Purpose - This study aims to investigate how relational resources, such as the buyer's trust in its suppliers and the level of supplier involvement, affect the level of tacit knowledge integration capabilities (TKICs) of the firm, which, in turn, is hypothesized to affect business performance.Design/methodology/approach - Based on the dynamic capabilities theory and the relational view, this paper examines how TKIC, a special case of dynamic capability, influences business performance. The research context is the Brazilian automobile industry, in which firms are currently experimenting with modular production and increasing their interactions with suppliers. Using a sample of automobile suppliers, this investigates how relational resources, such as the buyer's trust in its suppliers and the level of supplier involvement, affect the level of TKIC, which, in turn, is hypothesized to affect business performance. In addition, this paper examines the moderating effect of various communication media on the TKIC-business performance relationship. The findings confirm the importance of relational resources and TKIC on business performance. Finally, this paper explores various theoretical and managerial implications to encourage future research.Findings - The results suggested that the two relational resources (supplier involvement and buyer's trust) are important drivers of TKICs and that the level of supplier involvement in the production process mediates the relationship between buyer's trust and TKIC. Moreover, this study found that TKIC leads to superior firm performance, but the degree of media naturalness does not seem to facilitate knowledge transfer. The results confirm that supplier involvement is a pivotal process in that the buying firm's internal resources and the major suppliers' resources and capabilities are combined to achieve a competitive advantage - TKIC.Research limitations/implications - This study is subject to the typical limitations inherent in cross-sectional research designs using subjective measures. That said, this still has some important implications indicating that relational resources, such as buyer's trust and supplier involvement, are critical in developing TKIC that "seize" opportunities from interfirm relationships and integrate knowledge across and within firm boundaries. Moreover, while knowledge management tools can resemble face-to-face interactions to the largest extent, the research suggested that it cannot substitute face-to-face communications in transferring tacit knowledge.Practical implications - Managers deal with complex interactions and linkages due to tacit knowledge from components, systems and modules, which are critical in developing organizational capabilities. Relational resources are important strategic assets facilitating resource combination and coordination. Managers must coordinate among multiple sources of learning and partner with their suppliers at an earlier stage to develop the relational capabilities and efficiently steer the process of boundary redefinition. Finally, managers must have the ability to manage tacit knowledge within the interface with suppliers using organizational mechanisms (i.e. TKIC) to help them absorb external knowledge from their supplier network and integrate it with specific internal competences.Social implications - Recent disruptive technological developments pressure organizations to become more flexible by requiring firms to adapt quickly to constantly changing markets and to have the ability to apply different resources and capabilities to specific unique situations. All this with a huge impact on the firm's employees and society in general. Thus, interfirm relationships and the role of knowledge integration is especially crucial, given the current industry trend in favor of experimenting with innovative production methods (e.g. flexible manufacturing and modular production) that can help managers to rethink work conditions in a more meaningful and flexible for society.Originality/value - While prior research treats integrative capability mainly as a mechanism that explains superior firms' performance in an interfirm relationship, few research efforts have explicated what shapes TKICs. By examining the relationship between relational resources, TKIC and performance, this study fills this research gap and develops and tests a theoretical framework.

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<title content-type="abstract-subheading">Purpose</title>
This study aims to investigate the risks associated with managing the dispersed knowledge in inter-organizational arrangements for innovation. Specifically, it proposes a model to analyze the knowledge management risks in open innovation, applied in four steps.


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<title content-type="abstract-subheading">Design/methodology/approach</title>
Initially, the authors carried out a systematic literature review (SLR) on the concepts that connect knowledge management, inter-organizational arrangements for innovation and risks. The SLR results led to a complementary theoretical review on the conceptual elements in question. Based on the findings, the authors have developed a model to analyze the knowledge management risks in open innovation, which was validated by experts. It was then studied the case of GOL Airlines, a company that uses innovation to overcome the paradox between low-cost and full service in the commercial air transportation industry, considering the application and adjustment of the proposed model.


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<title content-type="abstract-subheading">Findings</title>
Open innovation is one of the inter-organizational arrangement types most applied in the context of innovation. Relations between agents are the primary sources of risks when managing the dispersed knowledge in these arrangements. The authors have found five main risks associated, namely, risk of the innovative effort does not reach the expected objective, risk of knowledge transfer being ineffective, risk of misappropriation of value, risk of dependency (lock-in) and risk of relations.


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<title content-type="abstract-subheading">Practical implications</title>
The practical implication is the proposition of a procedure for applying the model to analyze the knowledge management risks in open innovation, which makes it a prescriptive model for identifying risks. The proposed model is described in four steps, namely, to identify the agents in the environment of the value of open innovation; to identify the types of relations of each agent; to consider the barriers to knowledge management in innovation; and to assess the risks considering the possibilities derived from the agents, their relationships and the barriers. The model is applied in the GOL case and the results are presented.


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<title content-type="abstract-subheading">Originality/value</title>
First, it uses a novel approach to investigate open innovation while studying its risks. This approach considers the knowledge is dispersed and flows from one organization to another through a combination of relations inside the environment of value where the open innovation materializes. Second, it contributes to theory development by opening a research front that fuses four areas: risk management, knowledge management, innovation and inter-organizational arrangements. Third, this paper proposes a theoretical model and presents its operationalization. The study aims to make an impact beyond academia and uses a case study to illustrate the model application in a real and interesting open innovation project to support the business model at GOL Airlines.


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Startups in the Brazilian organizational scenario have been growing fast and understanding these startups' internationalization strategies have been highly relevant. Such startups have developed a social, environmental, and economic impact solution that had the support of government programs in its internationalization process, seeking to understand the impact of these programs. This article has sought the following: (1) identify the risks and critical success factors in the internationalization process of born global startups of industry 4.0, (2) analyze the social, environmental, and economic aspects. The authors have based the methodology on a single-case analysis, a global startup - Asel-Tech, a technology and automation company focused on developing and providing solutions for leak detection in oil pipelines and derivatives. Among the main results, we highlight: (1) the proposition of a model for risk and critical success factors analysis in the internationalization of born global startups of industry 4.0, (2) the analysis from the institutional view perspective on the strategy, on the social, environmental, and economic aspects of digital manufacturing. For professionals, the article provides a model to assist startups in future internationalization processes.

Research Summary The purpose of this study is to develop a behavioral framework for management decision-making under bounded rationality to analyze foreign direct investments and political risks in host countries. This study shows that managers construct reference points on political risks and assess actual political risks in host countries relative to these reference points. This study considers that the political risk reference point is a mental map made up of (a) perceived political risks in host countries where multinational corporations (MNCs) operate and (b) home country political risks. We find that MNCs interpret political risks in host countries as opportunities (threats) if the political risks are below (above) their reference points. Our study provides a significant contribution to the literature on microfoundations of location strategy.Managerial Summary Prior empirical studies have found both positive and negative effects of political risks on MNCs' investments. This study develops a behavioral framework for MNCs' boundedly rational decision-making in political risk assessment. Characterizing political risks in host countries by the concept of a political risk reference point resolves the contradictory findings in the literature. Using data from the global mining industry, we find that MNCs interpret political risks in host countries as opportunities (threats) if the political risks are below (above) their PRRPs. We also show that the other competing companies' reference points do not have significant effects on MNCs' investment decisions. These findings offer managerial implications because they help managers predict competitors' actions.

This study examines the diffusion process of corporate sustainability (CS) in the global automotive industry. It discusses the different roles played by the automakers, as the industry’s focal firms, in diffusing CS strategies throughout their respective supply networks. Studies have explained this phenomenon as being the result of the higher levels of stakeholder exposure faced by focal firms, which generate higher levels of supplier sustainability risk. In this context, the authors examine the effects of three network-related firm characteristics – resource dominance, resource substitutability, and network centrality – in determining the effectiveness of a firm in diffusing CS in its network. For that purpose, we present a theoretical framework from which we derive a set of hypotheses and test them on a sample of the global automotive supply network containing 10,726 firms linked by 45,044 inter-firm relationships. The results lend significant support to the argument that these network-related firm attributes are crucial mechanisms to the process of diffusion of CS strategies in a supply network, thus contributing to extant literatures in strategic management, international business, and sustainable supply chain management.

While Japan is one of the most innovative countries in the world, it has experienced a prolonged stagnant economic growth in the last 20 years. The development of new products and/or services has become critical for future economic growth. However, we know little about how individuals disseminate and legitimize inventions for new product and/or service development in Japan. This paper bridges this gap by looking at how and why material scientists, architects, and designers promote new inventions in Japan. We identified three novel roles (initiator, integrator, and interpreter) individuals take upon themselves to legitimize new uses for raw materials.

As scholars have examined the antecedents, processes, and performance of early internationalizing firms in the past three decades, the domain has become a full-fledged research field. However, extant reviews have not yet provided a comprehensive picture of the determinants of early internationalizing firms and their performance although it is a relevant topic in the literature. In response, this paper seeks to systematically review and synthesize extant research on the determinants and performance of early internationalizing firms. The authors critically assess and examine 167 articles that have appeared in 28 academic journals over the last three decades. This study contributes to extant literature by highlighting the determinants of early internationalizing firms and their performance with a focus on the entrepreneur, firm, and environment factors. Furthermore, an integrative framework has been developed to account for the relationships among determinants, early internationalization, and outcomes. Finally, this paper reveals some significant gaps to advance an important research agenda for future research.

Management practices and orientation need to change when the climate of the time in which firms operate change. In the 1980s-early 1990s when the world enjoyed a broad economic growth on a global scale, Japanese management practices were once admired in awe around the world. Since the Japanese economy began to slip into a decade-long recessionary environment in the late 1990s, many Japanese firms experienced profit losses and the world's admiration of Japanese management began to wane. This article explores how and why, and offers broader implications to management practices in general.

Concurrent sourcing is critical to multinational firms' operations in emerging economies, such as China. Despite its prominence, research is lacking on the underlying conditions and performance implications of this strategy. We investigate the driving factors of multinational firms' concurrent sourcing strategy and test whether concurrent sourcing outperforms other types of sourcing strategies. Our empirical findings suggest that multinational firms tend to choose concurrent sourcing under high levels of institutional regulations. Furthermore, the results show that concurrent sourcing generates better performance at high levels of uncertainties and the performance deficiency of concurrent sourcing can be mitigated when institutional regulations are high.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present the main barriers, practices, methods and knowledge management tools in startups that are characterized as agile organizations with dynamic capabilities to meet the demands of a business environment of high volatility, uncertainties, complexity and ambiguity. Design/methodology/approach The conceptual basis of the research focused on the triad: agile organization, dynamic capabilities and knowledge management. Field research began by interviewing experts to identify the barriers, practices, methods and knowledge management tools in startups. Based on the theoretical review, on the desk research and on the result of interviews with experts, a quantitative research was carried out with the leading startups coworking of Sao Paulo city. The obtained data made it possible to develop descriptive analyses and run linear regressions and cluster analysis for exploratory research. Findings Startups with higher maturity in innovation level, solution development level, and scalability development level, present a higher degree of utilization of the practices, methods and tools dedicated to knowledge management. Practical implications - It is expected that results of the research presented in detail will be able to illustrate concrete examples of practices, methods, and knowledge management tools for large established companies seeking the organizational agility of startups. Originality/value This study contributes to the identification of barriers, practices, methods and tools of management of knowledge in startups, through the conceptual triad: agile organization, dynamic capabilities and knowledge management.

Research Summary: This article tests real options theory predictions that uncertainty and flexibility are key value drivers for offshore outsourcing moderated by switching costs. Examining firm-specific and market data for outsourcing cases by U.S. firms, we find that the impact of market and environmental uncertainty and flexibility on outsourcing value is net positive and that it is greater for offshore than for domestic outsourcing. Outsourcing benefits are related to flexibility arising from growth options and moderated by switching costs underlying outsourcing activities, including loss of innovative capability and economic, institutional, and cross-country cultural differences.Managerial Summary: In the popular business literature, the "footloose" nature of outsourcing strategy characterized by an outsourcing firm's flexibility, as well as the ability in finding appropriate suppliers on a global basis, has often been touted as an important means of dealing with market uncertainty. However, the academic literature has not offered direct empirical support for the inherent value of such outsourcing strategies. Our study shows that firms tend to perform better financially when they have such outsourcing flexibility under uncertain market and environmental conditions, although this relationship may be somewhat weakened by potential loss of innovative capability and cultural and other differences in dealing with foreign suppliers.

Purpose - The volatile scenario of technological innovation demonstrates the need for risk control processes, in order to ensure its viability. The purpose of this paper is to propose a conceptual framework for risk management in the introduction of new technologies by start-ups, aiming to provide the guidelines for the improvement of this process.Design/methodology/approach - The study comes up with conceptual categories related to risk management in start-ups, mainly based on the NPVR approach. The methodology included two comparative case studies: MercadoPago and GuiaBolso, which had their data collected through interviews with key managers and documents provided by the organizations. Data analysis was based on the Miles et al. (2014) model, whereby data were condensed; data were visualized, and conclusions developed and checked.Findings - Among the main results, there is the proposition of a deductive-inductive matrix for the management of uncertainties and risks in start-ups, which brings elements that provide the calculation of the NPV adjusted for the risk of developing a new product (NPVR), process or service, as well as the contribution of the level of risk management maturity of the companies, setting up the Risk Management Matrix (RMM).Practical implications - The authors propose a matrix for the management of uncertainties and risks in start-ups.Social implications - The authors present comparative case studies of MercadoPago and GuiaBolso which help the entrepreneurs to develop their start-ups.Originality/value - As the main contribution, this paper proposes the start-up RMM, a model for the management of uncertainties and risks in start-ups, which brings elements that provide the calculation of the NPV adjusted for the risk of developing a new product (NPVR), process or service, as well as the contribution of the level of risk management maturity of the companies.

By incorporating institutional theory with the dynamic capability perspective, we investigate how emerging-market firms' organizational capability to acquire resources through political networking with government officials complements their absorptive capacity in enhancing incremental and radical innovations. We further investigate the conditions under which the complementary effect matters. On the basis of a survey of 108 senior executives in China, we find that political networking capability complements absorptive capacity in overcoming resource constraints and organizational disadvantages in enhancing firms' innovations, and the result is more effective in improving radical rather than incremental innovations. Furthermore, the complementary effect becomes stronger for emerging-market firms' radical innovations when facing intense competition. We provide theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to provide insights from the upper echelon, agency, and organizational identification literatures to help explain cross-cultural differences in top management team pay.Design/methodology/approach - This is a theoretical paper building upon the executive compensation literature examining US and Japanese pay schemes.Findings - The paper presents three propositions relating to the influence of organizational constitution and organizational identification on the level of pay, as well as the allocation of pay in top management team compensation schemes.Originality/value - There is relatively little research focusing on why there are cross-cultural pay differences. This paper uses US and Japanese studies to highlight mechanisms that can foster principal-agent goal alignment in different contexts.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine how executive pay schemes influence managerial efficiency, which the authors measure as the risk-adjusted firm performance.Design/methodology/approach - The authors utilized hierarchical regression to test the hypotheses.Findings - The authors find that as options constitute a higher percentage of total compensation packages, subsequent firm risk-adjusted performance declines. The authors also find an inverse relationship between TMT stock ownership and risk-adjusted performance.Research limitations/implications - The findings suggest that the firm stakeholders should reconsider the likely influence of option-based incentives and equity holdings on the risk-adjusted performance.Originality/value - Most executive compensation research focuses on either the pay-to-performance or pay-to-risk links. However, in this paper, the authors combine both the performance and risk dimensions simultaneously.

In today's volatile global marketplace, firms should pursue flexible asset distribution and high-quality, low-cost manufacturing operations simultaneously. Previous studies have examined the relationships between supplier management related variables and market performance with cross-sectional data; however, little guidance is available for newly internationalizing ventures aiming to build a global supply chain network from scratch. To shed light on this dynamic process, we examine Uniqlo's successful supply chain development in China, using longitudinal contextual data. Our findings show that Uniqlo went through discrete dynamic stages in its supply chain development efforts. First, Uniqlo, initially a small firm, developed relational governance with its suppliers by exercising dynamic economic power concentration over time. Second, it began to provide technical support to help its suppliers build competence with the aim of increasing their cooperation. Third, Uniqlo enforced compulsory nonexclusivity arrangements with suppliers to achieve supplier flexibility by not just having Uniqlo as primary customer. This provides relational flexibility through both relational governance and partner flexibility for the principal firm in the global supply chain development.

Immigrant-started new ventures face the liability of ethnicity because of their founders' disadvantaged immigration status. It is extremely difficult for them to acquire human, social and financial capital and access market in founders' country of residence to survive. This study empirically examines the survival of immigrant-started new ventures. We find that an early internationalization strategy could enhance those ventures' survival and that immigration status moderates the effect of an early internationalization strategy on their survival. This study contributes to both immigrant and international entrepreneurship literature. Managerial and policy implications are also discussed. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

One significant emerging phenomenon of global competition is the increasing number of Emerging Market Multinational Companies (EMNCs) that have survived and succeeded in the constraining institutional environments in their home turfs and are now participating in the global marketplace. However, despite the growing literature, our understanding, of the factors that influence EMNCs' competitive advantage is limited. We conduct a historical longitudinal analysis of sixteen companies originating from key emerging markets viz. India and China. Our findings suggest that EMNCs' evolutionary paths to building competitive advantage from their home market to the developed countries is, on one-hand, based on the EMNCs' ability to acquire resources and absorb them to build their own advantage. On the other hand, it is also based on EMNCs' ability to find new market niches and to enhance their innovation capabilities to overcome the liability of emergingness. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Purpose: This paper examines the statistical relationship between outbound Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and firm performance. We focus on how the link is influenced by sector-specific differences and geographical factors. Methodology: We compile a time-series cross-sectional dataset that includes financial variables and FDI activities of South Korean firms between 2005 and 2008 from the DART, a financial statement database. Then, we fit our data against the linear regression models that we designed to identify FDI-performance relationship in different subsamples. Our measurement of firm performance is specifically constructed to reflect excess returns in the stock market. Findings: We found compelling differences in the degree of FDI-performance relationships across different industries. In manufacturing sectors, the flow of direct investment is more heavily associated with firm performances than accumulated stock of direct investment, and vice versa in the service sector. The impact of China factors toward performance aspects of Korea's outbound FDI which also differs across sectors as well. Value: Although there have been extensive research efforts on this subject in general, our paper addresses an increasingly significant class of FDIs that have received relatively less attention, that is, direct investment originating from developing economies. Also, our analysis adds a sectoral dimension that contributes to more comprehensive understanding of a multinational-performance relationship.

The prominence of Emerging Market Multinational Companies (EMNCs) in the global marketplace has challenged our assumptions about the nature of global competition and corresponding strategy. We use an inductive approach to conduct historical analysis of eight companies that originated from key emerging markets viz China and India. We examine the various strategies that EMNCs devise to circumvent the resource challenges faced in their home markets and develop routines and key capabilities that lead to their competitive advantage in developed nations. Our results suggest that EMNCs' foreign expansion is, on the one hand, based on their capability to acquire resources and absorb them to build their own advantage (supply-side-argument). On the other hand, it is also based on EMNCs' capability to find some market niches, i.e., entering into markets untapped by traditional MNCs (demand-side-argument). Finally, based on our analysis we propose a dynamic stages model suggesting that EMNCs' foreign expansion can be explained in three stages - licking the dirt to carve out the way; taking off with speed and strength; and around the world with excellence. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

This study examines the export strategies of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and the financial and non-financial aspects of their export performance. Hypotheses derived from previous studies and the unique characteristics of SMEs were empirically examined in a sample of Korean manufacturing SMEs. Findings suggest that the differentiation strategy has a significantly positive effect on export performance in both performance aspects, while the cost leadership strategy is insignificant Market standardization helps to make foreign market sales considerably more effective in terms of operational, non-financial performance although it may not be of significant help or may even deter SME export sale profitability. The relationship between geographical diversification and export performance in terms of SMEs' export profitability is linear.

Over the past few decades, outsourcing has become a widely used and researched means for firms to change their performance. In this article, we attempt to link outsourcing to the market success of firms, specifically their market share. We argue that although firms may be able to increase their market share through outsourcing, this is only true up to a point, beyond which market share actually decreases as a consequence of further outsourcing. There is, in other words, a negatively curvilinear (inverted U-shape) relationship between outsourcing and market share. We also hypothesize that the outsourcing-market share relationship is moderated negatively by both the strength of firm resources and the extent of competition in a firm's market. We empirically confirm these arguments through a panel data analysis containing over 19,000 observations on manufacturing firms and offer some case examples to illustrate the mechanisms driving these results. Finally, we discuss implications for marketing research and practice.

We investigate trust relationships between senior business executives and their overseas partners. Drawing on the similarity-attraction paradigm, social categorization theory, and the distinction between cognition- and affect-based trust, we argue that executives trust their overseas partners differently, depending on the partners' cultural ethnicity. In a field survey of 108 Chinese senior executives, we found that these executives have higher affect-based trust in overseas partners of the same cultural ethnicity as themselves; cognition-based trust is associated with affect-based trust differently when overseas partners are of the same or different cultural ethnicity. We also examine the role of relative firm size and age in shaping intra-and intercultural trust. Relative firm size has a stronger negative effect on executives' cognition-based trust if their partners are of a different cultural ethnicity. Although firm age does not have a negative effect on executives' affect-based trust as hypothesized, we found firm age to be positively associated with affect-based trust for partners of the same cultural ethnicity. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of this pattern of inter-and intra-cultural trust on international business and networking (guanxi) dynamics in China. Journal of International Business Studies (2011) 42, 1150-1173. doi:10.1057/jibs.2011.35

As monitoring mechanisms are critical to exporter-distributor relationships, the effectiveness of different types of monitoring mechanisms remains an important issue. Our study goes beyond the separate effects of monitoring mechanisms on opportunism, and tests the moderating effects of market orientation (MO) and norm-based information exchange on the monitoring mechanism-opportunism relationship. Based on survey data of 160 export ventures in China, we find that process control increases distributor opportunism, while norm-based information exchange and MO decrease it. Moreover, at high levels of norm-based information exchange and MO, the impact of process control on opportunism turns from positive to negative. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Almost all managers have directly or indirectly been involved in the practice of outsourcing in recent years. But, as they know, outsourcing is not straightforward. Outsourcing inertia, when companies are slow to adapt to changing circumstances that accommodate higher outsourcing levels, may undermine a firm's performance. This article investigates the presence of outsourcing inertia and the factors that help managers overcome it. Using statistical evidence, we show that positive performance effects related to outsourcing can accumulate when circumstances change. This is then followed by rapid increases in outsourcing levels (i.e. outsourcing processes). We investigate what gives rise to these outsourcing processes through follow-up interviews with sourcing executives, which suggest five drivers behind outsourcing processes: managerial initiative (using outside experience); hierarchy (foreign headquarters); imitation (of competitors and of similar firms); outsider advice (from external institutions); knowledge sources (using external information). These five drivers all offer scope for managerial action. We tie them to academic literatures and suggest ways of investigating their presence and impact on the outsourcing process. Overall, we conclude that while economising factors play a key role in explaining how much firms outsource, it is socialising factors that tend to drive outsourcing processes. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Despite the acknowledgement of functional integration as an important driver of new product development (NPD) success and the growing recognition of the significance of industrial design (ID), the integration between industrial design and other functional units in NPD has been rarely researched. In this article, we examine the marketing and ID integration in NPD in the context of China. Mainly based on Cooper's (1994) stage-gate phases of NPD process and Gupta, Raj, and Wilemon's (1985) categorization of NPD activities, we develop a conceptual framework that identifies 29 areas that might require integration or where integration might occur between marketing and ID. Specifically, we investigate and compare the current and the ideal integration between marketing and ID perceived by the two functions. An analysis of data from 113 companies reveals that the current level of integration fell short of the ideal level of integration in all the phases of NPD. Both managers believed in the descending trend of integration along the stage-gate NPD phases and were dissatisfied with the current level of integration in all the NPD phases. Except for a few areas of agreement, marketing and ID managers showed significant differences with each other in their perceptions of the current and the ideal integration in most of the 29 areas. Despite the disagreements however, the two functions agreed with each other on the most important areas that require integration and achieved the highest level of marketing-ID integration. These findings suggest that firms should improve the marketing-ID integration in all the NPD phases and that management could improve the effectiveness of marketing-ID integration by prioritizing and focusing on the most important areas. Research and managerial implications, limitations, and future research directions are presented in the paper.

Our study focuses on the internal process through which market orientation influences performance in export markets, and develops a model of market orientation-marketing capabilities-competitive advantages-performance relationships. Using survey data of 491 export ventures based in China, we find that marketing capabilities mediate the market orientation-performance relationship, while competitive advantages partially mediate the marketing capabilities-performance relationship. Moreover, coordination mechanism strengthens, and cost leadership strategy weakens, the effects of market orientation on new product development and marketing communication capabilities, respectively. Market turbulence attenuates the effect of market orientation on new product development capability while competitive intensity strengthens this effect.

Many firms rely on external sources to acquire knowledge that is critical for enhancing new product market performance. Using a sample of 121 emerging multinational corporations (EMNCs) from China, we explore the effects of managerial ties with government officials and foreign MNC partners on knowledge acquisition and investigate how the acquired knowledge affects firms' new product market performance. Our results indicate that knowledge acquisition could only enhance new product market performance with the presence of realized absorptive capacity. Our study suggests that managers' decisions on knowledge acquisition from external sources may not increase firms' new product market performance. Instead, managerial prowess in integrating and transforming knowledge becomes paramount in enhancing new product market performance. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Purpose - Through a comprehensive literature review and data analysis, the purpose of this paper is to adopt a multi-perspective interrelation of different dimensions of existing theory to eventually bridge the fields of political and business marketing, identify the underlying causes of voter behaviour, and distil the critical factors of small political parties' (SPPs') strategic marketing communications (MCs) success. The research finally develops a preliminary conceptual strategic MCs model for SPPs that fits the context of developed countries and concentrates on the strategic aspects of MCs.Design/methodology/approach - The paper is largely conceptual and is based on an extensive literature review and secondary data; strengthened through additional and focused quantitative and qualitative data.Findings - The findings indicate an increasing association between business and political marketing, an environmental context that stimulates and nurtures a symbiotic relationship between parties and voters, an enhanced role of "perception management", and substantial divergence of SPP reality from classical theory.Research limitations/implications - Further and focused primary research is required towards model testing.Practical implications - A scientific basis is provided for practical strategic implementation of MCs by SPPs.Originality/value - The research value stems from its focus on SPPs, its contribution to the generic discussion on business marketing theory applicability to politics; its reinforcement of existing research on the subject through further data and analyses; and additionally to existing researches' focus, its concentration on the strategic aspects of the subject and its contribution to literature of an analogous strategic political marketing model.

Breakthrough innovations are difficult to create, yet they are critical to long-term competitive advantage. This highlights the considerable opportunities and risks that face corporate entrepreneurs. We study the complex explorative and exploitative entrepreneurial processes of multinational firms operating in the global pharmaceutical industry. We analyze over 1,500 new drug approvals by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). We find that a successful track record in breakthrough innovation significantly increases the likelihood of a current breakthrough, while achievements in nongeneric incremental innovation do not have a significant effect. A strong foundation in generic incremental innovation hinders breakthrough performance. Thus, incremental innovation processes appear to be heterogeneous. Products that emerge from joint ventures and alliances are more likely to be breakthroughs. Foreign subsidiary participation in innovation processes did not significantly inhibit breakthroughs. These suggestive findings support the decentralization literature that highlights the benefits associated with exploiting knowledge from foreign centers of excellence. Contrary to the literature arguing that younger firms tend to have greater advantages in exploration, we do not find firm age to be a significant predictor of the likelihood of breakthrough innovation. Copyright (C) 2010 Strategic Management Society.

We integrated the resource-, institution-, and industry-based views to investigate the determinants of export propensity and export intensity, and examined performance outcomes of firms' export behaviors using the longitudinal data of 18,644 domestic private enterprises and foreign wholly owned subsidiaries in China from 2001 to 2005. We found that institutional environment has significant effects on export behaviors above and beyond the impact of firm competencies and industry factors. Furthermore, firm competencies have differential effects on firms' export behaviors. Those firms that do not possess distinct firm competencies and those that have cost leadership competencies only do not benefit financially from exporting. Journal of International Business Studies (2010) 41, 377-396. doi:10.1057/jibs.2009.27

This study asks how a firm's degree of outsourcing across all activities influences financial performance. We argue there is an optimal degree of outsourcing, where firms outsource some activities yet integrate others, and that deviations lower performance in a negatively curvilinear fashion. We find empirical support, using 1995 and 1998 data on a sample of manufacturing businesses in the Netherlands, and show that the steepness of the curve increases under conditions of high uncertainty. We show the magnitude of the uncertainty effect on performance outcomes through a post hoc scenario analysis. Thus we provide a specific, theoretically and empirically grounded prediction of how outsourcing affects performance with implications for theory and practice. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

International business research is probably more influenced by various forces of the economic and political climates than its domestic (or generic) counterpart. The emergence of new market economies in Eastern Europe, China, India, and Brazil, the consolidation of the European Union, as well as a decade of economic stagnation and recent resurgence in Japan's economy has given global competition greater significance. This article looks at research in international marketing to see if the discipline has overcome the deficiencies outlined in the previous studies. It examines the state of the art in international marketing research, with particular emphasis on conceptual frameworks and theory development. Its primary focus is on studies published since the year 2000 because the first decade of the twenty-first century has been characterized by changes in virtually all aspects of businesses and personal life.

In this study we developed a model of the dynamic capability development mechanisms in Emerging Market manufacturing Firms (EMF). We identified three dynamic capability development mechanisms: organizational learning, reverse engineering, and manufacturing flexibility. We generated hypotheses based on this framework, linking these mechanisms with firm performance. We also modelled the roles played by managerial use of two types of government policies: input supporting policies and marketing supporting policies. We tested our hypotheses on a sample of Indian and Pakistani manufacturing firms. Results showed that organizational learning, reverse engineering and manufacturing flexibility had significant impacts on EMF performance. Additionally, organizational learning combined with input supporting government policies enhanced performance, and the combination of manufacturing flexibility and marketing supporting government policies had an insignificant influence on performance.

This research contributes to the understanding of global sourcing strategy of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBSs) by offering an explanation for the differential performance among firms, even when they use similar global sourcing strategies. Using a systems integrator as the sourcing firm's perspective, the authors argue that complex KIBSs involve a complicated mixture of interfaces in that the performance of an individual KIBS is insufficient in defining the overall performance of the integrated KIBS system. The theoretical framework uses a two-stage strategic fit model that emphasizes the conditions under which global sourcing of KIBSs influences performance. Firms that strategically coalign sourcing strategy with KIBS attributes for each KIBS activity should perform more effectively than firms that lack such a coalignment. After selecting an appropriate sourcing strategy, the firm's dynamic capabilities (i.e., absorptive capacity and integration capability) may accentuate or attenuate the performance of the strategy at the integrated KIBS system level. Thus, although managers may be tempted to source KIBSs globally to reduce labor costs, they must examine both the KIBS attributes and the firm's dynamic capabilities.

An important component of globalization during the last two decades is the increased participation of developing economies in the global economy both as markets for goods and services as well as production sites. Institutional changes emanating from evolving political landscapes within individual countries and pressures from supra-national bodies have been instrumental in the liberalization of developing countries' economies and their integration into the global economy. A growing body of research has focused on the transformation of state-owned enterprises as they are privatized, with particular focus on the role of organizational and national heritages that enhance or constrain the evolution of these firms within a market-based institutional environment. In this introduction, we review this literature stream, introduce the papers in this special issue, and highlight the theoretical approaches that help explain how organizations in distinct national contexts overcome the pressure emanating from institutional changes in developing economies. (C) 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

In a highly competitive global environment, many manufacturers respond by setting up outsourcing relations for components and finished products with lower-cost producers on a contractual OEM (original equipment manufacture) basis. In the last decade, we have witnessed a spectacular growth in outsourcing activities led primarily by U.S. and Japanese companies, although their approaches to outsourcing strategy and supplier relations are different. However, outsourcing strategy is not without drawbacks. We offer a dynamic perspective of outsourcing strategy and its performance implications, in which we argue that there is an optimal degree of outsourcing. The outsourcing-performance relationship takes on an inverted-U shape, implying that as firms deviate further from their optimal degree of outsourcing, by either insourcing or outsourcing too much, their performance will suffer disproportionately. We then discuss how e-commerce affects where the optimal point of any particular firm is located, hence explicitly linking developments in e-commerce to changing outsourcing levels. We provide implications for the practice and study of outsourcing and e-commerce. (C) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Outsourcing has gained much prominence in managerial practice and academic discussions in the last two decades or so. Yet, we still do not understand the full implications of outsourcing strategy for corporate performance. No general explanation has so far been provided for how outsourcing could lead to deterioration in a firm's competence base. We longitudinally analyze three cases of major consumer electronics manufacturers, Emerson Radio from the U.S., Japan's Sony and Philips from the Netherlands to understand the dynamic process related to their sourcing strategies.We develop an evolutionary stage model that relates outsourcing to competence development inside the firm and shows that a vicious cycle may emerge. The evolutionary stage model helps managers understand for which activities and under which conditions outsourcing across borders is not a viable option.Results suggest that each of these firms had faced a loss of manufacturing competitiveness in its home country, to which it responded by offshoring and then outsourcing production. When a loss of competences occurred, some outsourcing decisions were reversed.

This study examines whether the institutional relatedness of multinational corporations from emerging economies (EMNCs) helps them acquire critical resources (e.g., social capital and market capital) which, in turn, affect performance outcomes. Using a sample of 121 Chinese multinational corporations, this research shows that Guanxi building with Chinese government officials confers resource capital; however, it fails to sustain firms¡̄ competitive advantage. Our results also confirm that a firm¡̄s capability plays a critical role in its technological performance, which suggests that firms must enhance internal capabilities to create firm value.

This study examines the determinants of international knowledge flow. From a resource-based perspective, it evaluates the impact of cross-national knowledge transfer on firm innovative performance. Based on 56,027 US patents owned by 53 selected firms in the US-based pharmaceutical industry, the results suggest that innovative performance is a curvilinear function of the international knowledge content used by a firm to innovate. As hypothesized, it was found that at ( 1) low and moderate levels of international knowledge content, a firm's strategy to transfer international knowledge improves its innovative performance, and at ( 2) higher levels of international knowledge content, there are diminishing marginal returns to transferring knowledge from overseas.

In response to numerous calls for the cross-cultural validation Of measures used in international research, the authors assess measurement invariance of the export market orientation (EMO) and export performance (EP) constructs using 491 Chinese and non-Chinese export ventures in China. The results show that both the EMO and the EP scales are invariant between Chinese and non-Chinese export ventures. In addition, different EMO components have differential effects on EP for Chinese versus non-Chinese firms. To achieve higher EP, Chinese firms should focus on export intelligence responsiveness, and non-Chinese firms should concentrate their efforts on export intelligence generation. The authors discuss implications and suggest directions for further research.

The traditional "make-or-buy" decision has been widely studied in the context of the theory of the firm and vertical integration. One of the most popular frameworks for examining this strategic decision has been the transaction cost analysis (TCA) framework. However, much of past research has focused on the make-or-buy decisions of product manufacturing activities, to the neglect of services. The make-or-buy decisions of services and service activities, due to their inherent characteristics (i.e., intangibility, inseparability, heterogeneity, and perishability) and the unique nature of their "production" and "delivery," necessitate modifying and revamping the existing framework. The authors develop and empirically test a conceptual framework that examines factors influencing a firm's decision to use outsourcing or in-house sourcing for a service (service activity). © 2007, Idea Group Inc.

This study extends the research on alliances by adopting the strategic fit paradigm in examining the factors affecting alliance performance. Using contingency theory and the theoretical arguments put forth by social exchange theory, we argue that the proper coalignment of alliance form with alliance attributes would positively influence alliance performance. Our findings generally confirm that an appropriate match between alliance forms and attributes has positive impact on alliance performance, which may not be achieved by having the alliance attributes or alliance form alone. © 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

With the increasing desire for products suitable for widely varying markets worldwide, this study offers insight into capabilities associated with successful robust design in global product markets. These robust design capabilities (i.e., the possibility for success under varying circumstances or scenarios) are a potential organizational response to rapid change and uncertainty, which also improve the likelihood of product acceptance on a global basis. From literature, executive interviews, and anecdotal evidence, four capabilities associated with robust product design are derived: (1) functional; (2) aesthetic; (3) technological; and (4) quality based. A model is proposed and an empirical test conducted that considers the moderating influence of environmental uncertainty on the relationship between these robust capabilities and firm performance. The findings suggest that the use of robust design capabilities are affected by uncertainty and have an important influence on firm performance and speed to market. Specifically, the product development process tends to be characterized by aesthetic and technological robust design capabilities in more certain environments and functional robust design capabilities in more uncertain environments when seeking to improve firm performance. Alternatively, technological design capabilities in more certain environments and functional design capabilities in more uncertain environments are associated with improved speed to market. © 2005 Product Development & Management Association.

Although foreign multinational firms from the Triad regions increasingly use mainland China as both a sourcing and a marketing location, no study has directly examined the sourcing strategy-performance linkage. Using resource complementarity and resource dependence theory, we extend the sourcing literature and apply these perspectives to an important transitional economy-China. These two theoretical perspectives suggest that product and uncertainty factors moderate the relationship between strategic alliance-based sourcing (SA sourcing) of major components and market performance. We find that, at low levels of product innovativeness and technological uncertainty, the use of SA sourcing is positively related to market performance. However, the effects of product differentiation and demand uncertainty on the sourcing-performance relationship are insignificant. © 2005 Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. All rights reserved.

Global competition requires increased technology transfer across national boundaries for global business opportunities. Previous studies on technology transfer have assumed that both transferor and transferee possess linguistic competence, and mainly focused on the types and the nature of the technology transferred. When examining international technology transfer between linguistically and culturally very different countries, companies face additional challenges. Through a different theoretical lens in organizational learning, we contribute to the literature on knowledge transfer by proposing and confirming demonstrability and drawability as two new constructs that affect knowledge transfer. © 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Global sourcing strategy has been one of the most hotly debated management trends in the last 20 years. In its early years, global sourcing was examined mostly from "in-house" development and procurement perspectives; and in the last several years, research focus has shifted to "outsourcing" activities. Along with this shift from internal to external focus on global sourcing, many researchers and business practitioners have applied a core competency argument to justify increased levels of outsourcing activities on a global basis. Although the beneficial aspects of outsourcing are assumed in most cases, no consensus exists in reality as to the effect of outsourcing. Furthermore, the increased instability of the exchange rate environment in the last several years has also led to increased difficulties in managing globally scattered operations that were once fashionable in the 1980s-90s under the rubric of global strategy. In this article, the authors explore potential limitations and negative consequences of outsourcing strategy on a global scale. © 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Global procurement of service activities has received an increasing amount of managerial attention in recent years. Service firms seem to have begun sourcing part of their service activities from abroad in much the same way as manufacturing firms have sourced components and finished goods in the past 30 years. However, little is known about the nature of service global sourcing strategy. In this study, we examine the differences in the characteristics of core service activities provided by service firms that market pure service activities versus those service firms that market service activities which involve tangible goods, and the extent to which both types of service firms engage in internal and foreign sourcing of core service activities before the service activities are provided to their customers. The results show, among others, that the level of inseparability of core service activities performed and/or sourced by "pure" service firms is significantly higher than that of "non-pure" service firms and that "non-pure" service firms consider foreign sourcing drivers as much more important factors in influencing the decisions in selecting potential suppliers for core service activities. Managerial and theoretical implications are explored.

International diversification is a growth strategy that has a major potential impact on firm performance. The relationship between international diversification and firm performance has been extensively studied in the international strategy literature. A major gap in the literature has been the non-existence of studies that have examined the effect of international diversification on performance in service firms. Previous studies that have tested the international diversification-performance relationship were based on samples of manufacturing firms. We argue that the form of the relationship between multi-nationality and performance is different in service firms. We provide a theoretical argument for this claim and hypothesize that there is a U-shaped curvilinear relationship between multinationality and performance in service firms. Our sample consists of 81 major German service firms, spanning across four industries. Results show that there is support for a U-shaped curvilinear relationship. Based on the findings, implications and directions for future research are provided.

Researchers in international business have long been interested in understandingthe relationship between the multinationality of a firm and its market performance. This article contributes to this research stream by incorporating firm heterogeneity in examining the multinationality-performance relationship. The findings, based on a time series cross-sectional analysis of firms from 12 different industries over a seven-year period, indicate that the impact of multinationality on both financial and operational performanceis moderated by firm's R'D and marketing capabilities. © 2002, Academy of International Business. All rights reserved.

This paper presents a taxonomic study of sourcing strategy types and their relationships to subsidiary profitability. Using the taxonomic approach, this study identifies five sourcing strategy types based on the decision rules of direction and volume of sourcing activities, namely market access, offshore platform, offshore manufacturing, local sourcing, and complex sourcing. We validated these sourcing types by linking them to a set of business and investment strategic factors. Based on a sample of 319 foreign subsidiaries in China, the results confirm the taxonomy of sourcing types indicating that sourcing strategy types indeed vary along the strategic factors including wage rates, R&D intensity, subsidiary size, capital commitment, ownership control and partner type. © 2002 Kluwer Academic Publishers.

On the basis of a synthesis of prior research, the authors develop a model, which integrates export marketing involvement and the use of government export promotion assistance programs as critical variables affecting export performance, and subject it to empirical evaluation. In this context, the authors also investigate organizational and managerial differences among the firms involved in export marketing to ascertain the robustness of and replicate the observed differences in firms' export marketing involvement behavior. The results indicate that export marketing involvement affirms and firms' usage of government export assistance programs are important export success factors. However, the relevance of export assistance programs and the role they play vary depending on the dimension of export performance being considered.

Business executives outside of Japan have complained for decades that Japan 's distribution system is essentially closed and does not permit easy access. The Japanese government and Japanese business executives, in turn, highlight the continuous introduction of distribution opening measures in their efforts to appease foreign critics. Globalization has made major inroads in distribution activities of firms, and the burst of Japan 's bubble economy and the subsequent Asian crisis have brought major changes to the business environment. In follow-up to a 1991 meeting, in 1998 we reconvened the leading distribution thinkers and doers in the policy, business, and research communities from 12 countries. In this meeting, 70 participants with a high level of distribution expertise, held, for three days, discussions that focused on the complexity of distribution and trade practices, on impending changes and on future opportunities. © 2000 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.

This study develops a framework for examining the export strategies of firms from emerging economies and their performance in foreign markets. Hypotheses derived from this framework were tested on a sample of firms from Brazil, Chile, and Mexico. Findings suggest that cost-based strategies enhance export performance in developed country markets and differentiation strategies enhance performance in other developing countries. Adapting marketing mix variables to the specific needs of developed country markets also enhances export performance. The relationship between geographical diversification and export performance is nonlinear.

Global procurement of services has been receiving an increasing amount of managerial attention in recent years. Service firms seem to have begun sourcing part of their service activities from abroad in much the same way as manufacturing firms have sourced components and finished goods in the past 30 years. However, little is known about the nature of service sourcing strategy. In this study, we employ a modified transaction-cost analysis to examine empirically the locational (domestic vs. global sourcing) and the ownership (internal vs. external sourcing) aspects of service sourcing strategy. In addition, performance implications on both the locational and ownership aspects of service sourcing are investigated. The results show that, similar to components and finished goods procurement, supplementary services are sourced globally, either internally or externally. Furthermore, the relationship between asset specificity and internal sourcing of supplementary services is moderated by the level of inseparability and transaction frequency. Finally, internal sourcing and foreign sourcing of supplementary services are negatively related to a service's market performance. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The extent to which exchange rate fluctuations affect international prices is called “exchange rate pass-through.” This paper develops a conceptual model in explaining how exchange rate fluctuations are channeled into international pricing strategy, and offers research propositions. Our model posits that the extent of exchange rate pass-through in international pricing is affected by the firm's pricing orientation, performance orientation, distribution policy, and brand equity, as well as by exchange rate uncertainty and competitive symmetry. © 1999, Academy of International Business. All rights reserved.

Based on an extensive survey of corporate executives living and working in Japan, this study examines the relative rate of occurrence of anticompetitive behavior and its impact on the performance of U.S. companies operating in Japan. By anticompetitive behavior, we refer to illegal commercial activity outlawed by both U.S. and Japanese statute, such as big rigging, price fixing, and market allocation. Thus, this work goes beyond the extensive body of literature addressing Japan's infamous, but largely government sanctioned, barriers and alleged barriers to trade and looks specifically at activity that even the Japanese government decrees to be criminal and punishable by law. The study finds that the occurrence of anticompetitive behavior is perceived differently by the nationality of the managers surveyed: American executives believe that illegal competitive behavior does occur more frequently in Japan than in the United States, while Japanese executives (and those of other nationalities to some lesser extent) do not perceive such a difference. Second, despite their contrary opinions regarding occurrence, the executives as a general group, regardless of nationality, indicate that anticompetitive behavior has not had a significant negative impact on their business performance in Japan. This work also confirms that foreign companies with the best performance in Japan are those that offer superior products and exceptional service backed by scale economies or other sources of bargaining strength, and that long-term growth and performance depend upon the development of sufficient local autonomy and flexibility to facilitate timely adaptation to local needs and demands. © 1998 Elsevier Science Inc.

During most of this decade, Japan has been mired in its longest post-war recession. Some pundits predict that this will be the end of the Japanese corporate juggernaut. Indeed, our interest in Japan and Japanese competition has waned concomitantly in recent years. So has our learning from the Japanese. This is dangerously short-sighted. The pendulum of international trade has shifted from cross-Atlantic to cross-Pacific in recent years, as U.S. and Japanese multinational companies engaged in global sourcing strategy across the Pacific. Indeed, while struggling in the post-bubble economy, many Japanese companies have accelerated their move toward their Pacific Rim global sourcing paradigm. Based on Japan's regional ties with the rest of Asia, Australia, and increasingly other parts of the Pacific Rim, this paradigm builds on Japan's famed target costing, target exchange rate, new product development style, and keiretsu (interfirm alliances). While Japanese companies have slowed the pace of their onslaught on the U.S. market, they have begun their geographical diversification into the emerging parts of the world market. As a result, American companies are bound to face increasingly formidable Japanese competition around the world. © Academy of Management Executive, 1998.

Thanks to MERCOSUR, some U.S. companies are finding marketing opportunities in the Southern Hemisphere.

Global procurement of services has received an increasing amount of managerial attention in recent years. Service firms seem to have begun sourcing some of their activities from abroad in much the same way that manufacturing firms have outsourced in the past 30 years. However, little is known about the performance implications of a service sourcing strategy. This study applies, with appropriate modifications, a global components/finished goods sourcing strategy framework to the service sector. It also tests hypotheses relating service firms' global sourcing strategy to their market performance.

Although prior research has considered the impact of individuals' values on employee job responses, few investigations have been directed toward assessing how values influence salespeople and none of the investigations has been cross-national. This article presents a values typology derived from social psychology and uses it to examine the impact of values on three critical job responses of sales personnel: job performance, organizational commitment, and motivation. The typology comprises seven value domains: enjoyment, security, achievement, self-direction, restrictive conformity, prosocial behavior, and maturity. Data were gathered from a survey of U.S. and Japanese field salespersons in the electronics industry. The seven value domains are hypothesized to be selectively related to the job responses under investigation. Moreover, the enjoyment, achievement, and self-direction domains are posited to have a stronger relationship with the job responses in the U.S. than in the Japanese sample. Security, restrictive conformity, and prosocial behavior domains are posited to have a stronger association with the job responses in the Japanese than in the U.S. sample. No difference between the two samples is hypothesized for the maturity/job response linkages. The findings, some of which were unexpected, indicate that values have some influence on the three job responses in the two samples. Few differences, though, were found between U.S. and Japanese salespeople. J BUSN RES 1997. 39.195-208 ©1997 Elsevier Science Inc.

This study enhances our understanding of channel integration in foreign markets on two fronts. First, the eclectic approach to foreign entry mode, proposed by Hill, Hwang and Kim [1990] and Kim and Hwang [1992], is used to examine transaction-specific, organizational capability and strategic factors that influence channel choices in foreign markets. Empirical results based on survey of U.S. firms support the combined relevance of these factors in predicting the degree of channel integration. Second, the study empirically examines the performance consequences of channel integration. The results suggest that, although the degree of channel integration does not have a direct influence on channel performance, a contingency model based on the fit between the contextual factors and the actual channel choice is significantly related to performance in foreign markets. © 1997, Academy of International Business. All rights reserved.

Antidumping laws can have a profound effect on both domestic and international firms and are increasingly used by nations around the world to reduce competition in domestic markets. In the United States, the International Trade Commission (ITC) is a key governmental agency which determines whether or not to impose antidumping measures on imports and the types of measures to impose. This paper analyzes some of the key factors affecting the antidumping decisions taken by the ITC. The data were gathered in a systematic and comprehensive review of the original case and investigation ledgers of the Commission for all full case investigations conducted from 1980 to 1992. Principal findings are that large firms can use the antidumping process to obtain strategic shelter from foreign competitors even under conditions of growing markets, while smaller firms in more atomistic industries are likely to gain such shelter only in instances of market decline. In addition, current import penetration ratios appear to influence the decision process, while Japanese and other Asian origin of imports seems to have little effect on the outcome. Given the linkages identified, several strategic responses useful to managers are identified. © 1997 JAI Press Inc. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved.

Existing research on international partnerships focuses primarily on the ex ante structuring of interorganizational relationships. This study departs from this research by taking a behavioral approach to understand the ex post maintenance of cross-border marketing partnerships. A conceptual model is developed by identifying the antecedents of trust and performance in such partnerships. The model is empirically tested on a sample of U.S. firms having distributor and licensing relationships with firms from Asia, Europe, and Central/South America. Findings support the importance of bilateral relational norms and informal monitoring mechanism in building interorganizational trust and improving market performance of international partnerships. © 1996, Academy of International Business. All rights reserved.

Earlier studies have shown that internal sourcing of major components has a direct bearing on the multinational firm's market performance. However, factors that affect the extent to which the firm employs intra-firm (internal) sourcing have not been explored. In this study, we examine the determinants of internal sourcing of major components, and revisit the relationship between internal sourcing of major components and market performance. Our results show that process innovation, asset specificity, management's attitude, nationality, and availability of substitute components strongly affect the degree of internal sourcing of major components that subsequently has a bearing on a product's market performance.

In the context of mode of entry into new markets, existing theory tends to identify technology licensing as a step toward or an alternative to wholly owned subsidiaries. However, recent trends in technology licensing indicate that technology licensing is used increasingly as a conscious, proactive component of a technology-based firm's global product strategy. The authors present a conceptual framework from the licensor's perspective on technology licensing by combining the existing literature and licensing practices in industry to identify the antecedent product market, industry level, and resource-based factors that lead to technology licensing. They also present propositions on how these factors affect technology licensing and conclude by linking technology licensing to different dimensions of a firm's product strategy.

The authors examined 905 new product innovations introduced since September 1988 to determine the influences on product innovativeness, with a specific interest in strategic alliances, or cooperative strategies. Findings suggest that single firms, horizontal cooperative strategies, small and mixed'sized firms, biochemical industries, cross‐industry product offerings, cross‐industry cooperations, the progression of time, and European firms tend to indicate significantly more innovative products. Implications are proposed for business practitioners and researchers with specific application to the diffusion of innovation. Copyright © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This article examines how Ito-Yokado Co. Ltd. of Japan, the long-time licensee of the Southland Corporation's 7-Eleven store chain, has come back to the United States to acquire its parent company and has begun to implement the Japanese firm's management techniques at 7-Eleven stores in the United States. While we have been fully aware of the Japanese competitive juggernaut in the consumer durable products industry, we rarely hear about it in services, let alone in retailing. As the Japanese licensee's takeover of the American convenience-store parent company suggests, the next generation of Japanese competition may come unexpectedly from service sectors such as retail business. © 1995.

Although substantial research attention has been devoted to motivation of salespeople, there is a paucity of empirical work examining motivational differences of sales personnel from various countries. This dearth of interest is surprising given that previous investigations in non-selling situations have found that employee motivational concerns vary across nations. This paper reports results of a study that focused on motivational perceptions among U.S., Japanese, and Korean salespersons. Findings revealed distinct differences among U.S. salespeople and their Asian counterparts. Few motivational distinctions, however, were observed between Japanese and Korean sales personnel. Managerial and research implications are also discussed. J. BUSN RES 1994. 30.175-185. © 1994.

This study identifies generic Japanese strategy clusters and explores their performance implications. It is based on Japanese executives’ perceptions of the veracity of various PIMS strategy principles in Japan. Three distinct strategy clusters are identified around market position and product strategy dimensions. These Japanese strategy clusters, when moderated by such contingency factors as strategic orientation and product life cycle stage, offer unique performance implications for the Japanese market. © 1993, The Academy of Marketing Science. All rights reserved.

Japanese direct investment in the United States has dramatically increased in the 1980s, particularly since 1985. Of all the Japanese direct investment in the United States, more than 60% occured in the second half of the decade. However, little is known about the roles that each of the 50 states plays in locating Japanese investment in the state. Anecdotes of the roles that some state governments play in attracting major Japanese investments are not sufficient to understand the effectiveness of various promotional measures. In this article, I examine the effectiveness of various promotional measures. An unexpected finding is reported: state government's export promotional activities are effective in attracting Japanese investments, while measures meant to attract them are not. Japanese firms have some preferred investment locations that seem weakly but positively influenced by the presence of peer Japanese firms preceding them. © 1993.

Although empirical work has examined differences between salesmen and saleswomen on various aspects, no comprehensive study has examined gender-based distinctions in salespeople’s work motivation. The paucity of research attention on this topic is surprising given the plethora of literature in organizational behavior. This paper reports the results of an investigation that explored male and female salespeople’s perceptions of expectancies, instrumentalities, and valence for rewards. Findings reveal minimal contrast between the two groups. Implications for practitioners and researchers are provided. © 1993 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

In an earlier study the focus was on the differences and similarities in patent practices and their discriminatory implications among the United States, Japan, Germany and Britain from a corporate perspective. Here, the impact of foreign patents on each national economy is examined from a macroeconomic point of view. Findings suggest that discriminatory patent practices in these countries have affected their economic growths in some predictable ways, given their respective domestic technological infrastructure. © 1992 Chapman & Hall Ltd. All right reserved.

Much research attention has been directed over the past twenty-five years to ethical issues in marketing. One area of marketing that is gaining research interest is the selling arena. Despite the extant literature on selling ethics, few studies have focused on identifying situations that pose ethical problems for field sales personnel. This paper reports results of an investigation that examined salespeople’s perceptions concerning what selling situations or practices are ethical questions, what situations are presently addressed by company policies, and what situations should be addressed by company policies. Findings reveal that salespersons seemingly are desirous of receiving more management guidance than they currently are receiving regarding their ethical concerns. Implications for managers and researchers are provided. © 1992 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

This article examines a widely debated issue: the "hollowing-out" of U.S. multinationals. Using path analysis applied to the benchmark survey of U.S. direct investment abroad for 1977 and 1982, the study shows that the "hollowness" of U.S. multinationals is indicative of their global competitiveness, although causal relationships are not obvious. "Hollowing-out" may be an offshoot of the deindustrialization of the U.S. economy; it may alternatively signify "reindustrialization" of U.S. firms on a global basis. © 1989.

Based on the US Department of Commerce survey data of US direct investment abroad for 1977 and 1985 (US Department of Commerce 1981 and 1987, respectively), this study examines the shift of global market share of US multinational manufacturing firms for the 1977-1985 period. Consolidated global market shares of US multinationals for 26 industries are estimated for 1977 and for 1985. The shift in their global market share will be analysed from a perspective of three alternative, if not independent, strategic thrusts: namely, home market orientation, export orientation, and foreign production orientation. © 1989 MCB UP Ltd