The innovation performance of MNE subsidiaries and local embeddedness: evidence from an emerging economy

We examine the innovation performance of MNE subsidiaries and their embeddedness in sources of local knowledge in a policy framework within the context of an emerging economy. Based on first-hand evidence from multiple case studies, we found that: (1) there was variability between the subsidiaries in terms of the cumulative manner and speed at which they improved their innovation performance over time, using progressively levels of accumulated capability as a proxy; (2) these differences in innovation performance improvement reflected heterogeneity between the subsidiaries in terms of the learning efforts made to acquire knowledge from local organizations; (3) the varied frequency in which the subsidiaries developed such local relationships reflects their differing responses to a common industrial policy that makes use of tax incentives to stimulate such links. The paper reveals the limitations of this conventional type of industrial policy in stimulating industrial development and the embeddedness of MNEs. It also suggests that a new direction for policy, which incorporates public–private negotiations and a focus on the firm-centred building of innovation capabilities, should be pursued in order to accelerate the innovation performance progress of latecomer firms.     

Deterring nuclear weapons proliferation

In the wake of the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, the problem of nuclear proliferation has become one of the primary issues of strategic concern The proliferation problem is an old one, but the problem today is very different from that of even a few years ago. calling for new approaches. By considering demand and supply factors, the old approaches that rely on limits on the technology or supply appear inadequate in the current situation Rather, the best approaches today are those that influence demand, making it less attractive for nations to develop nuclear weapons. The constraints on the United States that inhibit it from using its nuclear weapons to threaten new nuclear states make both nuclear deterrence and guarantees to countries not acquiring such weapons ineffectual in preventing further proliferation. The use of conventional forces to prevent proliferation or to protect threatened nations may also be politically difficult unless there are clear national interests at stake.
A possible way out of this dilemma is to develop a system of conventional deterrence using precision guided munitions and other recent technological developments that have increased the accuracy of weapons delivery systems. Such a system of conventional deterrence could play an important role in making nuclear weapons of less perceived value to potentially proliferating nations and in protecting regions that these nations threaten.     

Fashionable subjects and complicity resistance: power,subjectification, and bounded resistance in the context of plus-size consumers

ABSTRACT

The relationship between consumer governability and consumer resistance has received increasing attention in consumer research, especially with regard to consumers’ physical bodies. However, a deeper understanding of how consumers juxtapose different forms and strategies of governability with respect to which discourses they embody or resist is necessary. Through an analysis of various sources of data, including interviews, fashion blogs, an online retailer’s website, and a fashion magazine, we explore the nuances between processes of subjectification and resistance in the fashion field by considering the multiple powers that act on overweight female consumers’ bodies. We demonstrate the complicated process by which these vulnerable consumers attempt to establish themselves as fashionable subjects as they move between adherence to expectations (biopower and subjectification) and resistance when faced with the impossibility of subjectification in a creative-agentic manner. Finally, we propose the idea of complicit resistance. This resistance only partially confronts the strategies of biopower in the process of subjectification because it is limited by a threshold imposed by biopower.     

The contribution of minimum wage valorization policy to the decline in household income inequality in Brazil: A decomposition approach

There is a vast literature that estimates the effect of the minimum wage on wage inequality in various countries. However, as the minimum wage directly affects nonlabor income of families in some countries (in the Brazilian case via the benefits of the pension system and of certain social programs), this article extends the empirical analysis by studying the effects of the minimum wage on the level of inequality of household income as a whole. To accomplish that we employ a decomposition method that gauges the contribution of the increases in the minimum wage that occurred in recent decades in Brazil through the labor and nonlabor sources of household income. The results show that the minimum wage had a contribution of 64 percent to the observed fall in income inequality between 1995 and 2014 and that pensions were the most relevant channel over this period.     

Consumer Ethics in the European Union: A Comparison of Northern and Southern Views

There is a growing interest in understanding consumer ethical actions in relation to their dealings with firms. This paper examines whether there are differences between Northern and Southern European Union (EU) consumers' perceptions of ethical consumer behaviour using Muncy and Vitell's (1992) Consumer Ethics Scale (CES). The study samples 962 university students across four Northern EU countries (Germany, Denmark, Scotland, The Netherlands) and four Southern EU countries (Portugal, Spain, Italy, Greece). Some differences are identified between the two samples, which might question the ability of organisations to consider the EU as one homogeneous market.     

Pricing Liquid Petroleum Gas in Mexico

This paper considers the regulation of pricing of liquid petroleum gas in Mexico. We construct a model that incorporates all information essential to the pricing question and derive relationships that should hold between prices in Mexico and prices in world markets. Prices in Mexico can be tied to the readily observable prices in the United States by a netback rule. However, this rule can lead to incentives to increase the price of domestic liquid petroleum gas by diverting production from the regulated market.     

Online Engagement and the Role of Digital Influencers in Product Endorsement on Instagram

Abstract

The article aims to analyze the forms of engagement generated from the endorsement of products by digital influencers on Instagram, considering the characteristics of their online posts. A qualitative approach was used to investigate digital influencers’ posts based on semiotic image analysis and the critical incidents technique. The results reinforced that digital platforms enable distinct forms of engagement by establishing new configurations that affect relationship marketing and promotion strategies. In particular, on Instagram, the development of engagement can involve four participants who play different social roles, expanding the process of value co-creation.     

GLOBAL MARKETING NEWS

ABSTRACT

The authors studied how knowledge derived from firms’ relationships—the so-called second-hand knowledge—is likely to influence their internationalization process. In this article, they examine how a European producer of textiles is able to sell worldwide, including to China, a highly competitive player in this industry. This article discusses models of firms’ networks and the extent to which such networks generate important knowledge that can explain internationalization behavior—how it is able to influence the selection of foreign markets and the entry mode used. The authors use the revised version of the Uppsala model of internationalization, which emphasizes the roles of trust-building, knowledge, and creation of opportunities within relationships.     

Managing interdependencies in supplier networks

Building and managing a supplier base has been referred to in the literature as a key aspect of supplier management. Scholars have proposed a number of models aimed at enhancing the effectiveness of supplier network management, mainly based on a portfolio approach. In the IMP tradition of research, those models are often criticized as they ignore the interdependencies between the different existing dyadic relationships of a focal buyer company and its suppliers. Such interdependencies are the main focus of this paper, which has four objectives: (1) To analyze the types of relationships linking suppliers, (2) to understand the factors and dynamics underlying the creation and management of these relationships (3) to uncover existing links between buyer-supplier and supplier-supplier relationships, and (4) to clarify how different configurations of supplier relationship interactions impact on the performance of the actors involved. The paper discusses two empirical case studies, using the supplier networks of two focal buyer companies. We find that supplier interdependencies are mainly a by-product of the buyer-supplier dyads. Furthermore, the nature and dynamics of these dyads are a strong determinant of the scope and frequency of supplier connections and the corresponding effects on performance.     

Access to Bottleneck Inputs under Oligopoly: A Prisoners' Dilemma?

We analyze the incentives of vertically integrated oligopolists to concede access to their bottleneck inputs to an entrant in the downstream market. First, two vertically integrated incumbents make access price offers to an entrant that chooses which one to accept, if any. Second, firms compete on Salop's circle. The firms may be asymmetrically located on the circle, to reflect differences in consumer shares. For some levels of asymmetry, the incumbents face a prisoners' dilemma with respect to conceding access to their bottleneck inputs. Entry by a downstream firm may lead to lower retail prices. However, entry may also lead to higher retail prices for the access provider and for the entrant. We also consider the cases where there are several incumbents and where the entrant makes the access price offers.