Toward an ‘International Business’ Paradigm of Endogenous Growth: Multinationals and Governments as Co-Endogenisers

Endogenous growth theory has recently originated in economics. Building on this theory, this paper conceptualises the phenomenon of endogenous growth in terms of some new ideas developed in the field of international business (IB), especially Dunning's eclectic paradigm and his notion of macro-organisation policy. These ideas have so far not been linked to the notion of endogenous growth. At the same time, mainstream economics has not made much progress in exploring the MNC-government relationships through which growth-inducing 'mechanics' are created, a topic of great importance in IB. Both MNCs and governments complement each other in facilitating an efficient matching of ownership-specific assets (notably knowledge) with location-specific advantages through Dunning's OLI mechanism, thereby enabling the developing host countries to realise potential growth in an intensified manner, a new mode of endogenous growth that counteracts the law of diminishing returns. The phenomenon of MNC-cum-governmentdriven endogenous growth will be conceptualised.     

How to operationalize porter's diamond of international competitiveness

Michael Porter's “diamond” framework has as its focus a set of home country national determinants of international competitiveness. For applications to international business this presents analytical difficulties because Dunning's eclectic theory of the multinational enterprise demonstrates that it is the interaction between national and international determinants that leads to the competitive success of global industries. This article suggests a method of extending Porter's framework to incorporate the modern theory of the multinational enterprise; in particular, a variant of SWOT analysis is used to operationalize the Porter diamond. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

International Success of Business Groups as an Indicator of National Competitiveness

Abstract

Business groups are the dominant form of large private enterprise throughout Latin America. However, relatively little academic research has attempted to identify the dominant characteristics of these groups and even fewer formal studies have examined how these groups are fairing in today's age of increased competition and globalization. While there are numerous characteristics of business groups that are worthy of examination, in this paper we focus on their foreign direct investment (FDI) activities. In order to better understand the potential strengths and weaknesses of Mexican multinationals, we draw upon Dunning's eclectic paradigm of international production and the literature examining developing country multinationals. While this body of knowledge provides a useful theoretical lens, the current FDI activity of Mexican business groups is somewhat at odds with the existing literature.     

International Entrepreneurship as an Admittance-Seeking Educational Field

ABSTRACT

International entrepreneurship (IE) research has gained significant attention over the last 30 years, but IE education has not yet obtained the same recognition. We investigate whether and how IE might gain admittance as a specific educational field. By employing the Delphi method with expert scholars and practitioners from around the world, we identify the key knowledge base and attributes that potential IE graduates should possess. We position our findings relative to extant research on education from IE’s parent disciplines of international business and entrepreneurship. This allows us to discuss whether and how our identified IE curriculum is differentiated and potentially legitimate. We show that while our IE curriculum has these characteristics, it requires contributions from both parent disciplines. From these results, we discuss the pedagogical implications of our study.     

Identifying the ‘knowledge base’ or ‘intellectual structure’ of research on international business, 2000–2015: A citation/co-citation analysis of JIBS

The purpose of this study consists in analyzing the existing literature on international business from all the research papers published in Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS) during the period of time comprised between 2000 and 2015. The authors apply bibliometric methods to that end –in particular, document citation and co-citation analyses (DCAs)– so that they can try and identify the main research lines within the aforementioned scientific field or domain; in other words, the ‘intellectual structure’ of the discipline examined. Social networks analysis was also used to carry out the representation or visualization of such structure or knowledge base. The highly interdisciplinary nature of the research undertaken, since the study field still keeps its characteristic diversity and interdisciplinarity or the need to integrate a variety of theoretical frameworks or approaches into the development of a widely-accepted theory about the field under study become evident. Amongst these theories would be the new institutional theory, the strategic theory or perspective or others such as the transaction cost theory or the agency theory, applied to the context of internationalization and to the field of international business, on whose integration the future development of this field may largely depend.     

Extending the investment development path model to include the human environment factor

This article aims to address Dunning's call to include the “human environment” (HE) as a new trend and trajectory for research in international business (IB). Dunning argues that the most important driver for economic advancement is knowledge, which arises from the HE. We extend Dunning's IB theory of the five stages of a country's investment development path (IDP) to include the HE factor. Further, we use China as an example in which to examine the role of human resource management (HRM). We identify and analyze an important link between foreign direct investment, multinational enterprises, and both domestic and global HRM. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The role of intermediate demand and technology for international competitiveness of the KIBS sector: evidence from European Union countries

In this paper, it is tested whether intermediate consumption of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) in the economy and technology advancement in the KIBS sector (measured by R&D expenditures) affect the international competitiveness of a country's KIBS sector. First, the definition of KIBS trade, in light of the available data from the balance of payments statistics, is presented. Then, using a panel data set from the EU countries over the period 2000–2009, a panel cointegration approach to estimating the model is adopted. The empirical study shows that among the old EU countries only those with high income are competitive in KIBS exports. Estimation results demonstrate that their competitiveness in KIBS exports is positively determined by domestic and imported KIBS intensity in the economy, as well as by the KIBS sector's technology advancement. The new EU countries usually were not competitive in KIBS exports, and those which were successful in this field seem to have derived their success mainly from international outsourcing rather than from building their own capacities. Their competitiveness in KIBS exports was positively determined by the KIBS sector's endowment in human capital, or via domestic KIBS intensity in the economy together with lower labour costs.     

The Role and Value of Global Business Research: Perspective of a Business School Dean

The scope of this article is two-fold. First, it looks at business research in general, in various countries, as a task that the dean wants to have faculty members pursue, to attain goals such as accreditation and ranking with organizations such as the AACSB, Equis, the Financial Times, and US News & World Report. And second, it looks at international business research as part of what business schools produce and what a dean can encourage. As more academics realize the importance of international competition, and also of dealing with people from other cultures and countries, IB research is becoming more acceptable in mainstream publications as well as in specialized international business ones. Key questions discussed here include encouraging, measuring, promoting, and financing international business research.     

Chinese economic development,the next stage: outward FDI?

China's development path has been widely recognised as being unique, with gradual privatisation and marketisation, massive private capital inflows, and extensive exporting. All this has been achieved without political democratisation. This paper draws attention to a new emerging phenomenon—significant Chinese levels of outward FDI (OFDI)—and takes a first step towards understanding this development at an aggregate level.The question arises, is China's OFDI another unique characteristic of Chinese distinctive economic development path and reform policies, or does it follow an established, universal pattern, specifically Dunning's investment development path (IDP) hypothesis, or rather a refined version of the IDP? In other words, do Chinese OFDI patterns suggest refinements to established theories, or even their refutation?To address these questions, however, exogeneity tests reveal a need to use GMM estimation methods rather than straightforward regressions, since relations between economic development and OFDI are complex and inter-dependent.The GMM results suggest that the level of economic development, proxied by GDP per capita plus refinements, is still the main factor explaining China's rate of OFDI. This is quite consistent with the refined IDP hypothesis and patterns broadly noted elsewhere. Conclusions are drawn for theory, policy and international business.     

Contrasting Expectations of Individualists and Collectivists

This article explores practical ways for effectively training international business students in Hofstede's individualism and collectivism dimension. It details the behaviors arising from this dimension that frequently interfere with the success of group projects in international business classes as well as the implications arising from these behaviors for international business relations between those from individualist and collectivist cultures. Too often, projects aimed at fostering collectivism fail. Conventional theories of motivation derive from and apply to North American individualist culture, but may not have the same application in collectivist situations. Tools for adapting group projects which are given to individuals from individualist cultures to help them develop a more collectivist orientation are explored here. These tools-group autonomy in excluding non-performers (loafers), and self and group evaluations empower groups while engendering collectivist concepts.     

Confucian dynamism and Dunning's framework: Direct and moderation associations in internationalized Chinese private firms

This research investigates whether an upper-echelon perspective incorporating a unique managerial attribute, namely, Confucian dynamism (CD), which draws from China's cultural heritage, can enrich Dunning's ownership–location–internalization (OLI) framework. This study examines the activities of 233 internationalized Chinese private firms. Its findings suggest that the CD of individual decision-makers negatively affects the adoption of equity modes (direct association); and lessens the effects of ownership and location advantages on the adoption of equity modes. However, it does not influence the relationship between internalization advantages and equity modes (moderation associations). The contribution of this study is that it effectively complements the “rational” OLI framework through the inclusion of CD and its interactions with OLI variables to provide a more comprehensive account of the international entry mode decisions of Chinese private firms.     

Mapping international business and international business policy research: Intellectual structure and research trends

This paper analyzes the core international business (IB) areas covered by ten IB-focused journals to date using 13,937 documents reflecting more than 300 years of combined publication history. Using bibliometric and citation analysis, it provides a systematic understanding of the current IB landscape, explicates the relevance of the future of IB research and depicts trends in this research field with emerging prevalent themes identified. The strongest themes across IB journals are performance, perspective and emerging economies/MNEs, shared strongly across UK/Europe, US and Asia-based journals. Our findings report on the prevalent research field, economy and geography, the latter analyzing the impact of author numbers and distribution, and thus, scale effects. Within this context, sole authorships are largely replaced by co-authorships, yet often on national level. We further limited the study to IB policy and found the focus centers on key themes of foreign business attraction, transnational governance and IB promotion.     

Impact of International Business Education on Ethnocentricity

Abstract

As evidenced by recent surveys of American managers, there is a serious shortage of qualified candidates on the US job market. This shortage is most evident in two specialization areas: high-technology knowledge workers and internationally competent managers. Indeed, American companies rate lack of qualified high-technology personnel as their number one reason for slower than desired business expansion. The other less glamorized, yet serious shortcoming of the American educational system is its inadequate training of cross-culturally competent workers for this truly global post-industrial era. In response to this human resources crisis, realizing that “the future economic welfare of the US will depend substantially on increasing international skills in the business community,” the United States Department of Education began an active campaign of promoting international education and research in several major American universities in the late 1980s. Since 1988, nearly 40 universities have been awarded tens of millions of dollars to engage in such activities as developing formal international business curricula, offering foreign language courses, promoting internationally-oriented research, provoking international education and research dialogues among the faculty, exchange programs between American and foreign universities for students and the faculty and similar activities. This research is a first attempt in evaluating the impact of one such program on the internationalization level of American students. It will be shown that the international education program at one major American university has successfully produced a cadre of more global and less ethnocentric workforce for American corporations.     

International Business Research: Coauthorship Patterns and Quality

The authors investigate published international business research in four international business journals over a 10‐year period, 1995–2004: (a) patterns of coauthorship across regions, and (b) the relation between coauthorship patterns and the quality of international business (IB) articles. A cross‐region coauthorship enhances the quality of an article, suggesting that international collaboration creates synergy in IB research. The authors do not see any positive correlation between alphabetical ordering of coauthor names in multiauthored articles and article quality—a result that is contrary to some evidence in other disciplines. Finally, international management articles appear to be more frequently cited than articles in other IB research areas.     

Paul D. Reynolds: Entrepreneurship Research Innovator,Coordinator, and Disseminator

Paul Davidson Reynolds is the 2004 winner of the International Award for Entrepreneurship and Small Business Research. In this article Professor Reynolds’ contributions are summarized in terms of four sets of triplets. The first is as innovator, coordinator and disseminator of novel and important empirical research studies. The second triplet concerns the main areas of his contributions: regional variations in entrepreneurial activity, nascent entrepreneurship and firms in gestation and international comparisons of the prevalence of entrepreneurial activity. The third set of triplets concerns what aspects of the research process he has contributed to: development of new empirical methods to research entrepreneurship; coining of new concepts that now permeate this field of research, and provision of important empirical results. The final set of triplets concerns the audiences to which Reynolds’ research appeal: researchers, policy-makers and business practitioners. It is concluded that although his contributions are many and of different kinds, the single most important one is that his research has made it increasingly unreasonable to theorize and design research as if the economy essentially consisted of a relatively stable core of large, established firms and entry and exit of new firms were relatively infrequent, marginal and insignificant.     

Corruption in international business: A review and research agenda

We systematically reviewed the literature on corruption in international business (137 articles) for the last 17 years between 1992 and 2019. Additionally, we identified seven research streams in this growing literature: (1) the legislation against corruption, (2) the determinants of corruption, (3) combating corruption, 4) the effect of corruption on firms, (5) the political environment and corruption, (6) corruption as a challenge to existing theories of management, and (7) the effect of corruption on foreign direct investment and trade. Based on this review, we recommend that strong international laws are needed to minimize the negative impact of corruption on international business. Firms must also consider corruption when formulating strategies to increase operational efficiency and performance. Finally, corruption challenges some key assumptions of existing theories of management. Scholars need to test and expand these existing theories by considering corruption as an important issue in international business.     

A Global MBA for Tomorrow's Global Business Leaders

Abstract

Traditional IB programs have received mixed reviews from the corporate world. With this in mind, the Suffolk GMBA was benchmarked against the leading international business programs. The Suffolk GMBA was designed to be different and to ascertain the global environment in which business operates. A unique feature of the GMBA curriculum detailed in this article is the combination of Boston's international business locational advantage with functional integration of the many disciplines that make international business unique. Borrowing components from the fields of economics, government and politics, finance, marketing, ethics, and law, a curriculum matrix was developed identifying and sequencing the key topics to be taught. The authors also explain potential pitfalls and outline a model which can be successfully implemented in other graduate international business programs. This program is shaping the thoughts and actions of tomorrow's global business leaders through its integrative decision-making framework of global perspectives and competencies.     

The influence of customer loyalty on small island economies: an empirical and exploratory study

There is growing consensus that companies' long-term success is reliant on building and sustaining strong customer relationships. This study explores the antecedents of loyalty in business to business (B2Bs) using Guernsey's telecommunication industry as a case study. It examines how these influence customer loyalty orientation and factors that help service providers improve loyalty rates. Extant literature pays little attention to the antecedents of loyalty in small island economies. Prior research focuses on cultural, environmental and macro-economic issues. Drawing on Dick and Basu's (Customer loyalty: Toward an integrated conceptual framework. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 22(Spring), 99–113, 1994) loyalty model, this research explores loyalty antecedents that are cognisant of distinct market conditions that can impact customer loyalty within the telecommunications sector of a small island economy. It seeks to advance understanding of loyalty in B2B relationships in this context and identify factors that contribute towards converting passively loyal customers to being actively loyal customers.     

Influence of country and company characteristics on international business decisions: A review,conceptual model,and propositions

This research advances four propositions and a conceptual model of country and company characteristics influencing key International Business Decisions (IBDs). The IBDs in this study are country selection and evaluation, entry mode, segmentation-targeting-positioning, and the marketing mix – the first two in the international business domain, and the latter two in the international marketing field. The conceptual model and related four propositions are advanced, based on an extensive literature review and subsequent in-depth review of 169 published research papers on major IBDs and their determinants, namely, country characteristics, including opportunities, risks, and various distances between the host country and home country, and company characteristics, which include international business experience, assets/resources, and expansion/growth strategies. Managerial implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

International Entrepreneurship Research: What Scope for International Business Theories?

International entrepreneurship (IE) research has commonly neglected significant perspectives applied by international business scholars. Explanations for the emergence and growth of international entrepreneurial firms largely focus on the resource-based view and the network perspective. While these approaches are useful, we suggest that IE would benefit significantly from a greater emphasis on its international nature. Therefore, theories of international business should be employed in conjunction with other approaches in order to appropriately emphasize the international character, holistically study the IE notion, and considerably broaden the scope of IE examination. Suggestions for relevant research directions are discussed.