How much does host country matter,really?

How much does the host country matter in explaining foreign affiliate performance? Using a global sample of 34,708 foreign affiliates operating in 91 host countries, we revisit the relative importance of the host country effect as a performance determinant. Our variance decomposition results suggest that the host country effect is less salient than previously identified, often explaining a small portion of affiliate performance differences. We offer implications for future international strategy research on foreign affiliate performance, advancing an understanding of the relative importance of external and internal determinants. We direct scholarly attention to other effect classes, namely the affiliate effect.     

SME internationalization: How does the opportunity-based international entrepreneurial culture matter?

We employ the opportunity-based international entrepreneurial culture (IEC) comprehensive notion that draws upon the opportunity-based view (OBV). The OBV supports the idea that entrepreneurs mold the organizational behavior and characteristics of their firms to pursue opportunities abroad. We set out to explore possible attitudinal differences as regards exploitation of opportunities within firms in each of three internationalization dimensions that are previously identified in the literature, notably time to internationalization, country market presence and international mode. We perform eighteen case studies on high-performing internationalized small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in knowledge intensive sectors. The evidence refines the OBV as it manifests how three IEC characteristics (namely risk attitude, market orientation and networking propensity) matter for firms in the three internationalization dimensions. The study further adds to the international entrepreneurship literature that has until now myopically focused on international new ventures as if they were the sole opportunity-driven group of internationalized SMEs.     

How much does KIBS contribute to the generation and diffusion of innovation?

This article aims to estimate the contribution of KIBS to the innovation system. Data on innovation gathered from national and European databases are analyzed using a methodology based on an input–output framework to estimate the drive for innovation in the Spanish economy and the contribution of KIBS. KIBS are found to be crucial to both the creation and diffusion of innovation. From among the four classifications of sectors analyzed herein, KIBS is found to be the only significant net generator of innovation.     

How much does an Illegal Insider Trade?

This paper examines the choice of trade size by an illegal insider. Previous literature (i.e. Meulbroek 1992) tends to focus on the price impact of such a trader. Using a unique data set hand‐collected from the litigation reports of the Securities and Exchange Commission and court cases, we provide evidence, which suggests that the size of an illegal insider's trade is a function of the value of his private information, the probability of detection and the expected penalty if detected. Our results have important implication for security market regulators.     

Emerging Economy MNEs: How does home country munificence matter?

Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) from emerging economies (EEs) are establishing operations in advanced economies (AEs), apparently departing from traditional models of internationalization. We explore an under-explored difference between EE MNE and their AE counterparts concerning their country of origin: EEs have less munificent business environments. This leads EE MNEs to make different location choices than AE MNEs when entering AEs, specifically because they are more deterred by barriers to entry. We therefore predict EE MNEs to be relatively more deterred by distance and weak intellectual property protection and relatively more attracted by diaspora of migrants and by markets. Our empirical results are consistent with these predictions.     

How does the geographic export diversification–performance relationship vary at different levels of export intensity?

We argue that the relationship between geographic export diversification and firm performance follows an S-curve relationship if export intensity is low and an inverted U-shape if export intensity is high. The S-shape curve occurs because firms have weaker incentives to deploy the resources needed for succeeding in foreign markets if they generate relatively low revenues in export markets compared to their domestic market. Firms highly committed to export markets, in contrast, face stronger incentives to accelerate their learning curve, which results in an inverted U-shape relationship. We examine our hypotheses using a panel of longitudinal archival data with over 2000 firm-year observations, which cover all of the possible export destination countries served by large Brazil-based exporters from 2001 to 2010. Our results imply that the degree of export intensity changes the cost-benefit relationship of geographic export diversification.     

Training in the UK: does national ownership matter?

We investigate whether UK-owned and foreign-owned firms operating in the UK differ with respect to the quality and quantity of training they perform. A simple theoretical model sets up the basis for the empirical analysis, which utilises the 1990 WIRS/EMSPS data set. It is found that, whereas the intensity of training does not seem to vary systematically with ownership, foreign-owned establishments train significantly more of their employees and seem to provide higher quality training than their UK-owned counterparts. It also appears that ‘poaching’ of trained labour, which is fairly similar by ownership, is not regarded as a major problem by employers.     

How may the nature of family firms explain the decisions concerning international diversification?

This study explores how the ownership structure of family firms gives these organizations a distinctive nature in terms of international diversification. We argue that the heterogeneity of family firms may cause variations in the degree of international diversification among these types of businesses. We have studied three factors related to ownership structure: the degree of family ownership and the type and degree of ownership of the second largest shareholder (another family or a financial company). The empirical evidence is provided by a sample of European and Asian family firms (2004–2008). Our results show that the degree of family ownership has a negative impact on the degree of international diversification. However, the presence and ownership share of a financial company as the second largest shareholder in a family firm favor this diversification. This study also reveals the importance of the financial company as a second owner in the preference family firms show for growth in international markets.     

How much will the new most-wanted cost?

Housing,University and college education,lnsurance,Automobile.     

How Is the Financial Crisis Affecting China's Export Enterprises?

--CCPIT's Inspection of Export Enterprses in Zhejiang Province Being down-to-earth as always,China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT)has carried out its work based on the macroeconomic environment since the outbreak of the financial crisis. From October 24 to 26 in 2008, officials from CCPIT went to Zhejiang province and inspected about 30 private export enterprises in Wenzhou and Taizhou, covering textile,garment, footwear, valve, water pump,sewing machine, auto parts, motorcycle,pneumatic tools, sanitary wares, furniture and other industries.     

Does the sequencing of related and unrelated export diversification matter? Evidence from Colombian exporters

How does related or unrelated geographic diversification affect future related or unrelated product diversification of exporting firms, and vice-versa? This question addresses an unresolved debate, and it is important for firms in developing countries that seek to expand their product and geographical markets. Our study contributes to a current debate by highlighting the relevance of the temporal sequence and the relatedness of international diversification. Expanding the classic transaction costs and the resource-based explanations, we argue that organizational learning as well as organizational and sales (in-)efficiencies (notably through resource and product cannibalization, negative transfer and coordination costs) affect the interrelationships between product and geographic diversification. Using a panel dataset of over 14,000 firm-year observations from exporters based in Colombia, we find that (1) related geographic diversification tends to increase future product diversification; (2) related product diversification tends to decrease future geographic diversification; and (3) unrelated product diversification tends to increase future geographic diversification.     

Making the next move: When does the newness of experience matter in overseas sequential entries of multinational companies?

Traditional internationalization models suggest multinational companies (MNCs) can exploit their accumulative experience to facilitate their sequential entries. However, experience may depreciate over time. Thus, obtaining benefits from prior experience for MNCs is based on two critical premises, i.e., interpreting and applying experience correctly. We argue that there is a need to study the newness dimension of experiential learning. In doing so, we aim to explore to what extent the newness of experience matters in overseas sequential entries for MNCs. Moreover, we expect that the benefits from recent experience in guiding sequential entries are contingent on the extent of context similarity between the most recent entry location and sequential entry location and the outcome expectancy of focal entry. With a sample of 112 Chinese listed firms and 410 observations during the period of 2000–2012, we find that else being equal, the newness of experience of MNCs is positively associated with sequential entry and such a relationship is positively moderated both by context similarity in institutional environment and the outcome expectancy of the focal entry. We also compare the effects of the newness of different types of experience and find that the newness of the most recent experience has a larger influence on sequential entry than location-specific experience and general experience.     

University choice: which attributes matter when you are paying the full price?

This article presents the results from a longitudinal study of students' choice of university in England. Students were surveyed initially when applying for university (Wave One) and then again when they were about to embark on their chosen course (Wave Two). The results from Wave Two demonstrated a high degree of consistency with the Wave One findings: course and university reputation are far more important and fees are relatively unimportant. However, a key result across both waves was that patterns of utility for students with no parental experience of university were significantly different from students whose parents had attended university. The utility associated with different levels of entry qualifications, of fees and of university and course reputation, differed between social groups. The study suggests that the benefits of going to a highly rated university may be undervalued in families that have no direct experience of higher education. In addition, whilst females are more significantly put off by universities with low entry requirements, the qualitative attitudinal statements included in the follow‐up study seem to indicate that so‐called ‘softer’ factors may also influence their choice.     

How does working capital management affect the profitability of Spanish SMEs?

This paper analyzes the relation between working capital management and profitability for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by controlling for unobservable heterogeneity and possible endogeneity. Unlike previous studies, we examine a non-linear relation between these two variables. Our results show that there is a non-monotonic (concave) relationship between working capital level and firm profitability, which indicates that SMEs have an optimal working capital level that maximizes their profitability. In addition, a robustness check of our results confirms that firms?? profitability decreases as they move away from their optimal level.     

How do standard setters define materiality and why does it matter?

Material information is a core aspect of a firm's governance and reporting activities. If corporate information is material, then the firm has a responsibility to disclose it. Currently, firms must judge information as material largely based on a confusing set of standard setters’ definitions. I analyze the particular conditions laid out by each standard setter and explain the ethical implications that result from materiality judgments made by firms using these varied standards. Importantly, this analysis underscores that regulators, firms, and researchers alike must consider the impact of these implications on the fiduciary duty and promise-keeping that firms make as well as the potential for unfairness and financial harm to others’ welfare that could result.     

Building subsidiary local responsiveness: (When) does the directionality of intrafirm knowledge transfers matter?

The present study focuses on effects of subsidiary internal knowledge-based activities—knowledge transfer and reverse knowledge transfer—and absorptive capacity on local responsiveness. We also examine whether absorptive capacity, shared values, and psychological safety, representing constituents of the motivation-opportunity-ability model of behavior, moderate relationships of subsidiary internal knowledge-based activities with responsiveness. Based on a sample of 173 Chinese subsidiaries, the results suggest knowledge transfer and absorptive capacity facilitate local responsiveness. Shared values moderates positively and absorptive capacity negatively, the relationship between knowledge transfer and responsiveness. Psychological safety strengthens the link between reverse knowledge transfer and local responsiveness.     

How humble is your company culture? And,why does it matter?

Humility as a virtue of leadership has attracted increased attention in recent years. We introduce the concept of a humble organizational culture and define it as a culture that promotes humility as a key success factor and a source of competitive advantage, and one that institutionalizes six values and norms: (1) employee development, (2) mistake tolerance, (3) transparency, (4) accurate awareness, (5) recognition, and (6) openness. We position a company culture of humility as key to extraordinary success in the marketplace. Humility in individuals includes a willingness to see the self accurately and a propensity to put oneself and others in perspective. In this article, we offer a set of recommendations to help executives build a company culture of humility that supports the six behavioral norms and values that create the foundation for a firm’s competitive advantage. We collected information on organizational cultures of humility for a sample of Fortune 500 firms using data from company mission statements, company websites, and news articles.     

Thinking of exporting?: Export management companies could be the answer

With the interest in globalization, many domestic manufacturing companies are anxious to export their products. Lacking the resources and experience to sell effectively abroad, manufacturers often rely on export management companies (EMCs) to act as their export departments. How successful have these arrangements been? Haigh reports that the performance of EMCs is below the expectations of manufacturers more than half the time, but concludes that EMCs can be a very effective strategy for entering foreign markets if care is taken to select an appropriate company.     

R&D investment of start-up firms: does founders’ human capital matter?

This article examines whether founders’ human capital affects not only actual investment but also required investment in research and development (R&D), using the original data of Japanese start-up firms. The estimation results indicate that higher levels of founders’ human capital, especially their education levels, increase both actual and required investment in R&D and thus do not necessarily contribute to reducing the funding gap for R&D.     

How does the learning climate affect customer satisfaction?

This study investigates the role of the learning climate in the effective management of salespersons' behaviour in service encounters. This paper reports the development and testing of a two-level model in which salespersons' perceptions of the learning climate are related to their adaptive selling behaviour and their adaptive selling behaviour is, in turn, related to customers' evaluation of the salespersons' knowledge of customers and customer satisfaction. A total of 417 service encounters involving 88 bank consultants were analysed using hierarchical linear modelling, with results that support most of the proposed model. More specifically, learning climate was positively related to adaptive selling behaviour, and adaptive selling behaviour was directly related to customer satisfaction. In addition, adaptive selling behaviour was associated with customer satisfaction through customers' perception of the salesperson's knowledge. Both theoretical and practical implications are discussed.