Keiretsu centrality — profits and profit stability: A power dependence perspective

Prior studies compare keiretsu member firm and independent firm performance. Here, we use historical and power dependence perspectives to theorize that the Japanese keiretsu system primarily benefits the most central firms. We test this by examining the performance of two types of keiretsu firms (central firms and other member firms) within two types of keiretsu (horizontal and vertical). We hypothesize and find that: (1) central vertical keiretsu firms are more profitable than central horizontal keiretsu firms; (2) central horizontal keiretsu firms have greater profit stability than central vertical keiretsu firms; (3) central vertical keiretsu firms are more profitable than non-central vertical keiretsu firms; and (4) central horizontal keiretsu firms have greater profit stability than non-central horizontal keiretsu firms. Implications for managers and future research directions are discussed.     

Network embeddedness and new-venture internationalization: Analyzing international linkages in the German biotech industry

This paper examines whether inter-organizational factors influence German biotech firms' propensity to internationalize by forming international research alliances. Inter-organizational factors include dimensions of a firm's embeddedness within its local cluster and within its national research network. We test two sets of hypotheses (local and national network-drivers) on a longitudinal event history dataset of the complete German biotech population for the years 1995–2004. Findings show that location in a local cluster already dense with international linkages, the building of research alliances with local research institutes as well as national partners and central position in the national research network increase the probability of forming international research alliances.     

SME Competitive Strategy and Location Behavior: An Exploratory Study of High-Technology Manufacturing

Forty-four Scottish small and medium-sized high-technology manufacturing firms were surveyed regarding their technology strategies and the impact of regional- and site-specific infrastructure requirements on their location behavior. An empirically derived typology of technology content for high-technology firms was developed via cluster analysis and utilized, together with selected technology and manufacturing strategy variables, to investigate whether significant linkages existed between these variables and firms' related location decisions. Results suggest that location decisions are directly correlated to a firm's competitive strategy and that they should actually be considered a dynamic dimension of strategy rather than a static one-time choice.     

Surviving globalisation

This paper investigates the effects of international trade on firms' strategies for industry exit, either via closedown, switching industry or being acquired. We use a rich dataset of Swedish firms that extends over two decades to track firm choices between alternative strategies. We find that higher levels of international competition increase the probability of exit by merger and closedown. If trade is more intra-industry in character, the effect of import penetration on the probability of exit is less. The probability of exit by switching industry is higher in revealed comparative disadvantage industries. Finally, we find that the geographical source of international competition is important, the effects of trade on exit being strongest when trading partners are other OECD countries.     

Value relevance of blog visibility

This study empirically examines the effect of a non-traditional information source, namely a firm's blog visibility on the capital market valuation of firms. After controlling for earnings, book value of equity and other value relevant variables, such as traditional media exposure, R&D spending, and advertising expense, we find a positive association between a firm's blog visibility and its capital market valuation. In addition, we find blog visibility Grange causes trading, not vice versa. Our findings indicate that non-traditional information sources such as blogs help disseminate information and influence consumers' investment decisions by capturing their attention.     

Performance expectations of small firms considering radical product innovation

Performance expectations influence business decisions such as investment decisions and demand for supplies, particularly in small firms with limited strategic planning. Despite widespread use of performance expectations by firms and governments when making sales forecasts and economic outlooks, surprisingly little research exists about how small firms form performance expectations. This paper contributes to reduce this knowledge gap by analyzing performance expectations of small firm managers operating in markets with radical product innovations. This paper proposes a model and hypotheses, which explain performance expectations of small firm managers based on firms' current success, radical product innovation, and variables that indicate firms' ability to respond to customer needs for radical product innovation. Data from 200 decision-makers in a real decision-making context support the model. The results show that performance expectations in small firms are only to a limited extent a naïve extrapolation of current success: radical product innovation and small firm's ability to respond to customer needs for radical product innovation influence performance expectations.     

Investment History and Market Orientation Effects in the TFP–FDI Relationship1

This paper examines the robustness of previous stochastic dominance tests that find significant total factor productivity (TFP) heterogeneity between firms that export abroad and multinational enterprises (MNEs). We extend this literature by focusing on how ‘within‐MNE’ heterogeneity affects the extent to which one can identify the TFP threshold in the exporter–MNE TFP relationship. Within‐MNE heterogeneity is established by determining both the number and location of the foreign affiliates established by each MNE. In this way, we separate single‐affiliate MNEs from those with multiple affiliates, as well as analyse the role played by vertical FDI, a topic typically ignored in previous stochastic dominance tests of the Helpman et al. (2004, American Economic Review, 94, 300–16) hypothesis. Our empirical tests employ Japanese firm‐level FDI and TFP data for the period 1975–2000. Using Kolmogorov–Smirnov tests to determine stochastic dominance, we find significant TFP heterogeneity within the MNE group based on investment history and affiliate geographic location. While our results confirm the standard HMY three‐tiered classification to exist for Japanese firms, exporter–MNE ‘between‐group’ TFP heterogeneity is sensitive to the ‘within‐MNE’ investment history heterogeneity. We note that single‐ and two‐affiliate MNEs are statistically more similar to exporting firms than to MNEs with greater foreign affiliate totals. This shows the exporter–MNE TFP threshold to be not as explicit as Helpman et al. (2004, American Economic Review, 94, 300–16) suggest. In fact, our results allow us to identify the MNE‐side width of Girma et al.’s (2005, Economic Letters, 83, 317–24) ‘uncertainty region’ surrounding this threshold. Finally, we also find a strong TFP–market orientation relationship exists where the most productive firms follow complex integration strategies, lesser TFP firms do horizontal FDI, and the least productive MNEs do vertical FDI.     

Retail Shelf Allocation: A Comparative Analysis of Heuristic and Meta-Heuristic Approaches

This research presents a retail shelf-space decision model that incorporates a nonlinear profit function, vertical and horizontal location effects, and product cross-elasticity. We propose a linear programming formulation of the nonlinear profit function that can solve the shelf-space problem optimally. We describe potential advances in heuristic and meta-heuristic algorithms and compare the approaches through simulations and a field experiment. We discuss the impact of the number of item facings, vertical location, and horizontal location (e.g., we find the vertical location effect is approximately double the size of the horizontal location effect on profit performance).     

Linking marketing capabilities with profit growth

Profit growth is one of the primary drivers of a firm's stock price and therefore is a clear priority for managers. Yet little is known about how a firm's marketing capabilities may be linked with its profit growth. In this study, we use data from a cross-industry sample of 114 firms to investigate how market sensing, brand management, and customer relationship management (CRM) capabilities determine firms' revenue growth and margin growth—the two components of profit growth. Our results reveal that these marketing capabilities have direct and complementary effects on both revenue and margin growth rates. Critically, we find that brand management and CRM capabilities have opposing effects on revenue and margin growth rates, such that a failure to examine these two underlying components would mask the relationships between these marketing capabilities and ultimate profit growth rates.     

Geographic clustering and outward foreign direct investment

This study addresses an important neglected question: To what extent do geographic clusters promote outward foreign direct investment (ODI)? We find evidence that clusters do promote ODI and so support Porter's argument that advantages gained in clusters can be the foundations of successful internationalisation. Digging deeper, we find that certain cluster incumbents promote more ODI than others, with more experienced firms and firms with stronger resource bases accounting for more ODI. We also find that firms located in clusters within major global nodes/cities engage in more ODI. Finally, we find that both localisation and urbanisation economies promote ODI. However, the former, within-industry effects, are more important. Overall, this study echoes Dunning's call for more focus on the ‘L’ component of the ownership, location, internalisation (OLI) paradigm and particularly on the advantages that reside in clusters that make them not only attractive destinations for foreign direct investment (FDI) but also fertile environments from which FDI can spring.     

Financial factors and exporting decisions

Is financial health a determinant of export market participation? Is it an outcome? Using a panel of 9292 UK manufacturing firms over the period 1993-2003, we explore the links between firms' financial health and their export market participation decisions. We find that exporters exhibit better financial health than non-exporters. Yet, when we differentiate between continuous exporters and starters, we see that this result is driven by the former. Starters generally display low liquidity and high leverage, possibly due to the sunk costs which need to be met to enter export markets. Furthermore, we find no evidence that firms enjoying better ex-ante financial health are more likely to start exporting, and strong evidence that participation in export markets improves firms' financial health.     

On the measurement of investment types: Heterogeneity in corporate tax elasticities

This paper contributes to debates about the appropriate characterisation of heterogeneous investment types and to what extent different investment motives affect the responsiveness to corporate taxation. In particular, we employ and refine a methodology to better evaluate the tax elasticity of investment types. Using a combination of both firm‐specific information and sector‐specific information from input–output tables, we discuss how to classify investment as non‐related, horizontal, vertical and complex types. First, we point out to what extent the resulting classification depends on assumptions made by the researcher. Second, we employ an ample set of classifications and find that non‐related investment reacts stronger to corporate taxation, whereas horizontal investment is less responsive, though, significant negative tax semi‐elasticities turn out for the subset of manufacturing industries. To address inherent characteristics of vertical and complex investment, we extend the methodology and find that, by and large, stronger business motives reduce the tax responsiveness of investment to a larger extent. Given the current debates about substantial corporate tax reforms, it is all the more important to recognise that corporate tax effects can vary fundamentally between countries, driven by country‐specific differences in their composition of industries and investment types.     

When political instability devaluates home-host ties

This study aims to shed light on how the value of home-host ties is contingent on political instability (i.e., political conflict and major institutional transitions). We hypothesize that by increasing the risk within the institutional structure, small political conflict positively moderates the relationship between home-host ties and location attractiveness, whereas full-fledged wars, in which risk to the institutional structure dominates erode the value of ties. Examining location choice decisions in Sub-Saharan Africa, we find evidence that home-host ties are not affected by small political conflict, while wars and major institutional transitions devaluate home-host ties.     

The merits of horizontal versus vertical FDI in the presence of uncertainty

We examine the impact of uncertainty on vertical and horizontal FDI. Our model shows that greater supply uncertainty reduces the expected income from vertical FDI but increases the expected income from horizontal FDI. Greater demand uncertainty adversely affects the expected income under both production modes. Uncertainty about predatory actions by the host country is more costly to the multinational under vertical than under the horizontal mode. We examine sales by foreign affiliates of U.S. parent companies. Conditioning on host-country characteristics thought to influence FDI, we find evidence that volatility and sovereign risk have a greater negative impact on vertical FDI than on horizontal FDI.     

Whither Japanese keiretsu? The transformation of vertical keiretsu in Toyota,Nissan and Honda 1991–2011

Drawing on institutional theory, this paper discusses the transformation of vertical keiretsu in the Japanese automotive industry from 1991 to 2011. By investigating the cases of Toyota, Nissan, and Honda, the paper empirically contributes to the debate on whither the Japanese economy is heading. Long-standing relationships to suppliers and exclusiveness have changed significantly in Nissan, while remaining stable in Toyota and Honda. New competition-based elements and more open support systems have been added to earlier governance mechanisms such as power and anshin (security). We argue that the studied keiretsu since the 1990s follows diverse and complex trajectories of hybridization, and we suggest that the Japanese economy is developing similarly.     

The impact of horizontal and vertical FDI on host's country economic growth

In this paper, we contribute to the literature investigating the impact of FDI on host country economic growth by distinguishing between the growth effects of horizontal (market seeking) FDI and vertical (efficiency seeking) FDI. Using a new database, we estimate the growth effects of vertical and horizontal US MNE activity into 44 host countries over the period 1983–2003, also using traditional total FDI figures as a benchmark. Controlling for endogeneity and absorptive capacity effects, we find that horizontal and vertical FDI have positive and significant growth effects in developed countries. Moreover, our results indicate a superior growth effect of horizontal FDI over vertical FDI. In line with existing literature, we find no significant effects of horizontal or vertical FDI in developing countries.     

Is foreign direct investment a channel of knowledge spillovers? Evidence from Japan's FDI in the United States

Recent empirical work has examined the extent to which international trade fosters international “spillovers” of technological information. FDI is an alternate, potentially equally important channel for the mediation of such knowledge spillovers. I introduce a framework for measuring international knowledge spillovers at the firm level, and I use this framework to directly test the hypothesis that FDI is a channel of knowledge spillovers for Japanese multinationals undertaking direct investments in the United States. Using an original firm-level panel data set on Japanese firms' FDI and innovative activity, I find evidence that FDI increases the flow of knowledge spillovers both from and to the investing Japanese firms.     

Does foreign investment benefit the exporting activities of Vietnamese firms?

Using firm-level data, this paper examines the effects of foreign investment on the exporting behaviour of domestic firms in the Vietnamese manufacturing and service sectors. Applying the Heckman selection model on panel data and following the Wooldridge approach, we find that investment by foreign firms has a significant positive effect on the decision of domestic firms in the same and upstream sectors to export. The proportion of exports of domestic firms declines through horizontal and forward linkages, but increases through backward linkages in the manufacturing sector. However, there is only weak evidence in support of export spillovers on domestic firms in the service sector. We also find that the presence of foreign firms has differing effects on the exporting activities of low- versus high-tech firms in the manufacturing sector.     

企业投融资互动机制下的信贷违约风险——基于中国上市公司的实证研究

本文以中国上市公司为样本,实证分析了在负债融资与投资决策相互作用的机制下企业信贷违约风险的变化规律.实证结果表明,整体上投资支出会促进信贷违约风险,负债融资会对其产生抑制;在负债融资导致的过度投资情形下,企业投资对信贷违约风险的促进作用将更明显,而过度投资会抑制企业最优负债融资水平,从而带来更低的最优信贷违约风险;短期负债融资会促进企业信贷违约风险的增加.文章为信贷违约风险控制探寻了一种从企业微观财务决策角度进行分析的全新视角.     

Exploring the relation between family involvement and firms' financial performance: A meta-analysis of main and moderator effects

The present work summarizes the theoretical foundations and empirical findings regarding the relation between family involvement and firm performance. From a theory-based perspective we integrate evolutionary psychology and agency theory and describe how conflicting predictions can be made regarding the relation between family involvement and firm performance. Similarly, we describe how the empirical landscape is equally conflicted. Findings from this meta-analysis summarize the observed effects from multiple studies and provide an estimate of the relation across the entire population. Results illustrated that family involvement did not significantly impact firms' financial performance (r = .006). Based on these data, there is no relation between family involvement and a firm's financial performance. Furthermore, we examined multiple conceptual and methodologically-based potential moderating influences—none was statistically significant. Overall, these findings provide the foundation for multiple new areas of inquiry as the domain of family business studies evolves. Moving forward, we advise future research in this area to search for additional moderator effects and explore the defining characteristics, other than performance, that make family businesses distinct from non-family businesses.