How do firms evolve? The patterns of technological evolution of semiconductor subsidiaries

This study draws on concepts from international strategy and evolutionary economics to investigate the development of innovative ability within multinational subsidiaries. The paper develops hypotheses regarding the evolution of subsidiary innovative abilities, and the changes across time of their knowledge sourcing and sharing patterns with other parts of the multinational enterprise and host country firms.The paper analyzes patent data pertaining to foreign subsidiaries of US semiconductor firms and finds support for subsidiary technological development—there are positive changes in the scale and scope of innovative activity across time. The results also suggest that subsidiaries are increasingly embedded in host country knowledge networks—as they mature, subsidiaries increasingly learn and share knowledge locally. Evidence of increasing integration with other firms within the multinational enterprise is weaker.     

Learning from Older Siblings: Impact On Subsidiary Performance

Newer subsidiaries of a multinational enterprise (MNE) in a foreign (host) country will rarely possess the knowledge required for its performance. As such, a newer subsidiary will learn vicariously from the experiences of older subsidiaries of similar industries and the same MNE operating in the same host country. In particular, the newer subsidiary will learn two types of knowledge from older subsidiaries, namely, operational knowledge related to their experiences in the host country and their knowledge about local markets. Furthermore, we theorize that higher parent MNE ownership in newer subsidiaries will facilitate vicarious learning. We add that as newer subsidiaries gain experience, they become less dependent on vicarious learning from older subsidiaries. We find support for our hypotheses using a longitudinal sample of MNE subsidiaries in India. We conclude with implications for future research.     

Local integration and co‐evolution of internationalizing Chinese firms

This study investigates the integration of internationalizing Chinese firms into local host markets. We explore the market‐driven investment of a new wave of Chinese private and local state‐owned firms in Australia since 2012, which has replaced the initial large‐scale investment in resources by central state‐owned enterprises. Using an in‐depth analysis of nine Chinese firms operating in various sectors of the Australian market, we argue that market integration, adaptation, and bilateral institution‐building through co‐evolution and empowerment of local subsidiaries of Chinese multinational enterprises results in entrepreneurial autonomy and characterizes a new generation of Chinese investors. We propose that Chinese multinational subsidiaries have transferred domestic practices to the Australian market and have reconfigured domestic and host market resources to gain a competitive advantage in their original investment industry and new industries. Our study advances middle‐range theory building and provides a practical understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of Chinese investors, their potential to disrupt local markets, and their responsiveness to market‐oriented institutional guidance. The results of this study suggest that the bilateral institution‐building and resource reconfiguration capabilities of Chinese enterprises can be transferred to other developed and developing markets, including Belt and Road Initiative countries.     

Do Japanese MNCs use expatriates to contain risk in Asian host countries?

We investigate the impact of host-country risk on the expatriation strategies of multinational firms, using data on Japanese subsidiary firms in manufacturing industries in 13 host countries in Asia. We find that country risk is negatively correlated with the degree of expatriation and that, rather than host-country risk, firm-specific factors (particularly capital intensity, ownership share of parent firms in subsidiaries and the age of the venture) explain most of the variation in the degree to which subsidiaries rely on Japanese expatriates. Contrary to previous studies, the capital intensity of production is a key explanatory firm-specific variable that correlates positively with the degree of expatriation. Japanese multinational companies do not rely on expatria127=tes to off-set host-country risk, but to mitigate risk to parent investment in subsidiaries.     

Home country institutional environments and foreign expansion of emerging market firms

We propose that home country institutional environment shapes emerging market firms’ foreign expansion. We argue that better-developed home country institutional environment promotes emerging market firms’ expansion to foreign markets more advanced than the home country, while institutional instability in the home country reduces this propensity. We further hypothesize that the effects of home country institutional environment are contingent on firm-specific government ownership. Data on the foreign expansion of 921 Chinese firms in the period of 1996–2000 provide strong support for the effects of home country's institutional development and institutional instability. We also find that a high degree of government ownership weakens the positive effect of home country's institutional development on emerging market firms’ propensity to expansion to more advanced markets.     

Ownership effects on direction of multinationality: Evidence from Indian EMNEs

An essential yet challenging decision that emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs) must make when setting up a subsidiary abroad is whether to do it in developed or emerging market economies. The extant literature has rarely probed what influences the location choice of EMNEs' outward investments. This paper aims to address this gap and hypothesizes that large shareholdings by promoters or foreign institutional investors negate agency problems (due to managerial risk aversion) and enhance the propensity to pursue risky but value-accrediting upmarket strategies. Furthermore, this paper argues that these beneficial effects of large owners are significantly weaker for group-affiliated firms compared to their standalone counterparts. We test our proposed hypotheses using a proprietary, longitudinal dataset during 2007–2013 for 213 Indian multinational firms and find support for our arguments.     

Multinational activity of European firms and heterogeneity

This paper offers an empirical assessment of the multinational activity of European firms. It takes the predictions of models of firm heterogeneity and FDI activity as a reference to explore the characteristics of multinational firms from 30 European countries. We use a data set, based on ORBIS, which links information of parent–affiliate pairs of firms. Our results show that more productive firms have greater multinational activity in terms of both scope, the number of foreign markets where they invest, and scale, the volume of local sales by subsidiaries active in foreign markets. The estimation of gravity equations shows that country characteristics that encourage multinational activity successively induce the entry of less productive parent firms. We confirm this asymmetry for the GDPs of the home and host countries, distance, contiguity and other standard gravity equation variables.     

Corporate characteristics and the corporate socialization of local (Mexican) managers of U.S. multinational corporations

This paper examines the proposition that local nationals employed as (local) managers by foreign subsidiaries of multinational corporations have managerial attitutes which are generally between those of indigenous managers employed by domestic firms in both the parent and host countries. The evidence strongly suggests that the concept has validity, and that the organization attributes of capital, R&D, and marketing intensity influence the managerial attitudes of the three groups of managers and the differences among these attitudes.     

Foreign subsidiaries' status: Distinctive determinants and implications for subsidiary performance

The purpose of this article is to develop a theoretical framework for understanding what determines foreign subsidiaries' status, and how status affects their performance. The basic argument is that foreign subsidiaries have several unique characteristics that distinguish them from local firms in terms of the factors determining organizational status and the implications status has for subsidiaries' performance. This conceptual article first reviews the three existing determinants of organizational status as theorized by existing status research and makes the case for an extension of the three determinants to account for the special situation of foreign subsidiaries. Having examined the determinants of subsidiary status, this study explores the effect of organizational status on firm performance, and finds that it reduces the liability of foreignness (LoF) that foreign subsidiaries encounter. The study contributes to multiple research streams, including organizational status, LoF, country of origin (CoO), and the international business literature in general. Practically, this study highlights the importance of obtaining high organizational status and provides valuable suggestions for multinational managers in general and subsidiary managers in particular.     

Performance shortfalls and outward foreign direct investment by MNE subsidiaries: Evidence from China

Foreign subsidiaries of multinational enterprises (MNEs) have been conducting outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) into new overseas destinations. Drawing upon the behavioural theory of the firm, we explain that such OFDI can occur in response to performance shortfalls relative to aspirations. When performance shortfalls in subsidiaries are attributed to the institutional distance between them and the home country of the parent firm, these subsidiaries select institutionally closer destinations for their own OFDI. Our study goes beyond the direct investment of MNE headquarters and advances the internationalisation process model by investigating the underexplored, secondary and springboard-based internationalisation, and by underscoring the value of a subsidiary’s OFDI behaviour.     

Subsidiary goals,learning orientations,and ownership strategies of multinational enterprises: evidence from foreign direct investments in Korea

This paper investigates the links among subsidiary goals, learning orientations, and ownership strategies of multinational enterprises (MNEs). The authors hypothesize that an MNE's ownership strategy is determined by subsidiary goals and learning orientations. Furthermore, interactions between learning orientations and subsidiary goals are predicted to influence the ownership strategy. Based on 723 foreign subsidiaries of MNEs operating in Korea, our findings suggest that when MNE foreign subsidiaries influence ownership choice, market-seeking goals and resource-seeking goals have a stronger fit with the exploitation orientation than with the exploration orientation. In contrast, the category of knowledge-seeking goals has a stronger fit with exploration than with exploitation.     

Performance of foreign direct investment from Singapore

This study was conducted with two broad aims: to assess the performance levels attained by foreign direct investment (FDI) undertaken by Singapore firms and to identify the key determinants of the performance levels attained. We employed a broad set of perceptual measures, as reported by the MNC parent managers, to assess the performance of foreign subsidiaries. The measures included: stability, profitability, overall success, market share and sales growth. We hypothesized that the performance of (FDI) will be influenced by the following factors: mode of entry, cultural distance, relative size of the subsidiary and host government attitudes. Based on an analysis of 128 responses to a survey, we find that Singapore firms’ foreign subsidiaries achieve moderate levels of performance. The data analysis also revealed that FDI performance was positive under the following conditions: the host government attitudes were positive and the subsidiaries were of large size relative to the parent.     

Establishment mode choice by Chinese firms in Latin America: The role of host country‐specific experience and government official visits

This study addresses establishment mode decisions by emerging‐market multinational enterprises entering other emerging economies. More precisely, we examine the influence of prior host country experience and home government official visits on the choice between the acquisition of a local company and the creation of a new subsidiary from scratch. By analyzing 315 investments carried out by Chinese firms in Latin America, we obtain that they are more likely to enter through an acquisition when they have established prior subsidiaries in the host country. Moreover, recent Chinese government official visits contribute to mitigate the difficulties of an acquisition for those companies with less local experience.     

Emerging versus advanced country MNEs investing in Europe: A typology of subsidiary global–local connections

This paper empirically investigates how subsidiaries of multinationals from both emerging (EMNEs) and advanced (AMNEs) economies investing in Europe learn from the local context and contribute to it as much as they benefit from it. To explore this we classify the behavior of MNE subsidiaries into different typologies on the basis of how knowledge is transferred within the multinational and on the nature of the local innovative connections. The empirical analysis relies on an entirely new, subsidiary-level dataset in the industrial machinery sector in Italy and Germany. Results show that EMNEs and AMNEs undertake different strategies for tapping into local knowledge and for transferring it within the company. We identify a new typology of EMNE subsidiary that contributes through its significant local innovative efforts to development processes in the host country. This result suggests possible win-win situations from which novel policy implications may be drawn.     

Shareholder protection, ownership concentration and FDI

Host country's weaker legal shareholder protection may make it costlier for parent shareholders to monitor the foreign subsidiary and hold managers accountable in case of misconduct. This prospect may motivate the managers to invest in such foreign environments. However, the agency costs associated with such investments can increase as well. The latter would tend to discourage such FDI. We test this ex ante uncertain relationship using a sample of publicly quoted UK parents that established new, majority owned joint venture subsidiaries in Continental Europe. We find that host country's weak legal shareholder protection discourages FDI. This negative relationship, however, is less important for firms with higher ownership concentration, implying that parent's ownership concentration may be a substitute for host country's weak legal shareholder protection.     

Temporal boundaries and expatriate staffing: Effects of parent–subsidiary work-time overlap

By integrating the boundary-spanning perspective with the expatriate staffing literature, we explore why and how temporal boundaries between multinational enterprise (MNE) parent and subsidiary locations affect MNEs’ deployment of expatriates in foreign subsidiaries. Temporal boundaries, defined as local work-time schedule differences, delimit the degree of work-time overlap between two locations. A lack of work-time overlap between MNE parent and subsidiary locations creates significant barriers in day-to-day, remote real-time communication, resulting in increased deployment of expatriates as intermediaries by parents to overcome these barriers. Conversely, greater parent–subsidiary work-time overlap enables more remote real-time communication via digital technologies, altering the cost–benefit analysis of deploying expatriates over local nationals, consequently reducing parents’ reliance on expatriates as intermediaries. Therefore, we posit a negative relationship between parent–subsidiary work-time overlap and the expatriate ratio in a subsidiary. Further, we posit that the negative relationship is weakened by home – host country distance in terms of information and communication technology development and linguistics because technological and semantic boundaries can reduce the effectiveness of parent–subsidiary real-time communication. Empirical analyses of 22,556 subsidiaries established by 5,912 Japanese MNEs operating in 31 host countries between 1990 and 2018 support our theorizing.     

Investment motive as a moderator of cultural-distance and relative knowledge relationships with foreign subsidiary ownership structure

In this analysis, we seek to contribute to the growing body of literature exploring moderators of cross-national differences and foreign subsidiary ownership structure relationships, by developing the argument that cultural distance and majority-owned foreign subsidiary relationships will be positively moderated if a subsidiary serves a manufacturing motive, as opposed to a market-seeking motive. Additionally, we argue that relationships between increasingly greater levels of host country technical knowledge, relative to a firm's home country, and the use of majority-owned foreign subsidiary structures will be negatively moderated by manufacturing motives. These ideas are tested, and supported, in the empirical context of subsidiaries of Japanese automotive firms from 1993 through 2009.     

How have Japanese multinational companies changed? Competitiveness,management and subsidiaries

Evidence on the strategies and capabilities of Japanese multinational companies (MNCs) and their subsidiaries points to aspects of established management practices (typically home-grown) that complicate or inhibit adaptation to the demands of global competition since the 1990s. Japanese MNCs have had to respond, amongst other trends, to the switch from production to buyer-driven global value chains, cross-border vertical specialization, global factory strategies and strategic alliances and cooperative relationships. Amongst the factors that might affect the ability of Japanese MNCs to make competitive and organizational transitions are: parental MNC intent and capability in the cross-border transfer of management practices; the impact of host country risk on investment, ownership and entry strategies; measures of institutional difference and the gap in economic development between home and host nations; parent firm–subsidiary and subsidiary–subsidiary power relations and knowledge boundaries; and the evolution of insider networks that might overcome institutional and cultural distances within an MNC.     

Knowing your boundaries: Integration opportunities in international professional service firms

This study presents three different business models (continuous, repetitious, and unique) identified in international professional service firms that pursue a transnational strategy. These business models have varying opportunities for global integration. We extend the integration–responsiveness framework by offering a framework for analyzing how to balance global integration with local responsiveness when pursuing a transnational strategy. By identifying the content, structure, and governance transactions of the three business models, we can determine when to pursue headquarters-initiated global integration and when to choose strategies that ensure local responsiveness and subsidiary competitiveness in local markets.     

Explaining employment changes in foreign manufacturing investment in the UK

This article tests the view that the impact which foreign direct investment (FDI) has upon employment within the host economy will vary according to the entry mode which the multinational enterprise (MNE) chooses, the type of subsidiary and the nationality of the parent organisation which is established in the regional economy. Data were collected from the subsidiaries of foreign-owned firms in the UK. A model was devised and tested with estimations using this data. The results provide support for the view that the impact of FDI may be differentiated by entry mode, nationality and subsidiary type. Specifically, firms which entered by way of greenfield investment created positive employment effects as compared to those which entered by means of a merger or acquisition where the effects were relatively negative. There is some evidence that impact is also ownership specific. Finally, those subsidiaries which performed more value-added functions had a positive effect on employment.