Multinational decision-making: Reconciling international norms

How should highly-placed multinational managers, typically schooled in home country moral traditions, reconcile conflicts between those traditions and ones of the host country? When host country standards for pollution, discrimination, and salary schedules appear substandard from the perspective of the home country, should the manager take the high road and implement home country standards? Or does the high road imply a failure to respect cultural diversity and national integrity? In this paper, I construct and defend an ethical algorithm for multinational managers to use in reconciling such international normative conflicts.     

Developing a culturally synergistic approach to international human resource management

This paper offers international human resource (IHR) professionals guidelines how to decide which IHRM approach to choose. In choosing among an adaptive, exportive, or integrated IHR approach, IHR managers may want to consider three decision criteria, e.g. forces for global integration and local adaptation, the cultural component of HRM, and the power dynamics within the MNC. To develop an organization that values cultural differences, IHR professionals may choose a culturally synergistic approach to IHRM. This approach has the potential of designing new combinations of HRM practices and simultaneously attends to the three decision criteria.     

Developing a framework to improve retail category management through category captain arrangements

Manufacturers and retailers have divergent profit objectives. A manufacturer wants to maximize the profits of its own brands. The retailer, on the other hand, wants to maximize the profit of the entire product category. In spite of these apparently diverging profit objectives, both manufacturers and retailers are increasingly realizing that profit margins of both can be increased through cooperation rather than confrontation. Category management is one such cooperative strategy that often involves the appointment of a leading manufacturer as the “category captain”. A category captain advises the retailer on the best way to price, display, and promote products in a category, including those of the competitors. This arrangement, therefore, ensures retail efficiency but raises doubt about possible misuse of power by the category captain to circumvent fair competition. In this paper, we outline the antitrust concerns about this arrangement, and provide a framework that effectively addresses these concerns.     

旅游景区营销管理一般模式及实证研究

旅游景区是旅游产业发展的核心要素,景区营销管理的研究滞后于景区开发规划等研究,严重影响了景区的发展与建设。根据游客的需求状况和营销任务的不同,旅游景区营销管理大体分为扭转性营销、刺激性营销等八类方式。景区营销管理是一项系统工程,真正把握营销策略的针对性和景区营销的高效率性,必须在分析市场营销机会、目标市场选择与定位、制定市场营销战略和市场营销的控制与管理等四个方面下功夫,从而建立起适合本景区、本企业的营销管理模式。     

The positive and negative effects of inventory on category purchase: An empirical analysis

Product inventory exerts two countervailing forces on the probability of purchase: More inventory on hand reduces the need to purchase; however, theory suggests higher levels of inventory can drive up consumption, thereby increasing the chance of purchase. Moreover, consumers have biased estimations of their own inventory—especially at high levels of inventory (Chandon and Wansink, 2006), which again suggests a positive relationship between inventory and purchase probability. We model the negative (standard) and positive effects of inventory on the probability of purchase. The model is calibrated on ten product categories and fits better than the standard nested logit and an alternative developed by Ailawadi and Neslin (1998). The elasticity of purchase incidence with respect to inventory represents these opposing forces in an intuitive way, implying an inventory threshold below (above) which the net effect is positive (negative). Estimated thresholds are plausible across categories, with the food categories of hot dogs, ice cream and soft drinks showing the largest effects.     

Consumers' evaluations of an international airport: a facet theoretical approach

Results are presented of a study of consumers' satisfaction with an international airport. A facet theory approach is adopted in research design and data analysis and the results are presented in relation to previous facet theory-guided research into design evaluation. Opportunity-sampled passengers (N = 115) arriving or departing air passengers returned completed and usable questionnaires. Analysis revealed the air passengers questioned were generally satisfied with the airport. Similarity structure analysis (SSA) provided support for the 'general mapping sentence for place experience' which was used to design the questionnaire. The mapping sentence has been developed in the literature through demonstrating a common structure to place evaluation which consists in facets of referent, focus and level. The referent facet composed elements of service, spatial and comfort; a focus facet with contained elements of primary and ancillary; and a level facet was independently present with elements of direct and indirect levels of contact. The paper concludes by developing a mapping sentence for airport design evaluation.     

Cross-national research and international business: An interdisciplinary path

Comparative cross-national research is among the oldest approaches of scientific inquiry in the social sciences. We investigate the foundations of published works in cross-national research (CNR) in international business (IB), sociology, and psychology with an eye on leveraging their rich traditions for future IB research. Our approach aims to contribute and address repeated calls for taking an interdisciplinary approach in IB. We examined published CNR in 106 scholarly journals and identified 817 articles with 51,738 citations in IB, 477 works with 30,017 citations in sociology, and 835 articles with 54,519 citations in psychology. We use metric multidimensional scaling to examine the co-citation data for each field and identify knowledge and approaches commonplace in sociology and psychology to propose future research paths in IB. In particular multilevel analysis, which is scarcely used in IB, offers the potential of unfolding new dimensions within the field. Based on the emergent results from our MDS solutions, we recommend multiple future paths for CNR, particularly with respect to IB relationships, market entry, and related domains.     

关于国际石油工程风险管理中存在的不足及对策的分析研究

最近二十年,中国石油企业已逐步走入世界.而国际石油工程因为结构功能复杂且规模较大,又有着与中国不同的政治因素,还有其存在的自然灾害,施工风险,市场风险等因素,导致国际石油工程存在很大的风险.所以我们应当充分认识工程中的风险,并及时的针对这些风险探讨解决的对策.     

关于国际石油工程风险管理中存在的不足及对策的分析研究

最近二十年,中国石油企业已逐步走入世界.而国际石油工程因为结构功能复杂且规模较大,又有着与中国不同的政治因素,还有其存在的自然灾害,施工风险,市场风险等因素,导致国际石油工程存在很大的风险.所以我们应当充分认识工程中的风险,并及时的针对这些风险探讨解决的对策.     

Differences in international opportunity identification between native and immigrant entrepreneurs

The aim of this study is to understand more about how identification of international opportunities differs between native and immigrant entrepreneurs. Based on a survey of 116 immigrant and 864 native Norwegian entrepreneurs with newly registered firms, we show that immigrant entrepreneurs are more likely to identify international opportunities than native entrepreneurs are. We reveal important differences in the identification process between native and immigrant entrepreneurs. Whereas general human capital has a significant positive effect on international opportunity identification for native entrepreneurs, we cannot find the same effect among immigrant entrepreneurs. Moreover, although financial capital positively influences international opportunity identification among native entrepreneurs, the same effect is significantly negative among immigrant entrepreneurs. Based on these findings, we conclude that native and immigrant entrepreneurs do not utilise the same resources to identify international opportunities. This study contributes to the literature on international entrepreneurship by documenting significant differences in how native and immigrant entrepreneurs identify international opportunities. It also contributes to immigrant entrepreneurship literature by bringing the opportunity-based view of entrepreneurship into the field.     

Hermeneutic phenomenology and international entrepreneurship research

It is not uncommon for business researchers to avoid discussion associated with the philosophy of science. In this paper, it is argued that this avoidance weakens the quality and insightfulness of entrepreneurship and international entrepreneurship research, which by definition should be concerned with human action and activity. This paper explores the implications of alternative research philosophies and argues that a dichotomy between objective and subjective meaning is manifestly inadequate for the study of opportunity recognition and exploitation and by implication for many other problems of international entrepreneurship research. In response, hermeneutic phenomenology is proposed as an underutilized, misunderstood, yet highly relevant research paradigm.     

An international review of sponsorship research: extension and update

This article extends and updates an existing review of 80 Anglo-Saxon studies on sponsorship published prior to 1996 with contributions of European origin (66 additional studies) and studies published subsequently (87 additional studies). It thus gives an account of the evolution and current state of sponsorship research worldwide and points out new research directions. Over the past six years there have been clear advances in research into, and evaluation of, sponsorship effects and strategic sponsorship management. There has also been a notable shift towards a better understanding of how sponsorship is perceived by the end consumer. Overall, however, research is focused too much on consumer goods and service companies pursuing awareness and image objectives while engaged in sports sponsorship. Other types of institutions, other sponsorship objectives and other sponsorship areas are widely neglected. The same is true of the functional affiliation of sponsorship within the firms and sponsorship budgeting processes.     

Innovation management in service firms: a research agenda

This article suggests an agenda for further research on innovation management in service firms. It investigates differences and similarities between issues identified by previous academic research and issues brought up by practitioners within the area of innovation management in service firms. The results show that there are some major differences; for instance, researchers stress a need for formalized processes for development work, while practitioners focus on facilitating innovation in everyday operations. The main conclusion is that in order to bridge the gap between research and practice we would encourage further research on innovation in service firms to (1) conduct micro studies of innovation work, (2) view innovation in the context of everyday operations and (3) focus on co-workers’ innovative potential.     

Whistleblowing and management accounting: An approach

In this paper, we consider the licensing of and codes of ethics that affect the accountant not in public accounting, the potential for an accountant not in public accounting encountering an ethical conflict situation, and the moral responsibility of such accountant when faced with an ethical dilemma. We review an approach suggested by the National Association of Accountants for dealing with an ethical conflict situation including that association's position on whistleblowing. We propose another approach based on the work of De George (1981), in which both internal and external whistleblowing are possible alternatives, for use by management accountants in an ethical conflict situation. Finally, we consider the implications of our analysis for management accounting. While most of the analysis centers on management accountants, we note the likely applicability of the analysis to accountants in the public sector. Dr. Stephen E. Loeb is Professor and Chairman of Accounting and the Ernst and Young Alumni Research Fellow at the University of Maryland at College Park. He is the author or co-author of a number of articles relating to accounting and ethics that have appeared in journals such as The Accounting Review, the Journal of Accounting Research, the Journal of Accountancy, and The Government Accountants Journal. Dr. Loeb is co-editor of the Journal of Accounting and Public Policy.Dr. Suzanne N. Cory is Associate Professor of Accounting at California State University, San Bernardino. A good deal of the work on this paper was done while Dr. Cory was a faculty member at The George Washington University.We are indebted to Lawrence A. Gorden, Allen G. Schick, Jere Francis, Lee Preston, Stanley W. Davis and two anonymous reviewers for their comments on earlier drafts of this paper. Any errors are our own.     

Agility and flexibility in international business research: A comprehensive review and future research directions

This study explores 134 articles on agility and flexibility research published in the top-nine international business (IB) journals. Accordingly, we critically analyze, map and structure flexibility and agility research in IB, and synthesize the findings into an integrative framework. The paper identifies a wide range of definitions of the concept and a lot of work on its conceptualization. However, studies at the individual and institutional levels of analyses are scarce, and the concept is under-theorized, as there is a dearth of real theoretical underpinnings in this research stream. Thus, in addressing this gap, more qualitative and interdisciplinary research is needed.     

Determining international strategic alliance performance: A multidimensional approach

This paper considers the relationship between subjective, multidimensional measures of international strategic alliance (ISA) performance and predictors of success both before the alliance is formed (pre-alliance formation factors) and during the operation of the alliance (post-alliance formation factors). The empirical study, based on a web-survey, investigates a sample of Danish partner firms engaged in 48 equity joint ventures and 70 non-equity joint ventures with partners from around the world. A multi-dimensional operationalization of alliance performance measurement is utilized in order to capture both process and outcome aspects of alliance performance. The results show a significant relationship between alliance performance and host country risk as well as partner reputation preceding alliance formation. During the operation of the alliance, relationships between collaborative know-how, trust, protectiveness, complementarity, cultural distance and alliance performance were found.     

An international patent protection system: A new approach

For all practical purposes, there are two patent protection systems in the world today. The developed countries have national systems, although different in some respects, that provide reasonably effective protection for patent holders. On the other hand, the less developed countries have national systems that are generally not enforced. The lack of enforcement is primarily because these countries own less than one percent of the world's patents. Thus, they have little reason to provide effective protection for those in the industrial countries who hold patents. It would seem advantageous to all concerned to develop a patent system that is accepted by the majority of nations. This study uses an analysis of the major economic and social implications of the present system to propose a suggested approach to a truly international patent system. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Overlapping free trade agreements and international trade: A network approach

In our work, we have analysed the effect of the hub‐and‐spoke nature of free trade agreements (FTA s) on trade. Contrary to previous analyses, we have considered the effects of the country's position in the FTA network on the bilateral trade of the hub country. We have conducted an in‐depth analysis of the global network of FTA s, focusing particularly on its evolution in the last 15 years. We have utilised a panel data set covering the period 1960–2010 to investigate the effects of the hub‐and‐spoke on trade. Our results show that the countries that are more connected to FTA s export more than those that are less involved, although not all the partner countries you can connect with are the same. An increase in the number of spokes that have no link between them has, on average, a negative effect on the trade of the hub, which indicates that signing FTA s with every country is not the optimal strategy for increasing trade. However, if we consider the way new FTA s change the relative position of a country, we can see that if new FTA s make the country more central or less constrained in the network, these new agreements have a strongly positive and significant pro‐trade effect.