The efficacy of talent management in international business: The case of European multinationals

The focus of this study is on the efficacy of talent management (TM) practices to the performance and operations of international businesses. There are relatively limited dedicated studies on the value and effectiveness of TM as an identifiable international practice and its contribution to international business. Anecdotal research and consultants' reports have argued for an increase in the return on investment where TM practices are aligned with the business strategy. Conceptually, human capital theory is adopted to explain investment in high potentials in addition to the resource‐based view, which help explain the development of internal sources of competitive advantage, which are rare, inimitable, nonsubstitutable, and valuable. This article builds on knowledge by qualitatively examining managerial experiences of TM practices within 17 European internationally operating businesses with employees ranging from 800 to 200,000. An exploratory qualitative approach is adopted, with semistructured interviews as the main data collection tool. Findings accentuate the significance of developing the most valuable source of competitive advantage—people. We argue that, if TM is effectively implemented can result in the development of unique competences, which can ease the burdens of cross‐border business challenges and lead to sustainable competitive advantage.     

Impact of Retail Internationalization on Agribusiness: The Case of Ukraine

This article aims to reveal the impact of the retail internationalization process on the Ukrainian agribusiness. Building on an in-depth survey, we delineate major changes that occur owing to the process. Talking about global retailers, an essential part of their business is connected with selling high-quality products. Because (food) quality and thereby food safety processes are considered to be the highest priority, we concentrate on the agri-food business. Our interest in Ukraine is kindled by ongoing verticalization addressed by foreign retailers and imitated by local firms. As a result, overall quality improvements are observed.     

The creation and diffusion of international business research

“W(h)ither U.S. Hegemony in International Business Research?” by Grigorios Livanis and Michael Geringer, is an excellent effort to encompass the growth of international business (IB) scholarly research worldwide. This commentary examines the implicit assumptions and models of their analysis, showing that IB models are useful in explaining the scholarly growth of IB.     

Clio in the business school: Historical approaches in strategy,international business and entrepreneurship

On the back of recent and significant new debates on the use of history within business and management studies, we consider the perception of historians as being anti-theory and of having methodological shortcomings; and business and management scholars displaying insufficient attention to historical context and privileging of certain social science methods over others. These are explored through an examination of three subjects: strategy, international business and entrepreneurship. We propose a framework for advancing the use of history within business and management studies more generally through greater understanding of historical perspectives and methodologies.     

Coronavirus and international business: An entrepreneurial ecosystem perspective

Covid‐19 (Coronavirus) is a health pandemic that has significantly affected the global economy and fundamentally changed society. The impacts of coronavirus are most apparent at the international business level due to the restrictions on travel and mobility of labor. This has necessitated an entrepreneurial outlook for businesses in order to survive in the current market environment. The aim of this article is to discuss the implications of the coronavirus for international business by taking an entrepreneurial ecosystem point of view. This enables a reflection on how the pandemic has impacted various entities of the ecosystem in terms of stakeholder engagement. Suggestions for acting in a more dynamic and innovative manner are provided that highlight the importance of utilizing entrepreneurial ecosystems in times of crises.     

Mapping international business and international business policy research: Intellectual structure and research trends

This paper analyzes the core international business (IB) areas covered by ten IB-focused journals to date using 13,937 documents reflecting more than 300 years of combined publication history. Using bibliometric and citation analysis, it provides a systematic understanding of the current IB landscape, explicates the relevance of the future of IB research and depicts trends in this research field with emerging prevalent themes identified. The strongest themes across IB journals are performance, perspective and emerging economies/MNEs, shared strongly across UK/Europe, US and Asia-based journals. Our findings report on the prevalent research field, economy and geography, the latter analyzing the impact of author numbers and distribution, and thus, scale effects. Within this context, sole authorships are largely replaced by co-authorships, yet often on national level. We further limited the study to IB policy and found the focus centers on key themes of foreign business attraction, transnational governance and IB promotion.     

U.S. hegemony and international business research: Further considerations

The commentaries in this issue raise many insightful questions and considerations regarding the Livanis and Geringer (Thunderbird International Business Review, 2023, 64) study and we address a few of these. In particular, we focus on the following five areas: (i) the relationship of international business (IB) publications with the English language, (ii) resource constraints and IB research, (iii) institutional rewards and IB research, (iv) methodological considerations in evaluating IB research productivity, and (v) opportunity costs of pursuing a Ph.D. and IB research and publication.     

A longitudinal meta-analysis of corruption in international business and trade: Bridging the isolated themes

ABSTRACT

This article chronicles the academic debate on corruption in international business and trade. It identifies three themes: contributing factors, consequences, and combating corruption. We found convergence in the literature and that authors tend to remain loyal to their chosen theme. As a result, we found a distressing dearth of research that transcends, integrates, or validates the interrelationships between them. Through our work, we propose the bridging of themes, demonstrating how they interrelate, thereby validating their interdependencies and the broader lens needed through which to observe corruption in international business.     

Risk in international business and its mitigation

While risk mitigation and management preparedness of MNEs have escalated to the top of the corporate agenda, international business literature is lacking pertinent conceptual and empirical studies. As an opener to this special issue, we offer several perspectives on country risk and its mitigation. We discuss conceptual and empirical challenges in researching risk in international business. We conclude with a commentary on the six papers included in this special issue on international business risk.     

The demise of the American hegemony in international business research has been greatly exaggerated

The drivers for the internationalization of business teaching and research were multinational corporations, the Cold War, and the relative price advantage of non-America business schools. Yet, the internationalization largely failed to reflect local contexts. The consequent paucity of original local business thought, international or not, exposes non-American business schools to the raid of American-based massive open online courses which will prune off the mainstay courses at emerging market business schools. Deprived of a substantial share of their fee-paying students, the remaining docents at those schools will be less likely to publish altogether, including in fields that might sustain independent thought. Therefore, American-like international business research is likely to have a longer life, more narrowly focused on English-speaking countries and Europe, with even less of a contribution from emerging markets.     

Institutional dimensions and conflict resolution strategy in international joint ventures: An empirical examination

This study examines the impact of the host‐country institutional structures on the choice of conflict resolution strategy in the international joint venture (IJV). Using the survey method and relying on multiple regression, we demonstrate that there is a statistically significant relationship between institutional pillars and the choice of conflict resolution strategy in the international joint venture in the context of Ghana. In particular, we demonstrate that legalistic and forcing conflict resolution strategies are influenced by the regulative institutional pillar, while compromising and problem‐solving conflict resolution strategies are impacted by normative and cognitive institutional pillars. The multigrouping analysis results show that the views and the choice of foreign partners on conflict resolution strategy differ from that of the local partners to the IJV. This study fills the gap by empirically testing the conflict resolution strategies of firms in relation to the role of regulative, normative, and cognitive institutional pillars of the host country.     

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.     

Born internationals: Market expansion and business operation mode strategies in the digital media field

This paper examines leading Swedish and Finnish Internet consultancies operating in the digital media service field. These are ‘born international’ firms that internationalise their business at an exceptionally rapid pace. The paper focuses on why and to what extent the market expansion and business operation mode strategies of these companies deviate from the traditional pattern depicted by the Scandinavian process school. The empirical data consisted of interviews with the founder and senior management and secondary data from company and public archives. The research findings show that in fact both the international new venture research and the Scandinavian internationalisation model appear to be valid. The former model was evidenced by the fact that the born internationals indeed deviated from the behaviour of the traditional firms. The latter was exemplified by the fact that the final internationalisation profile, after the withdrawals of firms from unsuccessful markets, was close to what the Scandinavian internationalisation model would call ‘rational’ expansion. Hence, if the investigation period is long enough to account for unsuccessful endeavours and withdrawals, we may then find empirical support for the traditional model as well. To be reliable, the investigation period should cover at least one economic slow down.     

Bank x-efficiency in Ukraine: An analysis of service characteristics and ownership

This paper investigates managerial and scale x-efficiencies of commercial banks in Ukraine from 1998 to 2003. A large number of banks would suggest competition and efficiency. Ukrainian banks waste half of factor inputs during the production of services by operating off the efficient frontier. Large banks dominate in managerial efficiency; small banks are superior in scale efficiency. Significant numbers of small banks experience increasing returns to scale. Consolidation between small banks may help banks exploit economies of scale and become attractive foreign investment targets. Evidence suggests majority foreign owned joint ventures are optimal formats; banks operating in industrial, politically favored areas outperform others.     

Influence of country and company characteristics on international business decisions: A review,conceptual model,and propositions

This research advances four propositions and a conceptual model of country and company characteristics influencing key International Business Decisions (IBDs). The IBDs in this study are country selection and evaluation, entry mode, segmentation-targeting-positioning, and the marketing mix – the first two in the international business domain, and the latter two in the international marketing field. The conceptual model and related four propositions are advanced, based on an extensive literature review and subsequent in-depth review of 169 published research papers on major IBDs and their determinants, namely, country characteristics, including opportunities, risks, and various distances between the host country and home country, and company characteristics, which include international business experience, assets/resources, and expansion/growth strategies. Managerial implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

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.     

Motivations and Obstacles for Small Business Entrepreneurship in Russia: Fifteen Years in Transition

A longitudinal survey of small business entrepreneurs was conducted in Russia in two stages: in 1994 and in 2008. This study examined entrepreneurial climate and developments in Russia's small businesses with a focus on motivations and obstacles in starting up and operating businesses. It also aimed at analyzing entrepreneurs’ needs for training, consulting, and other types of assistance in a comparative context. Russia's climate for small and medium enterprises (SME) and entrepreneurship has improved, although it is still a work in progress. The 2008 survey indicated younger age, greater share of female entrepreneurs, and remaining small size of the firms. Though the level of SME entrepreneurial activities in Russia is still lower than in major developed economies, the gap is diminishing. Thise study found no significant differences between 1994 and 2008 in terms of entrepreneurial motivations and obstacles; several shifts and trends in motivations and obstacles were identified in their relative importance in SME dynamics.     

International Marketing Channels for Brazilian Beef: Comparison between Russia and the United Kingdom

This article compares the Russian and British marketing channels for Brazilian beef distribution. The results show that the framework hereby developed aids understanding of the differences and the reasons for the organizational form of these channels. The findings also show that there is a difference in the way these channels are organized to seek efficiency in their business transactions. Institutional environment attributes are able to influence the distinction between channels in terms of transaction efficiency.