Antecedents and outcomes of digital platform risk for international new ventures’ internationalization

With the growing trend of using digital platforms for internationalization, the management of digital platform risks in international markets has become a critical issue. However, academic research in this area is sparse. This study develops and tests a theoretical framework of the drivers and outcomes of digital platform risk for international new ventures (INVs). Specifically, drawing on transaction cost theory, we identify sets of antecedents of digital platform risk including product specificity, foreign market uncertainty, foreign market competition, and home market institutional voids. We examine the effect of digital platform risk on the internationalization scope of INVs. Based on a unique sample of Chinese INVs, our empirical findings indicate that digital platform risk tends to reduce INVs’ internationalization scope. However, the negative effect is mitigated by INVs’ entrepreneurial orientation. Our proposed drivers of digital platform risk are supported. The paper ultimately discusses the theoretical and managerial implications.     

SUPPLY CHAIN STRATEGY FOR NASCENT FIRMS IN EMERGING TECHNOLOGY MARKETS

The extant literature provides sound guidance for applying appropriate supply chain strategies to address conventional market structures and supply chain objectives. However, our knowledge of the unique objectives, characteristics, and elements of supply chain development by nascent technology firms in new markets they have helped create is more limited. We outline the strategy for this “emergent” phase of a firm's development of their supply chain. This strategy emphasizes establishing market legitimacy and a basic structural foundation through a core of strong collaborative relationships. The strategy also maximizes organizational flexibility and iterative market intelligence gathering through continuous experimentation with potential markets and through potential partners. The strategy is contrasted with extant supply chain strategies and implications and directions for future research are offered.     

Organizational entrainment and international new ventures from emerging markets

Organizational entrainment captures the temporal fit in the activity cycles between exchange partners. We argue that organizational entrainment between international new ventures (INVs) and their most important international customers positively moderates the relationship between the degree, scope, and speed of internationalization and performance of INVs. We test our hypotheses on INVs from China, India and South Africa. The results support the contingent role of entrainment for degree and scope of internationalization but not for speed. Findings suggest that, when INVs attain temporal fit with their most important international customers, they can implement their strategic goals in international markets more effectively.     

Launching reverse-innovated product from emerging markets to MNC’s home market: A theoretical framework for MNC’s decisions

A reverse-innovated product is a new product that is originally developed for an emerging market by MNCs. The increasing number of MNCs engaging in reverse innovation and the criticality of new products to an MNC’s performance and competitive advantage make reverse innovation an important area for academic research and managerial practices. This paper integrates relevant literature and proposes a theoretical framework to understand the mechanisms by which the characteristics of a reverse-innovated product affect management’s decision to launch that product in a developed market (e.g., the MNC’s home market). By means of literature review, the paper identifies two underlying evaluation mechanisms through which the reverse-innovated product characteristics are linked to management’s reverse launch decision: the perceived degree of needed adaptation and the perceived risk of cannibalization. The authors also derive several propositions for future empirical research and discuss implications for future research.     

DIY: How internationalization shifts the locus of indigenous innovation for Chinese firms

We elaborate theories of indigenous innovation by explaining how internationalization choices help emerging market firms transition from dependence on external knowledge to self-reliance on internal knowledge. Using a 1998–2007 census dataset of Chinese manufacturing firms, we theorize and test the moderation effect of foreign equity and export orientation on the relationship between knowledge and indigenous innovation. We show that foreign equity dis-incentivizes, while export orientation incentivizes, investments in internal knowledge. We contribute by showing that internationalization choices may radically change indigenous innovation outcomes by shifting the locus of problem solving outside or inside the firm. Our study corroborates the negative direct and indirect effects of external knowledge on indigenous innovation at the firm level previously suggested by China-centric scholars but also shows how two types of internationalization choices may gradually relieve firm-level dependence on imported technology. We bridge the gap between Western research and Chinese thought and practice by introducing a do-it-yourself (DIY) explanation of how firms may implement China’s indigenous innovation (zizhu chuangxin) policy.     

中外强制性产品认证制度对比及建议

对涉及安全、健康、环保的产品实施强制性产品认证是各国政府规范市场、促进国际贸易、保护群众切身利益的重要手段。本文通过介绍国内外强制性产品认证制度,对我国强制性产品认证面临的问题进行分析,并对完善其制度提出对策建议。     

Learning process and capability formation in cross-border buyer–supplier relationships: A qualitative case study of Taiwanese technological firms

This paper examines the alliance learning process from the perspective of local suppliers in a Global Production Network (GPN). After reviewing critical literature in the field, we employed a qualitative case research method to explore alliance learning antecedents, process and outcomes. Six Taiwanese technological firms with different positions in a GPN were examined and we found that these well-performing firms integrate both inter- and intra-organizational learning, as well as a bi-directional learning process. A framework of cross-level knowledge flow is proposed with refined alliance learning antecedents and outcomes. We also extend the typology of GPN positioning level. Propositions are suggested with results discussed for future research.     

What drives brands’ price response metrics? An empirical examination of the Chinese packaged goods industry

As competition among CPG brands intensifies in both emerging and developed markets, brand managers increasingly focus on price as the weapon-of-choice. This calls for an assessment of not only their own price response, but also of their competitive pricing power, and its antecedents. The authors propose a set of universally applicable ('etic') and country-specific ('emic') drivers of brand price elasticity, clout, and vulnerability, for the world’s largest emerging market (viz., China). Leveraging a unique and large-scale data set from this market, they find that high price response is not necessarily indicative of high clout, nor does it signal high vulnerability. Hence, all three price response metrics matter. They also uncover marked differences in the impact of brand- and category-level drivers on these three metrics. Established etic factors such as line length, distribution intensity, and stockpilability have a substantial effect on one or more price response metrics. Among the emic factors, Chinese embeddedness, and especially social demonstrance play an important role: it strongly drives down brands’ price elasticity, but also reduces the intensity of price competition in the category and makes brands less vulnerable to rival actions. Foreign brands, in contrast, exhibit higher price response, and do not enjoy higher clout nor lower vulnerability than their domestic counterparts. Hence, they neither benefit from the aura, nor suffer from the liability, of foreignness. Overall, the study adds to empirical generalizations on the impact of price, and helps managers improve the effectiveness of their pricing strategies.     

International social SMEs in emerging countries: Do governments support their international growth?

Through an empirical research developed based on a sample of five international social SMEs in a Chinese city, this study examines the internationalization of social enterprises. Its purpose is to evaluate the role played by governments in supporting international growth. This is done using behavioural theory dimensions of prevalence, relevance, urgency, accessibility, and radicalness. From our analysis, local government supports the launch of social SMEs but this is limited to their growth stage. Entrepreneurial skills and external networks, thus, become crucial factors in the development of a new international business development model, encouraging further scholarly investigation.     

Exploring the influence of resource environments on absorptive capacity development: The case of emerging market firms

Research recognizes that emerging market firms (EMFs) have relatively underdeveloped absorptive capacity. Yet, scarce attention has been paid to the conditions that constrain or facilitate EMFs’ absorptive capacity development. In this article, we explore how differences in home country resource environments influence EMFs’ absorptive capacity. We suggest that home country institutions and factor markets influence EMFs’ choice among three learning strategies: duplicative imitation, creative imitation, and innovation. Building on the organizational learning perspective, we then explore how learning strategies of EMFs’ from different emerging economies influence their preferences with respect to sources of new knowledge, and consequently the implications of these strategic choices for their absorptive capacity.     

An empirical investigation of immigrant effects: the experience of firms operating in the emerging markets

The immigrant effect consists of the ‘employer’ and the ‘employee’ effect. This study focuses on the ‘employee’ effect. Existing studies on the immigrant effect have identified its contributions to international trade and international marketing management but have not explained under what circumstances this effect can be used to achieve a firm's objectives when operating in a foreign market. This study explores the profile of the firms which have used this effect to assist their operations in three foreign host markets (China, Hong Kong and Taiwan). Based on the outcomes of a multivariate logistic regression analysis, this study has generated a number of useful findings. Firm size is not suggested as a factor for the selection of immigrant effects. Firms are more likely to adopt an immigrant effect when their products are new to the markets. FDI mode users tend to be more likely to use the immigrant effect. Usage of immigrant effects is also found to be associated with firms from a smaller domestic economy. The immigrant effect is often used to break cultural barriers between home and host markets, but is more helpful when the marketing infrastructure in the home and host markets is similar. The choice of immigrant effect is suggested to have no influence on firms' performance in the host markets.     

Entrepreneurship as a solution to poverty

Individuals living in poverty remain a critical issue. This special issue focuses on how entrepreneurship can help to solve such poverty. Rather than viewing those in poverty as a market for goods, the solution lies in understanding how to help those living in poverty create their own businesses. Ultimately, entrepreneurship among those in poverty will create a long lasting solution to their poverty. Herein, we initially examine the extant knowledge about entrepreneurship. We then examine where future research on this important topic should move. Finally, we introduce the five articles that make up this special issue. These five articles came from the initial 71 submissions and enhance our knowledge about entrepreneurship as a pathway to reducing poverty.