Open innovation: Are absorptive and desorptive capabilities complementary?

While recent studies in open innovation emphasize the synergies between in-bound and out-bound knowledge flow, empirical results are inconsistent. In this study, we argue that in order to engage simultaneously in both “buying” and “selling” activities, firms need to develop specific capabilities to manage knowledge inflows and outflows, e.g., absorptive and desorptive capacities. We build on key aspects of open innovation and knowledge management literature, arguing that absorptive and desorptive capacity are complementary rather than substitute, and engaging simultaneously in both activities should allow firms to develop their financial performance. We test our model using a sample of 541 New Zealand firms that are deeply involved in international collaborations and find empirical evidence that absorptive and desorptive capacity are not independent and the balanced development of these capabilities has higher impacts on firm’s performance. Further, our findings indicate that technology licensing capability is not a stand-alone task, and its interplay with absorptive capacity plays a key role in the development of a firm’s performance.     

Do Foreign Firms in China Incur a Liability of Foreignness? The Local Chinese Firms’ Perspective

Liability of foreignness (LOF) has been one of the building blocks of multinational enterprise theory development, but we have limited knowledge about the liability of foreignness in the context of multinationals operating in developing countries. This study suggests that in a developing country like China, foreignness may still exist, but its negative impact on foreign firms’ performance may have become insignificant. Local Chinese firms were found to enjoy significant location‐based advantages over their foreign counterparts, contributing to liability of foreignness. However, the adverse effects of liability of foreignness on foreign firms appear to be offset by the foreign firms’ superior firm‐specific and multinationality advantages over local Chinese firms. Further, the location‐based advantages that foreign firms have built up over time further serve to strengthen their overall competitive position in China. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Does external technology acquisition determine export performance? Evidence from Chinese manufacturing firms

Although technology profile has been one of the key determinants of firms’ export performance in the international business literature, most research has focused on only the role of internal technology efforts rather than the role of external technology. This study thus aims to extend our understanding of the determinants of export performance by examining the impact of the inter-organizational dimension of innovation strategy to export performance, which has been ignored in the prevailing “strategy tripod” perspective of exporting research. This study is based on a sample of 141 Chinese indigenous manufacturing firms that engaged in inward technology licensing between 2000 and 2003. The empirical results indicate that external technology acquisitions positively influence Chinese firms’ export performance. Moreover the exporting performance of using external technology varies depending on the their sources (domestic and foreign). The exporting firms that acquired technology from foreign countries outperformed those relied on domestically developed technology.     

International strategies of mid-sized firms: A comparison of Indiana and Guangdong Province

A China strategy is becoming more important for a growing number of mid-sized companies as they observe China's increasingly greater impact on the U.S. economy. Our study surveyed Indiana and Guangdong firms to assess their interest in future international engagement in the other's country. Our results confirm current engagement by mid-sized firms from both countries in some activities with the other country, but there is a strong interest in doing more. Hence, there are opportunities for many Indiana organizations to play a role in assisting Indiana firms in developing international expertise, business development, and knowledge of China. In the study, 97 firms from the Guangdong Province and 105 Indiana firms identified their current international activities as well their future intentions relative to business development in the other's country.     

Globalization and technology adoption: evidence from emerging economies

This paper examines the role of globalization in the creation and dissemination of technology across firms operating in 30 emerging and developing economies. Firm-level data from four rounds of Business Environment and Enterprise Performance Surveys from 2002 to 2014 is pooled to assess whether international exposure translates into greater propensity for firms to innovate. The viability of different channels of international technology transmission, i.e. exporting and importing activities, foreign licensing agreements and foreign direct investment are studied to analyze whether they indeed succeed in delivering the push to the firms operating in developing countries to innovate and as a result push them closer to the world's technology frontier. The empirical results endorse the view that exporting and importing activities and foreign licensing agreements are important channels for technology transfer. This study also acknowledges country, sector and firm specific characteristics and their differential capacity to benefit from foreign exposure.     

Local and international knowledge search and product innovation: The moderating role of technology boundary spanning

Drawing on the external knowledge search literature and the literature on international diversification, this study examined the interactive effect of local and international search for new knowledge on product innovation and the moderating role of a firm's technology boundary spanning activities. Specifically, it proposed that extensive local and international search interact to positively predict product innovation success and this relationship is weaker for firms entering a new technology domain. The results using data on 343 Chinese manufacturing firms across 5 industries indicated the support for the predictions.     

Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs’ involvement in internationalization and innovation: Three Canadian cases

In international entrepreneurship literature, entrepreneurs moving across borders have received less attention than other entrepreneurs. Also, only scant attention has been paid to immigrant entrepreneurs’ contributions to their organizations. This paper aims to contribute to the emerging international immigrant entrepreneurship literature by studying Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs’ roles in their firms’ international and innovative activities in Canada, China, and other countries. It is based on three cases of Chinese entrepreneurs who established businesses in Canada. We conclude that these immigrants’ experience of doing business in China and Canada, their network relationships and knowledge of these markets quickened their firms’ internationalization considerably. Moreover, these firms became active in product or service innovation as the case immigrants also involved other immigrants and locals. Consequently, immigrant entrepreneurs should actively use their connections both in their new country of residence and also in their previous home country, but to become even more successful, they should also reach beyond their ethnic ties.     

Knowledge and internationalization of returnee entrepreneurial firms

This study aims to answer whether and how returnee entrepreneurs’ international experience and returnee entrepreneurial firms’ international market knowledge influence these firms’ internationalization. Anchored in a framework combining an entrepreneurial and knowledge-based view, we develop a model and four hypotheses on the relations between returnee entrepreneurs’ international experience, international market knowledge, international market commitment, and level of internationalization of the returnee entrepreneurial firm. Empirical evidence of the proposed model is derived from a recent sample of Chinese returnee SMEs in knowledge-intensive and high-technology industries. The main finding is that returnee entrepreneurs’ international experience nurtures international market knowledge of returnee entrepreneurial firms, which in turn has a positive effect on these firms’ international market commitment and level of internationalization. In terms of theory, the study extends our understanding of returnee entrepreneurial firms by uncovering the role of returnee entrepreneurs’ international experience and returnee firms’ international market knowledge during their initial and early international expansion.     

Upstream internationalization process: Roles of social capital in creating exploratory capability and market performance

This paper investigates to what extent resource governance of international ventures affects dynamic capability and market performance in the high-tech firms’ internationalization process. We examine the non-equity-based international network collaborations of high-tech firms as forms of strategic resource seeking within the internationalization process. Within the context of upstream technology collaborations by international software and hardware firms, this paper proposes and empirically examines the impact of resource governance mechanisms (i.e. trust-building and behavioral monitoring) on the exploratory capabilities of firms. The findings indicate that building trust in the internationalization process of network ventures contributes to the firm-level exploratory capabilities and, in turn, market performance. Furthermore, this paper tests the moderating effects of structural capital on the capability–performance relationship. The relationship is stronger when network relationships existed before the inception of the international technology alliance. We also find a negative moderating effect from the existence of an actual alliance and from network duration on the relationship between exploratory capability and market performance. To this end, the longevity of the alliance may not always be something firms should aim for. The paper highlights the criticality of relational and structural capital in the internationalization process and the importance of exploratory capability for creating radical innovation in high-tech industries.     

国际外包承接对我国内资企业生产率的影响

跨国外包作为产品内专业化分工在国际市场的延伸,使参与其中的国家和行业生产都得到了专业化分工的好处。作为发展中国家,我国内资企业多利用劳动资源优势参与国际分工,即以外包的承接方身份参与跨国外包。本文首次从外包承接企业角度出发,利用我国制造业内资企业面板数据,实证分析了企业承接外包对其生产率的影响。结果表明,内资企业承接国内的外包业务并不会提高企业的生产率;但是企业承接国际外包会提高企业的生产率。这说明,内资企业在承接国际外包的情况下,能够从国外的外包商那里获得相应的生产技术、工艺或者经营管理知识,从而提高了企业的技术水平,促进了生产率的提高。     

Home base and knowledge management in international ventures

This paper examines the scope and sequence of international activities carried out by nascent international ventures. Building on earlier research about foreign direct investment (FDI) and knowledge management in international firms and on the analysis of six international ventures the paper develops a number of propositions. We suggest that international ventures are conceived as ‘international’ because cross-border activities increase the chances of venture survival and growth. We also suggest that, in the early stages of international ventures, cross-border activities that augment the venture's knowledge base are more prevalent than cross-border activities that exploit the venture's knowledge base. Finally, the paper points out research trajectories for more detailed studies of knowledge management in international ventures.     

Impact of domestic and foreign knowledge mechanisms on the innovation performance of Indian firms

Research on emerging market firms (EMFs) has acknowledged the role of innovation in catching-up with advanced economies. Although we know that EMFs’ innovation increasingly depends on collaborations and cross-border knowledge flows, less has been said about the effectiveness of foreign and domestic knowledge mechanisms adopted to improve EMFs’ innovation performance. We hypothesize that foreign mechanisms rely on diverse knowledge and foster explorative innovation (i.e. innovation that extends the existing local competencies), while domestic mechanisms are more likely to be associated with the exploitation of the local existing competencies. Additionally, we claim that the breadth of EMFs’ absorptive capacity strengthens the impact of foreign knowledge mechanisms on explorative innovation, while depth increases the impact of domestic knowledge mechanisms on EMFs’ exploitative innovation, thus highlighting that the interplay of knowledge resources internal and external to the firm involve different levels of recombination. Our empirical analyses conducted on a sample of 161 Indian bio-pharmaceutical firms observed from 1997 to 2018 confirm our hypotheses, thus contributing to the literature on EMFs’ catching up via internationalization and innovation.     

Malaysian Multinational Firms and the Management of their Subsidiaries

There are limited studies on multinational enterprises from lesser developed and smaller Asian countries and even less attention given to the area of subsidiary management in Asian firms. This article contributes to this knowledge gap with empirical evidence from a study of nine case studies of firms from Malaysia, a rapidly developing country. Differences as well as commonalities in the management of their subsidiaries were found among sample firms. These findings are discussed in relation to the literature on management of subsidiaries in other Asian and developed countries’ firms. Implications for research and limitations of the study are covered.     

The belt and road initiative,cultural friction and ethnicity: Their effects on the export performance of SMEs in China

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has provided Chinese firms with significant incentives to speed up the pace of internationalization. Yet very little international business (IB) research has been found to empirically examine such policy effects. This study explores this important issue using Chinese firms of different ethnicities in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR) of China. We propose that the BRI has a positive formal institutional effect on the export performance of XUAR firms that target the “Belt” countries. Both cultural friction and ethnicity serve as the unique cultural contingencies that moderate the relationship between the BRI and export performance. More specifically, the cultural friction that results from the process of internationalization will negatively affect the export performance prompted by the BRI. The Uygur-owned firms will benefit more from the BRI due to their cultural similarity. Overall, the study takes the lead in investigating both internal conditions and external environments that promote and inhibit the internationalization process of small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) in the XUAR that are geographically close to the “Belt” countries. The findings help enrich the understanding of the dual “push” and “drag” effects on the outcomes of SMEs’ international activities due to the government-led initiatives and the understanding of micro-foundation toward internationalization from an ethnicity perspective.     

Do indigenous firms incur a liability of localness when operating in their home market? The case of China

Liability of foreignness has been one of the building blocks of theories of multinational enterprises. This paper looks at a parallel issue – the liability of localness that local firms may face as a result of foreign firms’ presence in their country. The results show that local Chinese firms enjoy location-based advantages over their foreign counterparts and these, together with their firm-specific advantages, have significant positive effects on their performance. The superior firm-specific advantages of foreign firms appear to erase the magnitude of such effects and create a significant negative impact on local Chinese firms’ performance, and this effect is heightened by foreign firms’ multinationality advantages. The research suggests that local Chinese firms incur a liability of localness, and the extent of the negative impact of such liability on local firm performance is largely dependent on the relative strength of various advantages that the local and foreign firms possess.     

Does international experience help firms to be green? A knowledge-based view of how international experience and organisational learning influence proactive environmental strategies

Early research on environmental strategy in international firms focused predominantly on direct investment as an expansion strategy for multinationals. However, we know relatively little from a strategic management perspective about exporting, which is the most prevalent form of international expansion. For this reason, we examine whether the knowledge that export firms acquire abroad influences their environmental strategies. Using a sample of export firms from the food industry, we show that the number of years spent in developing export activities does not contribute to developing a proactive environmental strategy; however, a more complex experience of environmental international diversification is positively related to a firm's proactive environmental strategy. Finally, organisational learning capability moderates the positive relationship between environmental international diversification and environmental proactivity.     

Factors in the effective transfer of knowledge from multinational enterprises to their foreign subsidiaries: a Mozambican case study

The purpose of this article is to better understand the role of internal stakeholders in subsidiaries of multinational companies (MNCs) in order to offer potential insights into the cross‐border transfer of knowledge from those companies’ headquarters to their subsidiaries. The focus is upon subsidiaries in developing countries, here Mozambique. More specifically, the article is concerned with identifying factors that influence the learning of internal stakeholders and noting practices which seem associated with a high level of absorptive capacity and performance of subsidiaries. The starting point is evidence of ineffective transfer of knowledge by MNCs to their subsidiaries in developing countries, with consequent sub‐standard performance. The research reported involves four case studies of Portuguese companies operating in Mozambique and draws on data from interviews with senior and middle managers in the firms’ Mozambican subsidiaries. The results obtained suggest that successful knowledge transfer to overseas subsidiaries is found under the following conditions. First, the parent company knows the local context and provides a flow of relevant information. Second, application of knowledge locally is done flexibly to suit local circumstances. Next, a participatory approach is used so that local staff can see why the knowledge conveyed is necessary. Fourth, explanation and demonstration are key techniques, with major roles for on‐the‐job training, continuous improvement and training at headquarters. Finally, issues arising from local culture may need to be addressed.     

Once upon a time in a foreign market: The role of cultural distance in the economic performance of multilateral non-equity partnerships

As a consequence of globalization and advancements in technology, international collaborations, which bring together partners from different cultural backgrounds, have become increasingly prominent in the business world. While several studies have examined the impact of cultural distance on the performance of such partnerships, they have tended to focus on bilateral relationships, and the results they have produced are conflicting. By building on the resource-based view and distinguishing the differences between the concepts of cultural distance among partners and the cultural distance of partnerships from target markets, the present study provides insights into the role of cultural distance in the performance of multilateral project-based non-equity collaborations. Drawing on a sample of 1183 movies that were released in the U.S. between the years 2000 and 2020, this study demonstrates that while projects co-produced by culturally distant partners have yielded higher revenues, the cultural distance of partnerships from target markets can have a negative impact on economic performance. Furthermore, the results show that partnerships formed with firms that originated in countries that have greater diversity perform better in the target market, and such partnerships manage cultural distance more efficiently.     

The Impact of FDI Inflow on Domestic Firms’ Uptake of CSR Activities: The Moderating Effects of Host Institutions

This study examines whether foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow helps or hinders local firms’ uptake of corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities in a developing host country. The study further examines the interaction effect of host institutions on the relationship between FDI inflow and local firms’ uptake of CSR activities. Results of hierarchical regression analysis of data from a sample of 227 local firms in Ghana, reveal that local firms’ uptake of CSR improves significantly with an increasing inflow of FDI through knowledge transfer. Host institutions are also found to influence the transfer of CSR activities from foreign firms to local firms. However, when the quality of institutions is very high, the impact of FDI on local firms’ CSR activities diminishes. Research and practical implications of these findings are discussed. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

发达国家和发展中国家企业对外直接投资动机--基于文献综述的比较研究

在全球经济一体化背景下,企业对外直接投资行为的兴起激发了国内外学术界对其动机的研究。发展中国家和发达国家由于市场发展程度存在较大的差别,企业对外直接投资动机也大相径庭。通过对比归纳发现,发达国家企业对外直接投资动机较为集中,受东道国因素影响较多并大多有市场推动;而发展中国家企业对外直接投资动机较复杂多样,主要受母国因素影响且政府政策推动具有较大作用。这一比较研究也表明,在我国针对企业对外直接投资经济影响的研究中,应先考虑并区分不同动机企业对外直接投资产生的差异化结果。