Korea's Direct Investments in China: Technology, Experience, and Ownership Factors in Performance

This paper is designed to empirically examine what determines the performance of Korea's foreign direct investment (FDI) in China. Three main determinants are hypothesized to influence the performance of Korea's FDI. They include technology, internationalization experience, and ownership patterns associated with Korea's investments in China. Data were collected from surveys with 91 Korean investors. Our empirical analysis suggests that the labor intensity of technology involved in FDI and the appropriateness of manufacturing technology to the local conditions influence the investment performance. In addition, the results indicate that the internationalization experiences of the Korean investors also affect the profitability of FDI. Another finding of note is that the level of local ownership had a positive impact on performance. But, more interestingly, its effects were moderated by the investor's prior internationalization experiences; in other words, the investors with limited internationalization experiences performed well on a minority ownership venture.     

The impact of network relationships on internationalization process: An empirical study of Chinese private enterprises

Chinese private enterprises have been internationalizing rapidly during the last two decades. This study adopts a network approach to examine what factors affect the internationalization process of Chinese private enterprises. Our survey of 108 private Chinese enterprises in the manufacturing sector in Zhejiang province in southeastern China revealed that business networks and personal networks affect the internationalization activities of Chinese private enterprises. Specifically, business networks have a positive impact on the timing of the first foreign market entry, the internationalization pace, and resource commitments, whereas personal networks have a positive impact on the internationalization pace and resource commitments, but not on the timing of the first foreign market entry. In this paper, we report our findings of our survey, discuss the contribution that this study makes to the existing internationalization literature, and suggest future research directions. Policy implications on how to facilitate the internationalization process are also discussed.     

Political hazards,experience, and sequential entry strategies: the international expansion of Japanese firms, 1980–1998

We find support for the role of experiential learning in the international expansion process by extending the stages model of internationalization to incorporate a sophisticated consideration of temporal and cross‐national variation in the credibility of the policy environment. Using a sample of 3857 international expansions of 665 Japanese manufacturing firms, we build on the concepts of uncertainty and experiential learning, to show that firms that had gathered relevant types of international experience were less sensitive to the deterring effect of uncertain policy environments on investment. One implication of our results is that research on international strategy should emphasize understanding the political institutions that constrain or enable political actors, just as entry mode research has done. A second implication is that research in the stages model of internationalization should give the same weight to the policy environment as a source of uncertainty to a firm, as it has given to cultural, social and market institutions. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

R&D in China: an empirical study of Taiwanese IT companies

This study extends the research on R&D (research and development) internationalization to a new environmental context (two Asian newly-industrialized economies, mainland China and Taiwan). Based on a survey of 56 major Taiwanese information technology (IT) companies, the status of R&D internationalization with Taiwan as the home and mainland China as the host is investigated. Human-capital-augmentation is found to be the key motive for Taiwanese IT companies to extend R&D activities to the mainland. Accessing capable yet cost effective local engineers with an additional benefit of geographical and linguistic proximity is the major context of this motive. The location decision is based on three considerations – access to engineers, proximity to manufacturing site, and competition avoidance. Finally, three operational patterns of conducting the international design and development (D&D) activities are categorized, which are 'home-base-integration', 'host-base-integration', and 'product life cycle'.     

Entry, Exit and Establishment Survival in UK Manufacturing

We study entry, exit and survival of UK manufacturing establishments from 1986 to 1991 using the newly released ARD database. We document patterns of entry and exit across industries and over time. We estimate an augmented Cox proportional hazard to examine the survival of new plants in the UK in this period. We find interactions between survival, size and age of establishment that differ between establishments that are singles and part of a group. We speculate that this finding may be consistent with market selection models based on learning.     

跨国零售商在华战略及本土零售商的应对

本文从零售国际化过程视角构建了研究跨国零售商在华市场行为及本土零售商应对的框架体系。该研究把跨国零售商中国市场的扩张规模与速度、区位布局、进入方式、业态选择、本土化战略、从中国市场的撤退，以吸中国政府和本土零售商的应对视为一个互动的有机整体．在全面把握跨国零售商在华扩张规律的基础上，对本土零售商针对跨国零售商行为的特定战略进行了分析，从而预测了未来跨国零售商的战略走向，最后提出了中国政府及本土零售商的对策建议。     

Institutional and resource configurations associated with different SME foreign market entry modes

This study explores the different configurations of internal and externally sourced resources utilized by SMEs, as well as host and home country institutional influences (hereafter abbreviated to ‘internal and external resources’, and ‘host and home country institutions’, respectively) across different foreign market entry modes in a B2B setting. Specifically, this research illustrates the different relative representations of internal vs external resources and host vs home institutions associated with different entry modes, including non-investment/contractual and early-stage investment modes. The different configurations resulting from our study are tentatively explained in the context of prevailing theoretical perspectives, namely, the resource-based view, institutional theory, and SME internationalization. Our research extends the existing literature on SME internationalization by identifying that different resource-institutional configurations are associated with different foreign market entry modes.     

Order, positioning, scope and outcomes of market entry

This research aims to analyze the relationships between three dimensions of the market entry strategy for new products - order, positioning and scope - and four dimensions of performance - customer satisfaction, competitive position, costs and profitability. The consideration of internal links between the entry dimensions, together with their effect on the different performance variables, will enable us to determine the existence of mediating effects, which up until now have barely been examined in the literature. We test our model on a cross-sectional sample of 136 manufacturing firms, applying structural equation modeling based on the Partial Least Squares (PLS) methodology. Our findings reveal that all the three strategic decisions included in our model of market entry do affect performance, although their influence changes according to the performance dimension being measured.     

Foreign Ownership,Competition, and Survival Dynamics

The impact of foreign direct investment on host countries’ industrial sectors has received considerable attention. It is shown by many researchers that foreign plants are more productive than are domestic ones, but the empirical evidence regarding spillovers is not unambiguous. In this paper, we suggest that the impact of foreign direct investment on local industry hinges on the dynamics of foreign and domestic plants—i.e., on entry and selection (exit) processes. Our analysis of foreign investment and competition dynamics in Turkish manufacturing industry for the period 1983–2001 indicates that foreign plants have a better performance level than do domestic ones when they are first established in the local market, and, subsequently, are more likely to survive but; the difference in survival probabilities disappears when the industry and/or plant characteristics are controlled for. Moreover, foreign presence seems to have no long-term effect on the survival prospects of domestic plants.      

One of many roads to industry 4.0? Technology,policy, organisational adaptation and worker experience in ‘Third Italy’ SMEs

Industry 4.0 (I4.0) is a technological framework and policy programme that emerged in Germany in the 2010s, promising to revitalise manufacturing and revalue work by means of intelligent productive systems. The paradigm's cross-national diffusion raises questions about its context-dependent adaptation. This article focuses on the Italian I4.0 programme and its implementation among medium-sized manufacturing companies in the country's Veneto region. It analyses Italian policy and company strategies through the perceptions and experiences of managers, unionists and workers. The research highlights how a system dominated by small and medium enterprises (SMEs)—one with limited technological investment and without a coordinated system of industrial relations—reshaped the I4.0 policy goals, technological developments and work outcomes. The results show how the features of the productive context are associated with a far less ambitious I4.0 plan, the limited and selective adoption of technology at the level of firms, and modest top-down organisational changes that do not fulfil the promises of the project.     

The network perspective and the internationalization of small and medium sized software firms from Syria

This study has employed a case-based approach to explore the relevance of relational factors in explaining the internationalization of six software B2B SMEs from Syria. It contributes by providing rare empirical insights on the internationalization behavior of Middle Eastern SMEs and redressing, albeit slightly, the apparent research gap in the internationalization of knowledge-based SMEs from developing countries. Analysis results suggest the importance of the relational perspective in explaining the initial internationalization, market selection and internationalization speed of the investigated software firms. It emerged that the case firms either reacted to the cross-border opportunities offered by their relational contacts or proactively pursued overseas opportunities through existing and newly developed relationships. Their market entry decisions and internationalization pace also appear to have been influenced by these relationships. Both social and business networks were found to be important, but social ties seemed more influential at initial stages, with business networks becoming more dominant subsequently. The article concludes with appropriate recommendations for managerial decision making and future research.     

Entry, exit, and shakeouts in the United States in new manufactured products

During their early evolution, new manufacturing industries commonly experience a ‘shakeout’ period during which the number of producers declines by 50% or more. In order to gain additional insight into shakeouts, we develop new information on the patterns of entry and exit for 16 major new manufactured products from their commercial inception through 1980. We use a model in which entry and exit coordination problems can generate shakeouts to structure the analysis of the data. We find that shakeouts are distinguished by entry falling off sharply but rates of exit remaining steady or rising over time.     

Entry-timing,business groups and early-mover advantage within industry merger waves in emerging markets: A study of Indian firms

Merger waves are periods of intense and concentrated merger activity which exhibit a wave-like pattern. Drawing upon the resource-based view, we examine the timing of entry and early-mover advantage within merger waves. Following a robust simulation-based methodology of wave analysis, we identify merger waves in eight industries during the time period 2000–2014. Firms affiliated to business groups were found to be early movers. A higher degree of internationalization is also associated with early movement of a firm. Within business groups, their multi-entity character is positively associated with early entry whereas their board interlock was negatively related with entry-timing. Further, early moving acquirers reap superior post-acquisition performance, thereby suggesting that early-mover advantages exist within merger waves.     

The degree of internationalization and the financial performance of European mobile network operators

Specific internationalization steps of single mobile network operators (MNO) such as the hostile takeover of the German Mannesmann corporation by the British Vodafone group have received substantial public attention. Nevertheless, there is a dearth of scholarly research using quantitative indicators to capture facets of the degree of business internationalization and associations between this internationalization extent and financial performance measures in a sample of major MNO originating from Europe. Therefore, this study gathered internationalization data from 14 European MNO for the 7-year period from 1997 to 2003. The firms had an overall proportionate mobile subscriber market share of 80.2% across 27 European countries at year-end 2003. Their average foreign revenue (subscriber) share rose from 11.4% (15.6%) in 1997 to 46.2% (52.2%) in 2003. The dispersion of degrees of internationalization in the sample was high and has remained fairly similar since 1999. No evidence of significantly positive associations between foreign revenues and subscriber shares on the one hand and three accounting-based criteria of MNO group financial performance on the other hand was found. This result is taken to imply that: (1) executives of MNO with high degrees of internationalization had not yet been successful in transforming potential into actual internationalization advantages; (2) more detailed studies on foreign market selection, entry modes, and management procedures balancing integration and autonomy requirements in running foreign MNO affiliates may uncover circumstances under which internationalization degree-performance associations for MNO are significant; and (3) national regulators should not feel obliged to implement special remedies to enhance the survival probabilities of less internationalized MNO.     

Exporter-importer relationship quality: The inhibiting role of uncertainty, distance, and conflict

The article examines the impact of uncertainty, distance, and conflict on key elements comprising the quality of the relationship between U.S. industrial exporters and their overseas customers. Information received from 151 manufacturers revealed that these three parameters play a significant negative role in building sound relationship quality, in terms of adaptation, commitment, communication, cooperation, satisfaction, trust, and understanding — which, in turn, may inhibit the firm's progression along the internationalization path. Specifically, an inverse association was found between uncertainty, distance, and conflict, on one hand, and commitment, cooperation, and satisfaction, on the other. In addition, in relationships characterized by high uncertainty, adaptation, communication, trust, and understanding were low. In high distance relationships, communication was insufficient, and in high conflict situations, trust and understanding were low. Several managerial implications are extracted from the study, as well as directions for future research.     

Capabilities development and deployment activities in born global B-to-B firms for early entry into international markets

This paper sets out to understand how entrepreneurial founders of born global firms acquire, transform and deploy new knowledge resources for early internationalization. Adopting a dynamic capabilities view and using a sample of high-tech B-to-B firms, we report that the new firm's early entry into international markets is executed through three transitionary phases. Founders transform the operational capabilities they endow to the firm, develop dynamic capabilities for use in opportunity exploitation, and deploy these to develop knowledge-intensive products that they take to chosen niche markets. The paper contributes to the B-to-B global marketing literature by uniting it with born global and INV internationalization research, and elucidating the three phases through which founders manage early internationalization. The roles played by entrepreneurial founders and particular capabilities are discussed.     

能源工程企业的国际化发展路径剖析

通过整理7家典型的国际型能源工程公司的国际化发展大事记,分析这些公司国际化发展的路径,研究能源工程企业国际化发展在市场选择、产品/服务提供、国际化方式、商业模式、组织结构、资源配置等方面的演变过程,归纳出能源工程企业国际化发展的一般规律.以海外机构的组织设计形式为主要依据,将能源工程企业的国际化分为萌芽阶段、初始阶段、成长阶段、成熟阶段四个阶段,从组织设计、国际化方式、市场选择、商业模式、产品/服务提供、资源配置六个维度,总结能源工程公司在各阶段的主要特征.目前我国能源工程企业基本上处在国际化发展的萌芽或初始阶段,在实施国际化发展战略时,应该选择能源工程企业国际化早期的发展模式;宜采取海外项目承揽和国际合作的方式,要重点考虑分包和联合投标的商业模式;应将海外目标市场定位于容易进入的机会市场,重点是关系友好国家市场.     

The Internationalization Process of Singapore Government-Linked Companies: A Contextual View

Western management theories on internationalization do not fully explain the evolution of Asian MNCs. In East Asia, state policy has been an important intervening variable in the growth and development of the local MNCs. However, the patterns of firm growth differ from country to country and the strategic frames are embedded in the local political and cultural context. The internationalization strategies adopted by firms in East Asia are best understood if viewed from a contextual perspective.Singapore has been held as model of economic development for developing countries. This paper attempts to capture the dynamics of the internationalization process from a contextual perspective. It describes the evolution of two government-linked companies in Singapore and reviews their internationalization strategy. The cases are set within the framework of Singapore's political economy and its development policy. We identify the themes in the internationalization process of these firms and contrast their experiences with traditional theories.     

Regulation,enforcement, and entry: Evidence from the Spanish local TV industry

Although we have many tools to understand the effect of regulation on firm entry, we know little about the importance of actual regulation enforcement. For this purpose, this paper uses data from Spain's local television industry from 1995 through 2001, which provide a unique opportunity for examining how firms' profitability changes with the introduction of regulation and a posterior liberalization. During this period, the local television industry transitioned from a state of alegality (no regulation in place) to being highly regulated and finally to being informally deregulated. Using a firm entry model from Bresnahan and Reiss (1990, 1991a,b), we estimate local TV station entry thresholds by number of entrants across years. We find the entry threshold in 1998 increased relative to the thresholds in 1995 and 2001, suggesting that entry was less attractive during the period when the local TV industry was highly regulated. We decompose the entry thresholds into the fixed costs and variable profits, and find the fixed-cost ratios increase in 1998 and stay constant in 2001. Meanwhile, we find an increase in the variable-profit ratios in 2001. These findings suggest that the informal deregulation did not invalidate the regulation introduced in 1995 on the cost side. However, the deregulation seemed to have an impact on variable profits through how local TV stations competed.