Intangible resources of competitive advantage: Analysis of 49 Asian airlines across three business models

Without sustainable competitive advantage firms have limited economic reasons to exist and will decline. Competitive advantage concerns the factors which provide competitive strength. This paper is based upon the resource-based view which considers firm resources to be heterogeneous and which believes that firms only have a small bundle of core resources irrespective of their overall performance. This research establishes the role of 36 intangible resources for 49 Asian airlines across three business models: network airlines; low-cost subsidiaries from network airlines; and low-cost carriers. It uses the VRIN framework which examines whether resources are valuable, rare, inimitable, and non-substitutable. Research participants distribute points between their chosen seven resources according to their perceived role in firm performance. Resources which meet all four requirements of VRIN are considered core competences and sources of sustained advantage. Across all 49 Asian airlines, the top-three most important resources of advantage are slots, brand, and product/service reputation. While these core resources are predictable, they have not previously been proven within the context of airlines, let alone geographically and by airline model. Results show that the core bundle of resources vary for each model, which helps to explain the difference in performance across models, and that some resources which were expected to be high-ranking, such as organisational culture and customer focus, were not.     

Wholly owned foreign subsidiary relation-based strategies in volatile environments

Drawing from dynamic capability, institutional, nonmarket strategy, and social-network literatures, we detail wholly owned subsidiary (WOFSs) relation-based strategies (RBSs). We explain how deploying RBSs with key nonmarket and market actors will create competitive advantages for WOFSs operating in volatile emerging market environments. We posit that dynamic capabilities will drive the deployment of RBSs by WOFSs, and argue that the positive relationship between dynamic capabilities and RBS deployment will strengthen as perceived institutional uncertainty increases. We further suggest that the greater the strength and frequency of RBS deployment, the more likely that a WOFS will establish a combination of nonmarket-based and market-based embedded assets. Also, our theory proposes that greater integration of nonmarket-based and market-based assets will enhance WOFS financial performance outcomes. Implications for future research are discussed.     

An eclectic investigation of tourism multinationals: Evidence from Greece

This paper analyses determinants of profitability differences between subsidiaries of multinational enterprises (MNEs) and domestic enterprises (DMEs) in the tourism industry, using firm-level data. Previous studies focus on the hypothesis that ownership-specific advantages are a major determinant of performance differences. This paper explores performance issues using the eclectic paradigm configuration of tourism multinationals (NACE = 55), operating in Greece and a panel dataset for 95 firms and 10 years. A quantile regression technique is used to estimate the proposed model. Results indicate that, overall, MNEs out-perform their domestic competitors and are generally larger in terms of size. The study reveals, though, that when breaking MNEs into majority and minority owned, the latter perform better, as they make substantial use of local partners. These partners contribute with knowledge of the local market, which is an important aspect for the tourism industry. Finally, the authors discuss the conclusions and managerial implications of the findings.     

Determinants of reverse marketing knowledge transfer potential from emerging market subsidiaries to multinational enterprises’ headquarters

Emerging markets (EM) are becoming increasingly important for multinational enterprises because of their high growth potential and future prospects. The unique circumstances in EM lead to increased pressure to offer creative marketing solutions that can be leveraged across the multinational network. Setting up subsidiaries to tap into these markets offers companies the opportunity to integrate in the local community and access its knowledge-base for local and global innovations. Literature, however, reveals that EM subsidiaries have been largely ignored concerning their potential for reverse knowledge transfer (RKT), and marketing initiatives are expected to be developed in mature, developed markets. Our paper fills this gap in research and contributes to extant literature by identifying factors at unit, relationship and knowledge levels influencing RKT potential specific to marketing knowledge from EM subsidiaries. The conceptual discussion leads to study propositions and conceptual framework.     

The ECFA and its expected effect on cross-strait trade and investment: a Taiwanese perspective

To come to terms with the realization of ASEAN+1, Taiwan had concluded with mainland China a special free trade agreement (FTA), the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) in June 2010. This framework agreement provides an early harvest agreement of near-term tariff elimination, including detailed product schedules for goods and services from each side, with the final shape of fuller trade liberalization in goods and services taking years to negotiate and realize. The conclusion of the ECFA has been considered as a major breakthrough in cross-strait talks and economic relationships, even though it is by no means free from controversies inside Taiwan. The authors are therefore motivated by hot debates in Taiwan to reflect on the expected trade effect of the ECFA by taking into account the factor of cross-strait global production networks. In particular, we examine with a proposed model and statistical robustness, the trend of Taiwan-based firms' localization in mainland China, driven in part by constant movements in global production networks, which generates complicated and dynamic relationships between Taiwan's investment-induced trade and structural shift in Taiwan's exports to mainland China. Based on our empirical findings, we reflect on the conventional views on the trade effect of the free trade agreement. The results of our analyses tend to support a cautious view about the trade effect of the ECFA. Without denying the significance of the ECFA and deepening cross-strait economic relationships, we argue that the impact of the ECFA should be interpreted in a wider context than just the trade perspective, as the conventional wisdom and the existing evaluations suggested.     

Boundary-crossing and the localization of capabilities in a Japanese multinational firm

We conducted a case study to explore the challenges encountered by a foreign subsidiary of a Japanese multinational firm when localizing its organizational capabilities in China. Drawing on the concepts of boundaries and boundary-crossing, we identify pragmatic and cultural knowledge boundaries, which denied opportunities for the host-country employees to contribute their local expertise to augment the firm's core capabilities within the domains of research and development and operational protocols. However, within those domains that were regarded as complementary to or peripheral to the firm's core capabilities, host-country employees were granted more scope to cross the associated pragmatic boundaries.     

东道国社会信任能降低企业跨国经营的不确定性吗?——以海外子公司所有权结构设计为例

理解东道国制度环境并选择与之相适应的管理方式对企业跨国经营获得成功具有重要影响。现有文献侧重于分析东道国规制制度和认知制度对企业跨国经营的影响,对规范制度研究较少。基于来自世界价值观调查的东道国社会信任数据以及中国上市公司2009—2018年在海外设立的6 921个子公司的数据,本文探讨规范制度的核心维度——东道国社会信任如何影响中国企业对海外子公司的管控。本文提出东道国外群体社会信任和内群体社会信任影响企业跨国经营所面临的交易成本和不确定性,进而影响母公司对海外子公司的持股水平。此外,文化距离和母公司跨国经验是东道国社会信任效应的重要边界条件。本文通过揭示东道国社会信任影响海外子公司管控的理论机理,不仅增进了人们对于规范制度及其对企业跨国经营战略的影响的认识,还对企业评估东道国规范制度环境、科学地设计海外子公司的所有权结构具有启示意义。