International intensity,diversity, and distance: Unpacking the internationalization–performance relationship

Prior research has considered various conceptualizations of internationalization and offered diverse perspectives on its performance implications that, in turn, have generated mixed empirical findings. We advance research on the performance implications of internationalization by uncovering the multifaceted nature of internationalization and developing a generalizable theoretical framework that unbundles internationalization into three main facets: international intensity, international diversity, and international distance. We draw from multiple disciplines to explain the causal mechanisms that underlie the distinctive performance implications of each facet and test our predictions using panel data on Japanese firms. Our findings demonstrate that international intensity and international distance produce sigmoid effects on firm performance, though for different theoretical reasons. In turn, international diversity generates a U-shaped performance effect. Our multidisciplinary perspective contributes to international business research by discerning the distinct facets of internationalization and analyzing the mechanisms that disentangle the complex nature of the internationalization–performance relationship.     

Market entry and international propagation of business cycles

In this paper, pro-cyclical market entry acts as an international transmission mechanism for business cycle shocks. In an imperfectly competitive dynamic equilibrium model, an expansion in one open economy leads to additional business formation in a parallel large open economy through demand spillovers. Business formation causes a decline in markups leading to an expansion in employment, production, and investment in both economies. The modeling of the entry decision is critical. Only when the entry game is modelled as sequential (with incumbents enjoying a first mover advantage) are markups sufficiently elastic to cause international comovement.     

How international entrepreneurship characteristics influence Internet capabilities for the international business processes of the firm

This research explores the relationship between international entrepreneurship characteristics and the use of Internet capabilities for the international business processes of the firm. It has been suggested, that the accumulation of a firms Internet capability can assist international operations, especially when operating in fast changing dynamic Internet environments. However, international entrepreneurship characteristics which are seen as a precursor to leveraging Internet capabilities are still vague. Given this finding, eight case studies of small and medium sized travel and tourism firms were selected to investigate the influence of international entrepreneurship characteristics, and Internet capabilities for international business processes. Based on the eight in-depth case studies, the results signify that successful international entrepreneurial firms which encompass high levels of international innovativeness and proactiveness behaviour integrate Internet capabilities to a greater degree. Our findings also indicate that the prior international business experience, international risk-taking propensity and international networking characteristics are not necessarily precursors to successful integration of Internet capabilities for international business processes. On the contrary, international business experience and international networks actually lead to a reliance on traditional mechanisms of internationalisation and can dilute the development of Internet capabilities for international business processes.     

Alan Rugman and internalisation theory

Alan Rugman made a singular contribution to international business research through his pioneering work on the internalisation theory of the multinational enterprise (MNE). This centred on the international transfer of knowledge in the MNE and the role of firm and country specific advantages in determining flows and outcomes of foreign direct investment. His unique contributions included, inter alia, the concept of subsidiary specific advantages and the early development of a theory of the flagship firm.     

Exploring International Investment Through a Classroom Portfolio Simulation Project

A rapid integration of financial markets has prevailed during the last three decades. Investors are able to diversify investment beyond national markets to mitigate return volatility of a “pure domestic portfolio.” This article discusses a simulation project through which students learn the role of international investment by managing their own portfolios. The article explains the project's investment ground rule, trading requirement, and grading rubric. The students are required to examine many important factors in international business such as currency risks and regional policies. The structure of this project can also be applied to a course involving student-managed investment funds.     

基于粤港澳大湾区人才需求的国际商务专业课程教学改革研究 ——以国际商务概论为例

国际商务概论作为学生进入国际商务专业学习的第一门专业课,同时也是国际商务专业课的先修课程与基础课程,对于国际商务专业的重要性不言而喻,但国际商务概论存在着教材内容更新慢等不足,从优化师资团队、丰富教学内容、加强校企合作等三个方面提出了相应的改革方案。     

What attracts foreign direct investment into autocratic states? Regime time horizon and institutional design

States play a critical role in designing institutions to facilitate international business. We study the effect of autocratic states' time horizons on their attraction of foreign direct investment (FDI) through designing domestic and international institutions. We argue that autocrats with a long time horizon tend to build credible domestic commitment-institutions that attract foreign investors; however, they are also likely to affect the design of commitment carve-outs in international institutions, in particular bilateral investment treaties, thus weakening their institutional effect on foreign investment. We test these dual effects of regime time horizon on FDI inflow using data from 80 autocratic states over a 33-year period and find substantial support for our arguments.     

Corruption in international business: A review and research agenda

We systematically reviewed the literature on corruption in international business (137 articles) for the last 17 years between 1992 and 2019. Additionally, we identified seven research streams in this growing literature: (1) the legislation against corruption, (2) the determinants of corruption, (3) combating corruption, 4) the effect of corruption on firms, (5) the political environment and corruption, (6) corruption as a challenge to existing theories of management, and (7) the effect of corruption on foreign direct investment and trade. Based on this review, we recommend that strong international laws are needed to minimize the negative impact of corruption on international business. Firms must also consider corruption when formulating strategies to increase operational efficiency and performance. Finally, corruption challenges some key assumptions of existing theories of management. Scholars need to test and expand these existing theories by considering corruption as an important issue in international business.     

International projects'' changing patterns: Sales engineers'' changing roles

Dealing with international projects, a reflexion on recent changes of international environment as well as client expectations suggests to emphasize the importance of two additional types of business relationships which tend to complete the “traditional” big international bi-/multi-laterally supported projects scheme: — (a) big international “self-supporting” projects requiring partnership with client or, even, direct provider's involvement (if not investment), — (b) big multi-national clients developing a huge range of projects of all size worldwide, with a more or less developed need of integration of sourcing.The key issue for the providers lies, in fact, in the organisation of relationships with existing and potential clients in those two developing types of complex international operations. Hence, it suggests to re-define the company contacts systems with the client and, above all, the role and profile of the sales engineers, traditionally in charge of these responsabilities.The purpose of this article is to evaluate the environmental changes as well as their impact on international project features and to make a first attempt to evaluate the consequences of these changes on coordinators'/managers' profiles.     

国际投融资中税收筹划思路探析

伴随着国际投资与融资活动的蓬勃开展,税收筹划的重要作用也日益凸显。本文以跨国公司的国际投资活动及与之相关的融资活动为背景,研究了税收筹划的内涵、性质以及筹划的基本思路,提出要将国际投资与融资中的税收筹划综合考虑以获取最大节税收益的观点。     

Developing International Business Managers Through International Study Visits to China

Globalization is a key factor in the success of business organizations today, impacting many aspects of management performance. Understanding the global business environment has therefore become a key objective in the teaching of international business on Executive MBA programs. Drawing on the theory of experiential learning, this study examines the relationship between program structure and learning activities of an international study visit (ISV) to China and the learning experience for Executive MBA students. The findings indicate that learning experience may be most effective where the structure of an ISV incorporates certain activities that promote experiential and deep-level learning. Educational implications are discussed.     

Theoretical milestones in international business: The journey to international entrepreneurship theory

For many decades global business was considered the preserve of large multinationals and traditional international business theory was developed to explain the behaviour of these firms. However, increasingly there is a realization that the small entrepreneurial firm has an important role to play in international business especially given that there are strong globalization pressures that both pull and push the small firm into international markets to ensure its very survival. On the questions of how and why international business takes place, several theoretical approaches have been developed that appear to run parallel to each other. However, this paper posits that the point of convergence is international entrepreneurship.     

国际贸易冲击与中国经济的周期波动

国际经济波动对我国经济周期的影响主要是通过国际贸易这个渠道实现的,本文在对我国对外贸易波动的特征及与经济周期相关性进行分析的基础之上,通过国际贸易乘数效应具体分析了国际贸易冲击对经济周期波动的影响,其结论表明国际贸易冲击对我国的经济周期波动产生了重要的作用和影响,出口每波动1%,会引发GDP波动0.25个百分点左右,随着我国对外贸易的快速增长,贸易波动对宏观经济的影响会进一步增加。     

International Business Research: Coauthorship Patterns and Quality

The authors investigate published international business research in four international business journals over a 10‐year period, 1995–2004: (a) patterns of coauthorship across regions, and (b) the relation between coauthorship patterns and the quality of international business (IB) articles. A cross‐region coauthorship enhances the quality of an article, suggesting that international collaboration creates synergy in IB research. The authors do not see any positive correlation between alphabetical ordering of coauthor names in multiauthored articles and article quality—a result that is contrary to some evidence in other disciplines. Finally, international management articles appear to be more frequently cited than articles in other IB research areas.     

The increasing internationalization of the international business classroom: Cultural and generational considerations

This article reviews the dynamic demographics of the international business classroom across five Anglo countries: the U.S.A., the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. Figures indicate that business education is becoming increasingly international, and that the countries of origin of international business students are changing. Cultural impacts of this increasing internationalization upon international business pedagogy—as well as issues of generational expectations of the classroom experience—are considered, benefits and challenges of the increased cultural diversity in the classroom are discussed, and practical suggestions for instructors teaching in future international business classrooms are detailed.     

Designing Curriculum for Real-World International Business Needs

Economies continue to become more integrated through international trade and foreign investment, as well as by more, and more, complex global supply changes. With the expansion in the level and scope of international business (IB), it becomes all the more important that university graduates seeking careers in IB be able to “successfully hit the ground running” as they enter the labor force. The Schulich School of Business introduced a Certificate in Managing International Trade and Investment for undergraduates in 2012. Its aim was to intensify their learning by deepening their knowledge of IB and providing them with integrative courses, real-world learning, and cultural intelligence, enabling them to be effective in organizations as soon as they graduate. To ensure that the curriculum was in line with real-world needs, executives and other experts were interviewed to identify the skills they wanted to see in people they were hiring for their IB activities. The factors identified from this qualitative research informed the development of the Certificate. The global mind-set fostered will give students a competitive edge both in the recruitment process and on the job.     

Analyzing the Structure of the International Business Curriculum in India

This article analyzes the structure of the international business curriculum through a questionnaire-based survey among current students and young managers who are studying or have studied international business courses in one of the top B-Schools of India. Respondents have the opinion that international business is more than internationalization of different functional areas and is to be treated as a separate academic discipline. In the context of pedagogy, respondents feel the need for more elective courses on international business and prefer learning through different methods such as foreign country visits, simulation, and role playing activities.     

What is a multinational corporation? Classifying the degree of firm-level multinationality

The degree of firm-level multinationality is a key dimension that spans all theoretical frameworks, levels of empirical analysis and domains of investigation in international business research. There is, however, no agreed approach to defining or measuring firm-level multinationality. This is reflected in inconsistent approaches to sample selection and empirical testing, and it has curtailed the advancement of the discipline. We propose that instead of searching for the elusive, all-encompassing definition of an MNC, international business scholars should instead agree on a classification system for the degree of firm-level multinationality. We illustrate the advantages of this approach by constructing a simple classification system that takes into account the firm's breadth and depth of multinational engagements. We illustrate our matrix of firm multinationality by classifying a novel sample of over 1000 firms from seven countries, and we demonstrate how it can guide theory development and empirical testing. We also provide examples of potential future research directions.     

Digitally immersive,international entrepreneurial experiences

This study explores how entrepreneurs acquire international experiences within physical and digital business environments, and how these experiences influence the way international opportunities are recognised and exploited. Based on multiple case study evidence, including in-depth interviews with international entrepreneurs from 16 small virtual service firms, findings suggest entrepreneurs who interact with digital technologies in a responsive way in international settings may promote the emergence of a new type of experience: “digital internationalisation experience”. This new type of experience, in turn, contributes to enhanced idea generation and opportunity confidence that enable international entrepreneurial exploitation.     

Curriculum Internationalization at AACSB Schools: Immersive Experiences,Student Placement,and Assessment

This article presents results from a survey of AACSB-accredited business schools’ progress in internationalizing their curricula in view of a recent AACSB report. We present data on the use of immersive experiences, degree of success in student placement in internationally oriented careers, and assessment of internationalization efforts. The results indicate growth of internationalization activities at virtually all schools as expected, but these efforts may not always match AACSB recommendations. For instance, AACSB criticized business programs for not coordinating internationalization activities in a strategic manner to improve courses and develop skills needed by international managers. Our survey finds that many schools do not attempt to tie their international experiences to specific courses, but they report the experiences are used to build skills students need. Most institutions also do not examine job placement as a measure of curriculum internationalization success. We find that many schools do not assess the outcomes of their internationalization efforts in a way that can demonstrate whether or not recent AACSB suggestions are being met.