The Impact of Ambidextrous Leadership on the Internationalization of Emerging‐Market Firms: The Case of India

Ambidextrous leadership is a key factor in the success of emerging market firms’ venturing into advanced economies. Although the definition of ambidextrous leadership is universal, its operationalization is culturally contingent. This conceptual paper examines Indian companies, increasingly recognized for their ambidexterity, and aims to explain this phenomenon by using Indian cultural dimensions. Five propositions relating to charisma, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration, and Indian ambidextrous leadership are developed. We show that the seven cultural variables characterizing Indian ambidextrous leadership (nurturant, personal touch, expertise, simple living and high thinking, loyalty, self‐sacrifice, and the giving model of motivation) reinforce the recent successful internationalization by Indian companies. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Unpacking Institutional Distance: Addressing Human Capital Development and Emerging‐Market Firms’ Ownership Strategy in an Advanced Economy

As latecomers to global business competition, emerging‐market multinational companies (EMNCs) utilize cross‐border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) to quickly acquire strategic assets, resulting in an improved competitive position. Advanced markets with well‐established firms and well‐developed market‐supporting institutions become particularly important destinations for EMNCs’ foreign operations. Institutional distance, which represents conflicting legitimacy requirements between the host and home institutional environments, is expected to be negatively associated with the foreign acquirer's ownership position. The current study examines a sample of EMNCs’ cross‐border M&As in the United States between 2005 and 2011 and reveals the unique nature of EMNCs’ ownership strategies. Taking both formal and informal institutions into consideration, our findings suggest that EMNCs originating in countries with lower levels of human capital development may have more urgency in seeking ownership control in advanced markets and are less influenced by the negative association of institutional distance in their ownership strategy. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Organizational Ambidexterity and the Emerging‐to‐Advanced Economy Nexus: Cases from Private Higher Education Operators in the United Kingdom

The expansion of advanced‐market economy (AME) firms into emerging‐market economies (EME) is well documented. In recent decades, EME companies have moved increasingly into AMEs, especially within the manufacturing sector, as well as other important AME sectors such as higher education (HE). However, the latter have received less attention. This study conducts an in‐depth qualitative analysis of two EME HE organizations operating in the international HE sector in London. The argument applies a theoretical framework of organizational ambidexterity with which to examine the contexts and complexities in collaborations between EME‐HE and AME‐HE firms. These argument surfaces, inter alia: differing dynamics in relation to institutional frameworks and sense making; myopic internationalization; tensions regarding organizational reputation, place, partner, and product legitimization; unfulfilled reverse innovation and “explorative‐pull” phenomena. Overall, the article develops novel conceptual frameworks of practical relevance, which inform EME‐AME firm collaborative operations in AME settings. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The Role of Firms in Resilient Systems: A Multi‐Level Framework

In this paper, we articulate a multi‐level resilience‐based framework explaining how firms facilitate stronger system‐level resilience. The framework stresses the importance of firm interdependence, describing how pooled versus sequential/reciprocal patterns of interdependence influence the resilience antecedents of diversity, slack, and redundancy. We argue that the inter‐firm practices of self‐governance and supply chain collaboration function to maintain resilience antecedents at more moderate and effective levels. This work builds on prior resilience research that has remained focused on either firm or system levels of analysis by stressing the value of firm interdependence as an important contingency for effective system resilience. Copyright © 2018 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Efficiency‐Seeking Emerging Market Firms: Resources and Location Choices

We study the efficiency‐seeking location choices of Indian software firms. In particular, we investigate the influence of heterogeneity in their resources on their location choices. The resource‐based view posits that firms face difficulties in transferring their resources in dissimilar host‐country environments. Prior research has investigated this phenomenon primarily for market‐seeking motives of multinational firms. With the help of hierarchical linear modeling, we analyze 650 location choices of Indian software firms and find that efficiency‐seeking firms face difficulties in locating in host countries with dissimilar and challenging labor environments. We find that the firms with core competence manifested through capability maturity model integration (CMMI) accreditation are able to overcome issues related to resource fungibility in dissimilar host‐country environments. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

ICT,Innovation and Firm Performance: The Transition Economies Context

The aim of this article is to investigate the impact of information communication technologies (ICT) and innovation activities on firm performance using the Business Environment Enterprise Performance Survey (BEEPS) firm-level data in the three rounds: 2002, 2005, and 2008. The novelty of this research is based on the idea of studying the usage of ICT and innovation activities on firm performance by using dynamic approach so that we can estimate the adjustments that arise from the impact of ICT and innovation activities. The rapid technological development and the growing use of information technology (IT) in business organizations have become the center of attention in past few years. A bulk of literature has been published on the use of IT in different industries, different types of business organizations, and in different areas of business management. On the other hand, the probability of the firm to undertake innovation activities has shown to enhance firm performance. This study implements various estimations on BEEPS observations to test whether the change in the usage of ICT and other innovation determinants have increase the probability of firms to undertake innovation activities. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Family Firms and Labor Productivity: The Role of Enterprise‐Level Bargaining in the Italian Economy

We investigate the role of Italian firms in labor productivity performance. We find that family‐owned firms have lower labor productivity than their non‐family counterparts. In a second step, we estimate the role of firm‐level bargaining (FLB) to determine whether family‐controlled firms that adopt this type of bargaining may partially close the gap in terms of labor productivity with their non‐family competitors. Our results, obtained through IV estimation to control for endogeneity bias, suggest that enterprises under family governance achieve significant labor productivity gains—greater than those achieved by their non‐family counterparts—when they adopt firm‐level bargaining.     

泉州市家族企业上市的理性分析

在新的机遇和形势下,泉州家族企业上市形成一股潮流。但是与其他典型城市家族企业上市相比,泉州的家族企业上市还有许多不足。同时家族企业上市热的出现,也存在一些问题。从泉州家族企业是否需要上市;上市前企业应做何准备两方面进行深入研究,进而提出转变思想,正确认识改制上市;加快股份制改革与上市步伐,培育市场主体;加快企业制度创新,建立健全现代企业制度等对策建议,为泉州家族企业上市问题提供决策参考。     

The Role of Advertising in the Marketing Strategy of Accountancy Firms: Evidence from a Regional Market

Rules governing the advertising activity of accountancy firms have recently been relaxed. Published evidence is, however, scant regarding the perceived value of accountancy firms' advertising by both users of their services and by business advisers. Building on a conceptual model of the role of advertising in accountancy firms described in an earlier issue of this journal [Watkins and Wright, Service Industries Journal, Vol. 5, No. 3, November 19851, this article presents some results from a recent survey of a regional accountancy market. These results show that a careful examination of advertising within the overall marketing mix is required, with other forms of marketing perhaps offering greater possibilities. The overall conclusion is that the cost-effectiveness of the advertising of accountancy services h s t be open to doubt.     

基于电子商务技术的服务企业海外市场进入模式选择研究

研究表明,数字技术的变革对服务企业的影响远大于制造企业。随着越来越多的服务企业进入国际市场,这种影响越来越大,乃至对传统的服务特性以及服务企业选择海外市场进入模式都带来了新的挑战。本文以电子商务技术对服务企业进入模式选择所带来的影响作用为切入点,在此基础上,提出了具体的概念模型,对一些服务企业进入海外市场的内部、外部及其它影响因素进行了详尽的阐述,并得出了一些有益的结论。     

Internationalisation of Firms from Small Open Transition Economies

Abstract

The aim of this study is to determine the joint impact of intra-firm factors and inward foreign relationships on the status and stage of the outward internationalisation process of firms from small open transition economies. These factors and connections include firm's production capacity, experiential knowledge, psychic distance to target markets, inward international involvement (including foreign ownership and supply relations), and spillover effects. According to the empirical evidence, the inward internationalisation of Estonian manufacturers has considerably facilitated their export intensity.     

资本流入新兴市场国家:共同的难题、不同的风险

近年来,包括中国在内的亚洲和欧洲新兴市场国家和地区成为了国际资本流入的热点.资本流入带来好处的同时,也给这些国家带来了不同程度的经济风险.对比分析亚洲和欧洲新兴市场国家的资本流入情况表明,亚洲国家和欧洲国家经济特点上的差异使二者之间面临的风险有所不同,采取的对策和受到的制约也不尽相同.     

Economic Freedom and Cross‐Border Acquisitions from Emerging Markets into Developed Economies

Extending the home base perspective by considering investors' parent countries, this study examines the effect of economic freedom (EF) on emerging‐market enterprises' (EMEs) overseas acquisition completion in developed countries. Using a large data set of 5,174 cross‐border acquisition deals from ten major emerging markets (EMs) during 1985–2011, we find that (1) the probability of deal completion is positively associated with the levels of EF of the acquirers' countries, the acquirers' parent and the target; (2) the EF of the countries of acquirers' parents has a substitutive effect on that of the acquirers' countries; (3) the difference of EF between the targets' countries and the countries of acquirers' parents negatively influences deal completion; and (4) the difference of EF between the targets' countries and the acquirers' countries negatively influences deal completion. These findings have important theoretical implications for international business scholars, as well as practical implications for managers and for policymakers of EMEs that are active in foreign direct investment. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The Role of Executive Stock Options in On‐Market Share Buybacks*

The increasing use of on‐market buyback programs in Australia may not be fully explained by the typical motivations of information signaling and free cash flows offered by previous researchers. For some firms at least, management may believe the shares are overvalued. It is in this context that we examine whether managers of firms with high levels of executive stock options have an incentive to initiate buyback programs. It has been argued that managers may be motivated to undertake on‐market buyback programs in order to neutralize the dilution of earnings per share caused by their stock options, rather than for signaling purposes. Our findings are consistent with this argument because we find that the higher the proportion of executive stock options outstanding the more likely it is for firms to undertake larger on‐market buyback programs. Overall our results indicate that the existence of executive stock options influences managers' decision to implement on‐market buyback programs but that it is not the only factor that managers take into consideration.     

Having Arrived: The Homogeneity of High‐Growth Small Firms*

This study explores the homogeneity of small firms that have achieved and sustained high growth. Using a recent population of the 50 “Best Managed” Canadian firms identified as achieving high business growth for three or more consecutive years, firm homogeneity in terms of current management challenges is analyzed. In contrast to the rich body of literature available regarding the heterogeneity of managerial challenges and patterns during small business growth and development, this study finds that once small businesses begin to sustain high growth, their reported management challenges converge. We find that, controlling for location and performance, the high‐growth small firms in our population experience similar management challenges regardless of the specific firm size, revenue level, or industry. Our results challenge the “received wisdom” that suggests the managerial challenges faced by small firms during their business growth and development always vary. Management implications and future research directions are discussed.