The influence of social capital on strategic choice: An examination of the effects of external and internal network relationships on strategic complexity

In this research we investigated the direct contributions of social capital via network involvement to the strategic complexity of firms. Specifically, we looked at three network types - trade associations, external personal networks, and internal personal networks - to assess their individual and collective effects on strategic complexity. We empirically tested the relationships in the rural telecommunications industry using a mailed survey to this population's CEOs. We obtained 203 responses (30% response rate). Using Poisson regression, we found that all three network types were positively associated with strategic complexity, which was measured as product portfolio breadth. We also discovered that initial conditions affected strategic outcomes, with larger firms and cooperative ownership associated with greater strategic complexity.     

Simultaneous multidimensional unfolding and cluster analysis: An investigation of strategic groups

This paper develops a maximum likelihood based methodology for simultaneously performing multidimensional unfolding and cluster analysis on two-way dominance or profile data. This new procedure utilizes mixtures of multivariate conditional normal distributions to estimate a joint space of stimulus coordinates and K ideal points, one for each cluster or group, in a T-dimensional space. The conditional mixture, maximum likelihood methodology is introduced together with an E-M algorithm utilized for parameter estimation. A marketing strategy application is provided with an analysis of PIMS data for a set of firms drawn from the same competitive industry to determine strategic groups, while simultaneously depicting strategy-performance relationships.INSEAD     

公司特征、行业特征和并购战略类型的实证研究

This paper studies 148 related and 169 unrelated acquisition cases conducted by Chinese listed firms from 2001 to 2004 and explores firm and industry characteristics of these firms prior to their acquisition. Results show that there are significant pre-acquisition differences between firms pursuing related acquisition and firms pursuing unrelated acquisition in terms of firm performance, business risk, firm size, proportion of state shares and degree of diversification profile. Except for differences in internal capital as represented by undistributed profit per share, there is no significant difference in other aspects of available resources and industry performance. Translated and revised from Guanli Shijie 管理世界 (Management World), 2007, (3): 130–137     

An empirical examination of performance in the clothing retailing industry: A case study

This article estimates the efficiency of the 40 retail stores of a prestigious clothing company that operates in the Portuguese fast-fashion retailing market. The study compares the performance among the stores and provides insights into ways of improving performance in the retail clothing industry. A two-stage approach is used in this article. In a first stage, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) techniques are used to evaluate the performance of each store and to rank the stores. The input-oriented model was used to assess the summer and winter collections between 2010 and 2013. The results show that the total technical efficiency of the company decreases over time. Except for the year 2013, over 90% of the stores show increasing returns to scale during 88% of the period analyzed. The company faces a clear problem of productivity in its retailing operations. This deficiency seems to be intrinsic to the firm as it involves more than 60% of the stores. In a second stage, a quantile regression technique was used. This showed primarily that for the lowest quantiles of the efficiency score conditional distribution the coefficients on experience are very low, even close to zero, which suggests that the efforts taken by the stores in terms of experience are barely recognized by consumers in this fast-fashion retailing chain.     

Service characteristics as moderators of the entry mode choice: empirical evidence in the hotel industry

Although a considerable amount of research has explored the entry mode choice, results regarding the direct influence of some variables on the entry mode choice evince a lack of a clear consistency. By introducing the moderator effect of the nature of the services being provided by the firm, we explain some of these inconclusive results. We use a comprehensive database on the Spanish hotel industry which covers nearly all the operations carried out by the majority of Spanish hotel chains up to 2011. We found that both intangibility and complexity of the services offered by the hotel moderate the relationship between environmental uncertainties and entry mode choice by increasing the propensity to use greater commitment entry modes when faced with conditions of country risk and cultural uncertainty.     

The impact of espoused national cultural values on innovative behaviour: an empirical study in the Chinese IT-enabled global service industry

In this article, we explore the different roles that knowledge sharing and exploitative learning play in employees’ innovative behaviour, and investigate the different moderating effects of employees’ espoused national cultural values on the relationship between exploitative learning and innovative behaviour in the Chinese IT-enabled global service firms with different ownerships. We propose a theoretical model to characterize these antecedents of innovative behaviour. A structured research survey was conducted and data were collected from a sample of 484 full-time employees in 3 IT-enabled global service firms in the PRC. Results indicate that knowledge sharing is positively associated with innovative behaviour in multinational corporations and private IT-enabled global service; espoused power distance has a significant positive moderating effect on exploitative learning–innovative behaviour relationship in state-owned and private firms; espoused collectivism has a significant moderating effect only in state-owned firms in China. Last, we explore the implications of our findings for theory and practice of innovation.     

Global production networks and host-site industrial upgrading: the case of the semiconductor industry in Thailand

Although Thailand’s electronics industry has been considered as one of the strategic sectors, the evidence in this article shows that it is dominated by midstream and downstream activities. Despite accounting for a quarter of electronics exports, semiconductors manufacturing is confined to low value-added activities. The lack of industrial policy has restricted technological upgrading in the industry. Upgrading efforts made by both public and private initiatives have so far failed. The case studies show that firms in Thailand must acquire and develop technological capabilities to stimulate the industry’s transformation from low-to-high value-added activities.     

The impact of daily weather on retail sales: An empirical study in brick-and-mortar stores

In this study, we examine the influence of weather on daily sales in brick-and-mortar retailing using empirical data for 673 stores. We develop a random coefficient model that considers non-linear effects and seasonal differences using different weather parameters. In the ex-post analysis using historic weather data, we quantify the explanatory power of weather information on daily sales, identify store-specific effects and analyze the influence of specific sales themes. We find that the weather has generally a complex effect on daily sales while the magnitude and the direction of the weather effect depend on the store location and the sales theme. The effect on daily sales can be as high as 23.1% based on the store location and as high as 40.7% based on the sales theme. We also find that the impact of extreme bad and good weather occurrences can be misestimated by traditional models that do not consider non-linear effects. In the ex-ante analysis, we analyze if weather forecasts can be used to improve the daily sales forecast. We show that including weather forecast information improves sales forecast accuracy up to seven days ahead. However, the improvement of the forecast accuracy diminishes with a higher forecast horizon.     

Impact of industry sector on corporate diversification and firm performance: Evidence from Indian business groups

Prior business group (BG) studies implicitly assume that corporate diversification‐firm performance relationships are uniform across industry sectors. This generalization may lead to research implications that are not equally true for BG‐affiliated manufacturing and service firms. Drawing on strategy and marketing literature, this research addresses this scholarly gap. Our empirical analysis of a large sample of BG‐affiliated Indian firms over a five‐year period (2004‐2008) indicates that the influence of corporate diversification on firm performance is greater for affiliated service firms than affiliated manufacturing firms. Results also indicate that the influence of BG size and diversity on diversification‐firm performance relationship varies significantly depending on whether the focal firm belongs to the manufacturing or service sector. Firm's share ownership does not generate similar influence. Copyright © 2015 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Performance of international joint ventures from developing and developed countries: An empirical study in a developing country context

In response to the need for research on International Joint Ventures (IJVs) from developing countries, this paper examines the multivariate determinants of performance of 59 IJVs from both developing and developed countries in a developing country context. Resource complementarity, cooperation, joint venture experience, technology and export-orientation were found to be significant determinants of performance of joint ventures. While the determinants varied for IIVs from developing and developed countries, there were no significant differences in their performance levels. The empirical findings and their implications, including limitations and areas for further research are discussed.     

An empirical study about the impacts of China's accession to the WTO on the telecommunications industry in China

Post‐China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), China's telecommunication industry now needs to face a much stronger competition in a relatively open market that has a number of diverse rivalries. There are specific benefits and risks associated with both domestic telecommunication (telecom) companies and foreign investors in the telecommunication or information technology area. To meet with these new challenges and take advantage of the competitive, strategic advantages to penetrate the market, both China's telecom industry and foreign investors must understand the impacts of China's accession to the WTO on its telecommunication industry and hence make the necessary adjustments and/or implementation improvements. In specific, we carefully examine the impacts such as prices, quality, and local protectionism in this article. We draw the findings based on the data collected from a survey and the resulting statistic analysis.     

A comparative analysis of location and non-location-bounded strategic asset seeking in emerging and developed market MNEs: An application of new internalization theory

Do emerging market (E)MNEs have a stronger strategic asset seeking FDI orientation than developed market (D)MNEs? If so, what are the properties of the strategic assets they actually seek and are they similar or dissimilar to those of DMNEs? Drawing from new internalization theory, we show that lying concealed within some mainstream EMNE models are important predictions regarding differences in the location-boundedness properties of the strategic assets sought by EMNEs compared with DMNEs. Using multinomial logit modelling on 2414 international M&A deals, we explore how acquirer characteristics shape location-bounded (trademark) and non-location bounded (patent) strategic asset seeking choices. In general, we find evidence that EMNEs have a comparatively stronger patent but weaker trademark seeking orientation than DMNEs. We discuss implications for EMNE related theory, focusing on the qualitative differences in asset seeking orientation between EMNEs and DMNEs.     

The role of buyer power in oligopoly models: An empirical study

This study investigates whether an industry's profitability and concentration are influenced by structural characteristics of the industries and final markets to which it sells. Very few similar studies have been made, and there is some dispute about their conclusions. This study discusses the methodological problems behind this dispute and the ways in which the specification and data used here avoid these problems. The results show that seller profitability rises with the extent to which buyers are dispersed across many industries, but that no other buyer characteristic exerts a significant influence on either the profitability or the concentration of the selling industry.     

Antecedents of firm performance in emerging economies: Business groups,strategy, industry structure,and state support

A rich literature has investigated the antecedents of firm performance in developed economies, resulting in a consensus view that firm resources and strategy are the key determinants. Several arguments, however, suggest that in emerging economies other factors are more important for firm performance. This study analyzes the impact of firm strategy and industry structure as well as business group membership and state support on firm performance in an advanced emerging economy, Turkey. Using a data set compiled from a selection of the 1000 largest manufacturing firms in this country, the study employs several regression models to identify the main determinants of firm performance as measured by productivity and net profit margin. In contrast to studies of developed economies, the investigation finds that firm-related factors (competitive strategies) do not significantly influence performance; instead factors related to industry structure and business group membership are the strongest determinants of firm performance; further, state support interacts with business group membership and is positively related to productivity.     

Ethical characteristics of human resources management in Chinese enterprises: An empirical study based on content analysis of employee manuals

This paper identifies five dimensions of human resource management ethics (HRME) from the extant literature, namely ethical values, rights, fairness and justice, openness, and ethical care. Based on employee manuals of 160 companies, this paper conducts a content analysis to identify the characteristics and differences of HRME in various types of firms and different industries. Results indicate that the status quo of HRME in Chinese firms is far from being satisfactory due to the lack of ethical care, unfair and nontransparent employee appraisal procedures and outcomes. The results also show that there are significant differences in the five dimensions of HRME among state-owned enterprises, private enterprises, joint ventures, and foreign companies. It is also found that there is no significant interaction effect between enterprise ownership type and industry on HRME.     

The genesis of the electricity supply industry in Britain: A case study of NESCo from 1889 to 1914

A study of the Newcastle upon Tyne Electric Supply Company (NESCo) provides a micro-history of the emergence of the electricity supply industry in Britain up to the First World War. This research examines the role of social capital in the establishment and growth of NESCo, the only financially successful British electric power company. Temporal bracketing was adopted to evaluate two distinct time periods: emergence from 1889 to 1899; and growth from 1900 to 1914. Family, business and social networks together with geographical and political factors secured the company’s dominant position. The structural relationship with Merz & McLellan contributed to growth through acquisitions, joint ventures, and access to new markets.     

Exploring the post-termination stage of consumer–brand relationships: An empirical investigation of the premium car market

This research extends customer lifecycle models to include a post-termination stage that bridges the dissolution stage of a consumer–brand relationship with a potential recovery stage. Drawing from 43 depth interviews with former customers of a car brand, this study relies on grounded theory and triangulation to explore consumer responses in the post-termination stage and finds evidence for both negative and positive customer responses after dissolution. The authors combine qualitative techniques with categorical principal component analysis (CATPCA) to explore the dimensionality of post-termination responses and extract relationship-related and termination-related response dimensions. They use these dimensions to identify four distinct post-termination customer clusters, which differ systematically with the customer's termination reasons, as demonstrated through a series of exact logistic regressions. In addition to providing evidence of a post-termination stage, this study offers implications for customer relationship management.     

The origins of business groups in China: An empirical testing of the three paths and the three theories

The available empirical literature tends to focus on the performance comparison between business groups (BGs) and non-business groups, and there is no study that quantitatively verifies the origins of the business groups, particularly in China. This paper uses the survey data of SOEs (state-owned enterprises) in China to verify the three paths toward business groups, such as M&As (merger and acquisitions), spin-offs and joint ventures. This study discusses three alternative theories to explain the emergence of the business groups in China. These are the market-based view, the state-activism view and the resource-based view. This paper found that the greater autonomy given after changing into a shareholding corporation is one of the most consistent and significant factors leading to the business group, regardless of the paths. First, this implies that SOEs have gone from traditional SOEs, to shareholding corporations, and then finally to business groups. Second, it finds that there are certain differences among the three paths toward the business group. The degree of market competition and control by the city-level government are the significant variables in the path via M&A, toward the business group. This is consistent with the state activism view. The significant variables for the spin-off path are the low leverages and the connection with the state. This is consistent with the resource-based view. The JV (joint venture) path seems to be consistent with the market-based and resource-based view, with the significant variables of private/foreign owner-controller, high investment activity, low leverage and size.     

A systematic approach to conducting review studies: An assessment of content analysis in 25 years of IB research

Content analysis has become a popular method for qualitative and quantitative analyses in management and international business (IB) research. It is increasingly used in literature reviews to assess extant knowledge and understand intellectual structures. However, it is often poorly understood and incorrectly applied. In this article, we identify benchmark criteria and develop coding schemes that IB scholars can use in review studies. We also demonstrate the application of content analysis through a review of content analysis–based articles, published in the top eight IB journals from 1991 to 2015.