The role of endogenous and exogenous risk in FDI entry choices

FDI research has presented consistent evidence that firm experience moderates the effect of risk on entry in a new foreign market. This conclusion is contested by recent research. By revisiting the conceptualisation of risk by economists and behaviourists, we show that the proposed learning mechanism only applies to endogenous risk, not exogenous risk. As assessing endogenous risk involves self-evaluation of risk-reducing capability, it is posited that firms have differential tendencies to take such risks even when experience and ownership are accounted for. We find both observed and unobserved variations in firms’ responses to endogenous risk, as opposed to exogenous risk.     

Bring in the brewers: business entry in the Swedish brewing industry from 1830 to 2012

This article analyses long-term business entry in the Swedish brewing industry, presenting new data on its organisational historiography. Since 1830, the rate of entry has varied considerably; entries increased progressively from the 1850s, and fell at a decreasing rate from the early twentieth century. An increasing tendency to enter the trade can be observed from the mid-1980s – in particular, there has been a considerable resurgence since the turn of the millennium. The article elaborates on explanations that are both exogenous and endogenous. Above all, the results provide support for the role of endogenous conditions. The results should be viewed as complementary to previous analyses of the (Swedish) brewing industry, which either have employed shorter analytical time-frames or have mainly focused on the role of exogenous conditions, such as changes in the institutional framework.     

Real options and the theory of foreign direct investment

We extend applications of real options theory to foreign direct investment (FDI) research regarding choice of location and choice of market entry mode under uncertainty. Our study is motivated by the regional configuration of multinational enterprises (MNEs), as well as observed deviations from the stages model in internationalization theory. We shed light on these issues using real option modeling and computer simulations. The results suggest that from the standpoint of pursuing business opportunities and generating real options, building a subsidiary in a nonhome region could be more beneficial than in a home region. However, high option exercise cost may reduce the option value of a nonhome-region location. Our models also imply that choice of entry mode depends on the magnitude (high vs. low) and the type (exogenous vs. endogenous) of uncertainty. When uncertainty is high and endogenous, MNEs may prefer high-commitment entry modes because they contribute to the reduction of uncertainty and provide valuable growth options.     

Market entry barriers in China

Although industrial economists and strategy theorists provide a considerable amount of research regarding market entry barriers in the context of industrialized countries such as those in North America and Western Europe, few studies focus on entry barriers in the business context of China. Consequently, an understanding of the barriers to entry to Chinese markets as perceived by Chinese business executives is limited in the marketing literature. This research, based on the development and administration of a self-completed survey of one hundred and ninety three Chinese executives, attempts to ascertain the dimensions and order of importance of market entry barriers in this context. The findings of the research indicate seven dimensions of marketing entry barriers and show that business executives in China perceive advertising effects as the most important entry barrier and capital requirements as the least important.     

Patterns of Non-Tariff Barriers in the Pacific Rim

As the current world-wide protectionistic trend indicates, trade disputes are becoming increasingly important. In particular, non-tariff barriers have become prominent distortions to world trade flows and are, collectively, the source of much trade friction. The results of this study indicate that significant variations exist across selected Pacific Rim countries in the occurence and importance of non-tariff barriers to trade. The variance in the use of non-tariff barriers has implications for entry strategies and directions for future research.     

Accounting for Net Entry into Greek Manufacturing by Establishments of Varying Size

Adopting the view that size matters in understanding entry (exit) patterns, this research explores the nature and causes of net entry patterns of various size-defined groups of establishments in the case of a less industrialised country – Greece. The hypothesis to be tested is that the determinants of entry are not independent of firm size. Throughout this paper the analysis has had to confront difficulties arising from the use of net entry rates defined at the size class level. The degree of size disaggregation used in this paper is considerably finer than used before. Five employment-defined size classes have been used instead of sliding cut-off points discriminating between small and large firms. Unlike other research using pooled models to explain variation in entry (exit) rates across industries, the data used here are characterised by the absence of significant industry-specific systematic variation. Overall, the results obtained in this paper indicate that there is a gradation in the responses of different size classes to stimuli defined at the industry level. Evidence is offered that small firms are different in that they manage to overcome entry barriers, perhaps adopting different survival strategies, and that large firms are well aware of market conditions and are in an advantageous position to overcome many of the problems imposed by entry barriers. Size classes in the middle of the size class distribution offer a rather mixed result due to size-related advantages and disadvantages.     

Perceptions regarding strategic and structural entry barriers

This article uses factor analysis to identify the underlying dimensions of strategic and structural entry barriers. We find that, in the perception of firms, both types of barriers are important and that the effectiveness of strategic barriers depends on attributes of the market structure. Based on the seven generic factors, a conjoint analysis is carried out to identify the most important factors perceived by firms. The conjoint analysis shows that in particular the barriers rooted in three underlying dimensions require attention of market authorities as they may prevent new entrants from entry: capital, access to distribution channels and strategic action. Remarkably, government rules and regulations, product differentiation, research and development (R&D) and advertising constitute minor entry problems according to firms.     

Entry,trade costs,and international business cycles

Are firm entry and fixed exporting costs relevant for understanding the international transmission of business cycles? We revisit this question using a model that includes entry, selection to exporting activity, physical capital accumulation and endogenous labor supply. We determine that once the stochastic process for exogenous productivity is calibrated to consider the endogenous dynamics in TFP created by the number of firms and the time series volatility of entry is calibrated to the data, our model yields minimal departures from the Backus et al. (1992) benchmark. The richer model shares all of the successes of the previous model in terms of the volatilities of aggregate quantities, as well as its failures, in terms of replicating patterns of international co-movement and the volatility of international relative prices.     

Entry,trade costs,and international business cycles

Are firm entry and fixed exporting costs relevant for understanding the international transmission of business cycles? We revisit this question using a model that includes entry, selection to exporting activity, physical capital accumulation and endogenous labor supply. We determine that once the stochastic process for exogenous productivity is calibrated to consider the endogenous dynamics in TFP created by the number of firms and the time series volatility of entry is calibrated to the data, our model yields minimal departures from the Backus et al. (1992) benchmark. The richer model shares all of the successes of the previous model in terms of the volatilities of aggregate quantities, as well as its failures, in terms of replicating patterns of international co-movement and the volatility of international relative prices.     

Entry barriers of small and medium‐sized software firms in the Japanese market

The Japanese software market size was U.S. $131,773 million in 2004. Due to limited domestic software production, Japan is highly dependent on imported software products. Despite the market potential for foreign software firms in Japan, almost no research exists on what kind of challenges foreign software firms encounter when they are entering the market. To fill this gap, this article investigates the entry barriers of small and medium‐sized software firms in the Japanese market by using a multicase study. The findings suggest that most of the barriers are firm‐specific and mainly related to firms' resources and capabilities to operate in the market. The entry barriers encountered also seem to differ somewhat from earlier investigations, which have mainly targeted large manufacturing firms. The new observations included common barriers related to the intensive information flow of customization and localization needs and market requirements of software products. The findings are useful for both practice and further research. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Exploring the factors of using mobile ticketing applications: Perspectives from innovation resistance theory

This passenger resistance to adopting innovative mobile services has been widely discussed and needs more examination. The present research model used the innovation resistance theory factors, including usage barriers, value barriers, risk barriers, tradition barriers, and image barriers, to verify the antecedents of mobile ticketing application usage. A mobile ticketing app includes making seat reservations, payment, ticket collection, and entry and boarding procedures. Additionally, the model considers the impact of technological anxiety, personal innovation characteristics, informativeness, and word of mouth to identify critical factors in determining resistance barriers and willingness to adopt. A questionnaire was distributed over the Internet, and responses were analyzed using statistical analysis software to test the proposed hypotheses. The analysis results found that the factors of Innovation Resistance Theory negatively affected intention to use the T-Express app. Among these, the tradition barrier is the first key factor. Moreover, the consumer and communication characteristics had significant effects on barrier factors. This research provides useful insights and suggestions for improving mobile ticketing app usage based on the findings.     

Strategic trade policy in the presence of reputation spillovers

With the emergence of North–South intra-industry trade in products where consumers value quality, exporting countries potentially face significant barriers to entry. Due to the existence of asymmetric information about new products in a foreign market, the producer's reputation becomes an important factor in determining whether consumers choose to make a purchase. The purpose of this paper is to add learning externalities across multiple products to a model of endogenous firm entry and quality in order to examine the implications for commercial intervention. Building on the work of Mayer (1984) and Grossman and Horn (1988), we introduce learning across multiple products in the presence of incomplete information. If the reputation of the initial entrants from a country is poor, it raises the informational barriers to entry. Consequently, strategic trade policy depends on both the quality choice of firms entering the market for exports as well as the degree of product interrelatedness. In the presence of high and lowquality producers, across-the-board subsidization hinders rather than promotes exports in developing countries.     

资本流入对国内福利的影响

本文分析了在不完全竞争的产品市场中,在东道国的进口竞争性部门为资本密集型的情况下,外资流入对福利的效应问题。如果市场结构是外生的,那么资本流入会提高东道国的福利;然而,如果市场结构是内生的,由于资本流入导致新企业进入市场,从而提高了企业的平均成本,这样,资本流入反而会有贫困化效应。此外,本文还提出了一些新的观点,即研究了在考虑贸易中的一些限制性条件的情况下,资本流入对福利的效应。     

Barriers to Exporting: What are They and Who do They Matter to?

The international trade literatures on gravity modelling and firm‐level export behaviour have established that nontariff barriers are important impediments to international trade flows. In this paper, we provide fresh evidence on the actual barriers to exports firms face and how they vary with firm‐level characteristics. Our results indicate that the higher the export experience of firms the lower are the trade costs they face. These barriers are not related to other firm‐level characteristics, such as productivity and size, found by the literature to be associated with export market entry. Overall, these results suggest the existence of a process of learning to export whereby firms learn how to cope with export barriers through direct experience in export markets.     

行政性进入壁垒下的企业预算约束硬化

行政性进入壁垒保护下的企业实际上是行政性垄断企业。除了公有制本身会导致这些企业出现软预算约束外,行政性进入壁垒的设置与政府管制会强化预算软约束,即这类企业在亏损时更容易获得政府的救助,企业的冗员更不容易释放。而拆除或降低行政性进入壁垒、引入竞争者或允许行业竞争,有助于硬化行政垄断企业的预算约束。     

The Determinants of and Interaction between Entry and Exit in Taiwan's Manufacturing

Based upon substantial high firm turnover rates, various policy incentives, and developed subcontracting-networks, this paper investigates structure and firm-specific factors that determine the entry and exit rate across industries. The interaction between entry and exit rates of the industry is incorporated in the study, namely the "displacement", "replacement" and "instantaneous causal" effects. The regression results indicate that entry and exit rates are determined by different measures of entry or exit barriers but the effects are not fully symmetric. It is also evident that underlying entry or exit sunk- costs introduced the instantaneous movement of entry and exit rates. In addition, the entry of new plants has a moderate effect to facilitate the displacement or market selection process to displace the inefficient producers but no significant replacement effect is found. The policy implication being that the government support encourages entry it also increases the industry failure rates.     

MARKET STRUCTURE,CAPITAL INFLOWS,AND HOME WELFARE

The welfare implications of foreign capital inflows in an economy with an imperfectly competitive product market and a capital-intensive import-competing sector are analyzed. If the market structure is exogenous with a fixed number of firms, then a capital inflow improves welfare of the host country. However, if the market structure is endogenous, then a capital inflow tends to be immiserizing because it increases entry and reduces per firm output, thus driving firms up their average cost schedule. In addition, the welfare implications of capital inflows in the presence of trade restrictions are also studied, generating some new insights.     

Why are some people more likely to become small-businesses owners than others: Entrepreneurship entry and industry-specific barriers

Why are some individuals more likely to become owners of small businesses than others? We classify industries using measures of entry barriers and proceed to investigate how determinants of entry vary in high- as opposed to low-barrier fields. Claims that neither financial-capital constraints nor the educational backgrounds of aspiring small-business owners predict the likelihood of small-business entry are investigated in this context. These claims of irrelevance, we find, are inconsistent with the facts. The wealth and educational background characteristics potential entrepreneurs possess predispose them to make distinctly different industry choices, both because of the differing rewards available to them and the very different entry barriers they face. The characteristics of potential entrants, in other words, draw them toward some industries and away from others.     

Flirting with the enemy: online competitor referral and entry-deterrence

Internet retailers often compete fiercely for consumers through expensive marketing efforts like search engine advertising, online coupons and a variety of special deals. Against this background, it is somewhat puzzling that many online retailers have recently begun referring their website visitors to their direct competitors. In this paper, using an analytical model, we examine this counterintuitive practice and posit that an entry deterrence motive can potentially explain this marketplace puzzle. Specifically, we develop a model where two incumbents compete for consumers” business while facing a potential entrant who is deciding whether to enter the market. In addition to setting the price, each incumbent firm could potentially display a referral link to its direct competitor. Our analysis reveals that when confronted with a potential entry, an incumbent may refer consumers to its competitor, intensifying the market competition that could result in shutting off the entrant. Furthermore, we show that when referral efficiency is exogenous, it is possible that in equilibrium only one incumbent refers its customers to competitor (i.e., one-way referral) or both incumbents refer their customers to each other (i.e, two-way referral). When referral efficiency is endogenous, the ex-ante symmetric incumbents may choose asymmetric referral efficiencies ex-post. We extend the model in a number of directions including making the entrant share endogenous and allowing incumbents to be asymmetric. Overall, our results indicate that firms may be motivated by entry deterrence to voluntarily refer consumers to their direct competitors even when they are paid nothing for the referral.