Entrepreneurs and internationalization: A study of Western immigrants in an emerging market

Our interview-based study began as an investigation of Westerners residing in Vietnam. Our sample fell into three groups: local expatriates, expatriate entrepreneurs, and hybrids (those who worked for a multinational while owning a local company). Based on this finding, we re-examined the data to explore expatriates as employers. Two themes emerged. The first revealed expatriate entrepreneurs and hybrids as active market players who were competitors for local talent and/or potential local distributors or partners in Vietnam. The second theme indicated a parallel process: the internationalization of firms entering a foreign market and the internationalization of individuals entering that same market. Our contribution is the opening of the ‘homogeneous’ black box of Western immigrants and the expansion of the concept of the expatriate entrepreneur, thus reinserting the role of the individual in the process of firm internationalization.     

Innovation and entrepreneurship as strategies for success among Cuban-based firms in the late years of the transatlantic slave trade

This article examines how Cuban-based firms and entrepreneurs circumvented ever- increasing risks in the illegal slave trade. The article sheds light to this question by analyzing new qualitative information of 65 Cuban-based firms against the Slavevoyages database. Our findings indicate that Cuban-based firms were entrepreneurial as they exploited the opportunities arising from the volatility of the slave trade by: (a) internalizing networks of agents which allowed the rapid diffusion of information, (b) diversifying trading goods and expanding the number of partnerships to reduce transaction costs and risk, and (c) adopting technological innovations that modified the design and use of vessels.     

Exploration of Chinese SMEs' export development: The role of managerial determinants based on an adapted innovation‐related internationalization model

Over the past two decades, small to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in China have achieved rapid international development. Due to China's unique cultural and institutional environments, our understanding of the influence of managerial determinants on internationalization is still limited. This exploratory study takes the lens of the innovation model of internationalization to revisit the dynamic development of Chinese SMEs' export operations. Based on the four in‐depth case studies, the findings suggest that exports by Chinese SMEs are influenced by managerial perceptions such as negative country‐of‐origin effect and strict overseas quality standards. In addition, they show that both external and internal drivers act as “change agents” in their internationalization involvement. These findings will assist various stakeholders—government and export promotion agencies—to develop and deliver needs‐based supports and encourage nonexporters to participate in international operations.     

Exploring outward FDI and the choice of destination: evidence from Swedish firm-level data

Using Swedish firm-level data on all firms and their affiliates abroad, we investigate what observable firm and country characteristics affect the size of an affiliate in a particular destination. We employ the richness of the data to investigate the importance of destination country factors in explaining firm outward FDI activities and distinguish between the factors that affect such activities in manufacturing versus services firms as well as vertical versus horizontal investments. Our results lend support to existing theories of multinational activity of manufacturing but not services firms. We also find observable differences between vertical and horizontal manufacturing firms that are not always explained by theory.     

新产品开发团队的异质性知识构成与学习机制

知识分工与合作是继劳动分工与合作之后适应知识经济时代要求的一个研究论题。开发团队在多样化成员的合作共事与外联中可以形成知识探索与知识利用"两能"的状态。团队成员之间长期的互动和企业整体的价值观取向共同影响着公平、互惠的合作规范的形成。信息技术平台有利于降低知识共享的障碍,扩大知识共享的范围,支持经理作为辅助研发人员的设置,使不同知识主体之间的知识共享具有更多样的方式。     

Evaluations of Tactics for Automated Negotiations

Automated negotiation under the infrastructure of e-commerce is becoming an important issue. However, although the communication protocols and frameworks of automated negotiation have been extensively investigated, the corresponding tactics and strategies are still underdeveloped and need to be evaluated further. Based on the negotiation model proposed by Faratin et al., this paper examines the performance of automated negotiation tactics and intends to provide concise suggestions for the users of automated negotiation. First, theoretical analysis is used to evaluate the behavior-dependent tactics. Constructive conclusions are obtained when single-issue negotiations are considered. Next, a new framework for applying single-issue tactics to multi-issue negotiation is proposed. Based on this framework, theoretical analysis is then extended to multi-issue cases. Finally, different from the previous work, exhaustive simulations based on two-issue negotiations are performed to evaluate the effectiveness of behavior-dependent and time-dependent tactics. The experimental results provide several important insights into negotiation tactics.     

A Review of Simultaneous Painvise Multiple Comparisons

Abstract  A Review of Simultaneous Pairwise Multiple Comparisons. Simultaneous pairwise comparisons can be accomplished with numerous multiple comparison procedures. The methods differ in two essential ways: the choice of critical value and the specification of the estimated standard error of the mean difference. Those methods that assume homogeneous variances are not robust to violations of this assumption. The methods are contrasted via a numerical example. Results of recent Monte Carlo work are described. A choice between the G ames -H owell , D unnett , and C ochran procedures is recommended.     

Why Agents for Automated Negotiations Should Be Adaptive

We show that adaptive agents on the Internet can learn to exploit bidding agents who use a (limited) number of fixed strategies. These learning agents can be generated by adapting a special kind of finite automata with evolutionary algorithms (EAs). Our approach is especially powerful if the adaptive agent participates in frequently occurring micro-transactions, where there is sufficient opportunity for the agent to learn online from past negotiations. More in general, results presented in this paper provide a solid basis for the further development of adaptive agents for Internet applications.     

New Technologies And The Demand For Heterogeneous Labor: Firm-Level Evidence For The German Business-Related Service Sector

This paper investigates the impact of modern information and communication technologies on the demand for heterogeneous labor. It starts with an interrelated factor demand system. The ‘desired’ level of employment which is needed in such models, is derived from a Generalized Leontief cost function with quasi-fixed factors. Firm-level, cross-sectional data taken from an innovation survey in the service sector are used in the empirical analysis. The model is estimated by a trivariate ordered probit model. Evidence in favor of skill-biased technological change in the fast-growing German business-related services sector is found. ‘Ibe paper suggests a new method of calculating skill-specific and firm-specific labor cost from information on total labor cost and the share of each skill group in total employment only.     

Option smiling when investors’ estimates of asset volatility disagree

This study sheds light on why heterogeneous beliefs in volatility manifest the smile effect of options and how the degree of belief disagreement influences option-implied volatility. It is found that when investors’ level of heterogeneous beliefs increases, agents who over estimate volatility raise their subjective probability about those outer dividend states and hence increase more consumption to those states. As a result, an increase of consumption causes a decrease of their marginal rate of transformation in outer states. The raising subjective probability increases the prices of outer states, while the lower marginal rate of transformation decreases the prices of that. However, the influence of the former dominates the latter, causing a fatter tail of the state-price density. As a consequence, the values increase for those call options with high strike prices and put options with low strike prices, leading to a U-shaped implied volatility and hence causes a smell effect.