialization of Russian goods from 2002 to 2022 utilizing measures of trade specialization. The results reveal that in twenty years there have been significant changes in trade specialization in Russian exports along with shifts among trade partners. A brief discussion identifies the likely causes of these variations including friendshoring and international sanctions. Finally, potential future directions are suggested.

This paper investigates the outward internationalisation of Mexican subnational regions, focusing on: (i) the regional propensity to engage in OFDI; (ii) the extent of regional OFDI (extensive margin); and (iii) how (i) and (ii) change depending on the geographical destination of OFDI. The conceptual framework drawn on different literatures merges four complementary categories of regional determinants: innovation capacity and competence base; international openness; public financial support to internationalisation; and industrial structure. The empirical analysis uses data on the OFDI of 32 Mexican regions in 8 economic sectors observed over the years 2006-2017. The main findings highlight that regional financial support is key to overcome home-region disadvantages deterring local firms’ from engaging in OFDI, irrespective of its vertical or horizontal nature. Regions with higher skills show more propensity to investment in advanced high-income countries, responding to a learning region model. However, the regional extent of engagement abroad confirms the negative association between internationalisation and local innovation and R&D systems, supporting the view of OFDI driven by home region disadvantages particularly when targeting advanced economies.

It is expected that firms will be deterred from engaging with tax havens by formal and informal institutions. However, our understanding of how tax haven investment decisions are influenced by shifting institutional deterrents and varying organizational contexts remains limited. Combining the institutional complexity perspective with behavioral theory, this study explores the extent to which formal and informal institutions deter firm investment into tax havens. We theorize and explain how variance in the organizational context, such as the firm’s degree of managerial discretion and influence, act to sensitize or de-sensitize organizational decision makers to institutional deterrents. Drawing on a comprehensive and granular dataset of tax haven subsidiaries by 2,857 firms between 2009 and 2017, this study contributes to the advancement of theory, policy, and practice on the global strategic management of tax havens.

In recent years, technological evolution has changed the way businesses operate. Along with its positive inputs, advancement in technology can cause financial and reputational damage to a firm. Social businesses such as social enterprises are not exempt from this risk. While the mainstream literature has examined various facets of social enterprises, research on their cybersecurity perception and their capability to address technology threats has been limited. Building on the wealth of the qualitative research method, this paper analyses 23 semi-structured interviews conducted with international small and micro business owners/managers to explore their cyber journeys. The findings identify the cybersecurity resources of social enterprises under the three main themes of (a) technical aspects, (b) organisational aspects, and (c) psychological aspects. Technical aspects are the readiness or expertise in handling cybersecurity within a firm and its previous exposure to cyber-attacks/threats; organisational aspects are the availability of training or educational programs for international small and micro-businesses, and psychological aspects are the attitude and awareness of the firm toward cybersecurity issues. This work produces a cybersecurity capability framework and provides recommendations for future work. It also draws on the limitations of the current work and highlights contributions from both a theoretical and practical perspective.

This paper explores the concept of Smart Cities in the context of "permacrisis" era, a period of permanent crisis, focusing on the role of public administration in promoting socio-environmental responsibility and sustainable development. It highlights the importance of transparent and understandable budget management that integrates sustainable practices, emphasizing the need for collaboration between the public sector, civil society and the community to ensure inclusive innovation. The Popular Financial Report (PFR) emerges as a tool for improving transparency and accountability in public administrations by presenting financial, social and environmental aspects in a clear and untestable manner. The research adopts a Systematic Literature Review methodology through Bibliometrix based on Scopus database. The findings underscore the significance of Smart Cities in addressing contemporary challenges and the pivotal role of public administrations in fostering sustainable and inclusive urban development. Finally, the study addresses future research perspectives and paths as joint scholars and practitioners’ analyses.

Prior studies emphasise parent-IJV interaction and dynamic capabilities influence knowledge transfer speed. Nevertheless, how dynamic capabilities interact with parent-IJV-local relationships to boost knowledge transfer speed remains underexplored. In the low-carbon technology sector, the role of dynamic capabilities in acquiring, integrating, and coordinating both internal and external knowledge to influence knowledge transfer speed is particularly significant, considering unprecedented changes in the social-technical environment. In this paper, we build on the dynamic capability concept and explore the interaction between dynamic capabilities and organisational relationships to trace knowledge transfer speed in the intra-phase and the inter-phase perspectives. Based on longitudinal multiple case studies, we collected data through 88 semi-structured interviews with 38 informants from 2017 to 2023. Our findings suggest that IJVs develop lower to higher order dynamic capabilities by effectively leveraging their relationships with parents and local partners to facilitate knowledge transfer speed across absorption, implementation, and innovation phases. Depending on various phases, lower-order capabilities integrate external knowledge to further understanding on local regulatory, market and technical contexts, while higher-order capabilities draw from external knowledge to renew or reconfigure know-how in operational, technical and R&D perspectives. Overall, this interaction helps to develop and sustain competitive advantages in domestic market and international markets.

The International Business (IB) discipline has the potential to make societal impact and help tackle grand challenges by providing and applying pertinent knowledge. This has sparked ongoing debates concerning the future research agenda in IB and the calls for closer coupling between IB research and practice. This paper aims to improve our understanding of the extent to which IB research has made a high-quality impact on IB practice. We present a comprehensive evaluation of Impact Case Studies (ICS) with an IB focus submitted to the UK Research Excellence Framework (REF) in 2014 (REF2014) and 2021 (REF2021), offering a unique avenue to evaluate the key characteristics and evolution of how submitting UK universities have presented their ‘best’ cases of high-quality impact connected to IB research. This evaluation enables the development of novel insights into key characteristics of high-quality impact from IB research that have policy implications for universities leaders aiming to understand and boost impact related work in their institutions, policymakers related to University-industry collaboration and future ICS authors

Embeddedness is an idiosyncratic concept closely related to and frequently researched in the cross-border business contexts. We conducted a systematic review of what has been done on embeddedness in international business (MNCs) and specifically international entrepreneurship to explore the concept and its dynamic roles. We unpack and clarify the overlapping concepts, the measurement, the mechanisms and the outcome related to embeddedness in structured proposed frameworks. Our finding shows that the complexity of embeddedness is under researched and the interaction between embeddedness, international entrepreneurs, and the dynamic environment requires consolidated study. We propose that embeddedness should be studied from a dynamic process perspective, how it originated, evolved and is leveraged. Using the entrepreneurial process lens, our review shows that embeddedness emerged through three entrepreneurial phases under different roles, from (i) cognitive form at the idea generation stage to (ii) actual business engagement in fund raising and (iii) as impactful outcome (internationalization and innovation) at growth stage. The multilevel of embeddedness including intensity, depth, and breadth can be modified via the entrepreneurial learning/unlearning mechanisms and leveraged to its highest value when integrating in a system orchestrating the dynamic of individuals, interpersonal, organizational, and societal attributes.

International business (IB) literature has extensively examined the internationalization processes of manufacturing firms, but museums have yet to receive much attention. This paper addresses this gap by exploring how Italian art and archaeological museums have internationalized and how the Covid-19 pandemic affected their internationalization initiatives. Based on interviews conducted in seven museums, the findings show that in addition to attracting foreign tourists, they actively cooperate with foreign museums (loans, temporary exhibitions) and research centers (joint research). The Covid-19 pandemic had mixed impacts on museums: the number of visitors decreased temporarily but has been restored, and the studied museums also accelerated their digitalization efforts to engage a global audience. This study offers valuable insights into the complex dynamics of museums’ internationalization. It highlights the importance of qualified staff, strong network ties, and efficient use of social media in facilitating internationalization. It also emphasizes museums’ challenges in balancing internationalization with retaining authenticity and navigating bureaucratic hurdles.

There has been a growth of English branded independent schools established by translocal educational enterprises (TEEs) outside the UK often in emerging markets based on borrowing the firm-specific assets (FSAs) of English independent schools. This reflects a denationalization process of English independent schools involving configuring flows and networks of FSAs, expertise, and money between the UK and different places outside the UK. This paper conceptualizes global-local networks through an analysis of this denationalization process that is configured around status, approval, and power. We reveal that while social actors organize global-local networks between the UK and different places outside the UK, the economic and non-economic actions and transactions are developed based on different types of legal contracts. This analysis is based on qualitative research involving 98 semi-structured interviews undertaken in the UK and eleven different countries.

This paper examines factors and policies underlying the attractiveness of EU regions to foreign direct investment (FDI) in high-value knowledge-intensive sectors such as aerospace, pharmaceuticals, information and communication and software. Understanding what drives the location choice of FDI in high-value sectors is important for designing policies aimed at enhancing the competitiveness, innovation and productivity of regions. We analyse the location choice of 33,482 new greenfield FDI projects in high-value knowledge-intensive sectors across EU regions over the period 2003–2020. The main findings indicate that a region’s attractiveness to high-value FDI is positively associated with EU market potential, market growth, the participation rate of the working age population in education and training programmes, workforce skills, the presence of agglomeration economies, R&D expenditure in the public sector, government funding of business expenditure on research and development and broadband access. Our results indicate that investors from the EU value location factors differently to investors from non-EU countries.

The offshoring of high-value innovative activities, such as R&D is a relatively new business model that has gained significance in the last two decades (Rodgers et al., 2019). Theories of management and international business suggest that firms must retain control over their high-value innovative activities to maintain a competitive edge (Demirbag et al., 2020). However, recent decades have seen the dispersal of these high-value activities across different geographical locations (Grecu et al., 2020).
The aim of this article is to examine the variations in the level of routineness and innovativeness R&D projects that are offshored to emerging and developed countries. Additionally, the study aims to investigate the differences in the level of routineness and innovativeness of R&D projects that are offshored to foreign branches and non-integrated contractors.
In order to accomplish the goals of the research, a self-administered survey was disseminated. An electronic questionnaire was utilized to around 2500 Multinational Corporations (MNCs) to attain the goals of the study and 108 responses were collected. In addition to utilizing one-way ANOVA and factorial ANOVA for the analysis, post-hoc analysis and Helmert contrast were employed to further validate the structural models and measurement.

Drawing on Penrose's theory of firm growth, this study examines how key managerial constraints and resources influence the speed of an MNE foreign re-entry. We use a dataset of 7994 Japanese MNEs, covering 3089 re-entries from 1991 to 2020. Our findings indicate that recent re-entry events potentially create managerial constraints that delay subsequent re-entry. Additionally, cultural distance from the home base and the cultural diversity of MNEs' portfolio exacerbate this effect. In contrast, the presence of expatriate parent country nationals (PCNs) at the time of exit acts as a managerial asset and accelerates re-entry. These findings contribute to our understanding of factors influencing re-entry timing, offering a fresh perspective on the re-entry process and expanding the study of the Penrosean effect in MNE internationalization.

Extant literature highlights the importance of organizational learning capabilities in securing survival though, previous findings report various effects of foreign subsidiary age on its survival rate. Aiming to expand the boundaries of organizational learning theory, we scrutinize the multifaceted impacts observed at different life stages of foreign subsidiaries, unveiling their probabilities of survival. Precisely, we investigate the synergistic impacts of endowment resources, the evolution of learning capabilities, liabilities of newness and foreignness, as well as the challenges of senescence and obsolescence on the survival of foreign subsidiaries. We further claim that the subsidiary relatedness could modify the foreign subsidiary age–survival relationship due to its connectedness to the parent core businesses. Our findings reveal that foreign survival rates change at distinct life stages. Interestingly, subsidiary relatedness shapes the development of endowment resources and learning capabilities and acts as the key moderator in this intricate relationship. Our study contributes to the extension of organizational learning theory and the literature on foreign survival by showcasing the diverse development of learning capabilities among foreign subsidiaries, resulting in varied propensities for foreign divestment. Practically, we stress the need for MNE executives to recognize that foreign survival rates are subject to change and influenced by relatedness

This is 12th continuous edition from the series of panels organized by the Commonwealth Research Network on International Business (CRN-IB) at the AIB UK & Ireland conference. With the support of the AIB and leading academics from around the globe, the CRN-IB was established at a special session during the Annual European International Business Conference in Brighton in 2012. It aims to bring together and strengthen relationships and dialogue between academic, businesses and policymaking bodies working on and in Commonwealth countries.
At the 50th AIB UK & Ireland Chapter Conference in Aston, the panel will consider outcomes from the 2023 Trade Ministers Meeting in London. In particular it will build on a recent Commonwealth Secretariat Trade Hot Topics paper on ‘Enhancing Intra-Commonwealth Trade and Investment: An International Business Research Agenda’ (Buckley et al, 2023). It will also discuss the objectives and progress of the newly established Commonwealth Sub-Action Group on Investment, Working Group on Trade and Investment and its priority focus on technology and innovation and the development of tangible options / initiatives to support countries to attract inward investment in a context of Disruptions, Transformations and New Internationalisation Trends.