In the present paper, we investigate whether foreign owners have an impact on the long-term orientation of firms. This is warranted since foreign owners have become an influential investor group, with divergent norms and expectations compared to domestic owners, pushing firms to change their strategies and organization. Based on agency theory and resource dependency theory, we use panel data from European firms over a 10-year period to demonstrate that foreign ownership positively influences the long-term orientation of firms. Institutional distance between foreign investors and investees mitigates this positive relationship. Furthermore, our results reveal that foreign passive investors are the main drivers of firms’ long-term orientation. Through our study, we not only contribute to the nascent but growing literature on foreign ownership’s consequences, but also highlight the need to account for the different origins and types of owners among firms’ shareholders.

Reshoring is a relevant and growing phenomenon in IB, but much is still to understand in terms of its nature and conceptualization. Distinguishing between four types of reshoring, based on the governance mode (i.e., in-house or outsourcing) adopted in the host and home countries, we discuss the relevance of key factors in shaping each type, in terms of the firm’s resources and capabilities and its business network. On this basis, we outline the knowledge transfer process characterizing each type of reshoring and their knowledge outcomes, which impact differently the development of new capabilities and the firm’s competitive advantage in the long term. The paper contributes to reshoring research by outlining the knowledge processes and outcomes characterizing each type of reshoring, but expands also the knowledge transfer literature with the characterization of transfer processes in the context of significant organizational change, as that induced by reshoring. Finally, it adds to the international business literature by linking reshoring to the competitive advantage of international firms.

The complexity and risks associated with conducting business internationally have significantly increased in the last few years. In this context, extreme global value chain configurations are unlikely to hold in the case of a disruption, pushing MNEs to engage in derisking strategies. This work aims to test whether, and to what extent, the type of governance mode in sourcing from abroad influences the decision to engage in derisking activities. To address this, data are taken from a set of common questions in the national business surveys conducted in 2023 in Germany, Italy, and Spain. Our results suggest that the probability of engaging in a derisking strategy is lower for firms adopting market or modular governance compared to those adopting relational or hierarchical governance. The research contributes to the Internalization Theory by adding the perspective of derisking in turbulent times

This paper examines the links between the diversification of economies across value adding activities and their exposure to disruptions in global value chains (GVCs). We empirically test this nexus by combining new indicators of GVC exposure with an FDI-based measure of functional diversification for a wide range of countries and industries in 2003-2018. We show that greater functional diversification is on average associated with lower GVC exposure, both at the country and industry level. However, this negative relationship holds for Scale intensive and Suppliers dominated industries, while it is not confirmed for Science-based and Specialized suppliers industries. This seems consistent with the necessity for the most innovative industries to combine global sourcing of specific components and knowledge assets located abroad with functional diversification as a key competitive factor. Accordingly, industrial policies aimed at expanding the array of value chain functions to soften the potential adverse effects of GVC disruptions should be complemented with careful selection of global partners for sourcing key inputs.