Foreign Market Entry Mode Research: A Review and Research Agenda
ABSTRACTThis article gives a retrospective look at the main determinants of foreign market entry modes and examines the variables and conditions used in empirical studies in this stream of research. We found that there is an “analytical context hazard” in past studies. The findings suggest: first, future research should focus on developing and extending theories with reference to strategy dimension and market/industry environment; second, the interrelationship between the main entry mode determinants should be figured out; third, attention has to be paid to the entry modes of firms from non-developed economies in research.
Successful turnarounds in bankrupt firms? Assessing retrenchment in the most severe form of crisis
During economic downturns, firms file for bankruptcy in an effort to attempt a “turnaround.” The objective of this study is to assess the effectiveness of retrenchment strategies in the context of bankruptcy, as the most severe form of crisis. We conducted a longitudinal analysis of a sample of 868 bankrupt Spanish firms during the period 2004–2017. The empirical results show that stakeholder support and deep cost retrenchment increase the likelihood of survival and performance recovery, while aggressive layoffs are detrimental for turning bankrupt firms around. Surprisingly, intense asset retrenchment had no significant effects on firm survival and also pushed performance downward. The fi…
Retos en la internacionalización y supervivencia de los nuevos emprendimientos manufactureros
El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar la relación entre la orientación internacional y la supervivencia de empresas manufactureras de reciente creación. Para ello se estudió una muestra de 2.975 nuevos emprendimientos constituidos durante el período 2001-2010 en la industria textil-confección de España. Metodológicamente, se han empleado modelos de duración mediante regresiones de Cox, que modelizan el riesgo relativo asociado con una variable en función del tiempo transcurrido hasta que sucede el evento. Los principales resultados evidencian que la internacionalización de los nuevos emprendimientos es una condición necesaria aunque no suficiente para sobrevivir en una industria globaliza…
Do public support services matter in the multilocation process in China?
Purpose– During the last decade the demand to comprehend the overarching success factors of the multilocation process in distant countries such as China has increased significantly. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to explore and understand the nature and scope of the collaboration between the public support services (PSS) in China and the Spanish enterprises which decided to be multilocated there.Design/methodology/approach– The present study examines the necessity of the PSS in China by employing a review of literature as well as both quantitative and qualitative surveys from 31 Spanish companies multilocated in China.Findings– The main conclusions highlight the fact that the…
Institutional Influences of Professional Associations and Franchise Organizations on Competitiveness of the Healthcare Clinics
This paper uses insights from the institutional theory to study the competitiveness of the healthcare clinics in Spain. The environment of the healthcare services is highly institutionalized: professional associations are state agents responsible for the extensive regulation. Recently emerged franchise chains become subject for imitation by creating institutionalized routines from within and increasing competitive pressures for other industry players. While the sector is dominated by the independent doctors, franchise organizations are becoming more popular and show steady growth rates. The franchise business model in healthcare is evolving: while the core activity—provision of a healthcare…
Developing international social capital: The role of communities of practice and clustering
Abstract One criteria regarding where to invest in foreign markets is linked to the international social capital (ISC) that exists on the place, which enables the access to local knowledge and other location-specific advantages. There are alternative ways to create and make use of that ISC that are still unexplored by International Business literature. In this paper, we study the geographic communities of practice (CoP) that are formed by FDI firms from the same country-of-origin (the so-called country-of-origin clusters). For that purpose, the paper adopts a qualitative methodological approach through an inductive case study of expatriates from 13 Spanish subsidiaries co-located in China. …
Realizing dynamic capabilities and organizational knowledge in effective innovations: the capabilities typological map
Purpose This paper aims to shed light on the mechanisms that connect dynamic capabilities and organizational knowledge in the innovative process to offer a new theoretical and practical solution considering the microfoundations of knowledge management strategies. Design/methodology/approach This research has emerged from an in-depth case study of an effective innovation (from just ethanol and sugar-production to an effective biomass plant). The study represents an “inductive inquiry,” useful to understand specific “organizational mechanisms” of innovation, where the main data came from in-depth interviews with 18 key actors. It proved to help search the development of a specific biomass pl…
Regional Disparities and Spatial Dependence of Bankruptcy in Spain
Firm survival, bankruptcy, and turnaround are of great interest nowadays. Bankruptcy is the ultimate resource for a company to survive when it is affected by a severe decline. Thus, determinants of firm turnaround and survival in the context of bankruptcy are of interest to researchers, managers, and policy-makers. Prior turnaround literature has broadly studied firm-specific factors for turnaround success. However, location-specific factors remain relatively unstudied despite their increasing relevance. Thus, this paper aims to evaluate the existence of spatial dependence on the outcome of the bankruptcy procedure. Economic geography and business literature suggest that location matters an…
The Chinese Bittersweet Cake in Orbea’s Internationalization
Orbea is the oldest and biggest bicycle manufacturer in Spain and one of the most recognized bike brands in the world. With more than 175 years in the market, in the year 2007 Orbea decided to set up its third manufacturing plant in the Industrial park of Kunshan. After 8 years with activity there, in 2015 the company decided to close down the factory and reallocated its resources closer to the Headquarters. Some of the reasons that influenced its entry and exit decisions had their origin in the specific context of investment (place): China and the country-of-origin (COO) cluster in Kunshan. Other reasons of the reshoring and backshoring were related with the evolution of the sector, public…
Efectos de la crisis económica sobre el emprendimiento en empresas de economía social en España: un análisis espacial
En los últimos años, la desfavorable evolución de la coyuntura económica ha provocado intensos cambios estructurales y espaciales en la creación de empresas que cuestionan la validez de algunos supuestos básicos sobre dinámica emprendedora y desarrollo territorial. Por ello, el objetivo de este trabajo es analizar la existencia de patrones espaciales de creación de empresas de economía social en España y estudiar su evolución temporal durante dos etapas de intensos cambios: una de crecimiento (2002-2007) y otra de profunda crisis generalizada (2008-2013). A partir de la definición de un índice de agrupación de empresas de economía social aplicamos técnicas estadísticas basadas en econometrí…
Capturing the Resilience of the Textile Companies as a Specific Response of the Fashion industry
This chapter examines the most recent innovative activities of textile companies in Spain and their expansion into sanitary textiles and digitalization. In light of the global crisis caused by the COVID-19, we consider highly relevant to review the challenges of one of the most important fashion sectors, e.g., the textile industry, through this evolutionary period and the resilience of clusters. From this territorial perspective, we explained the industry’s restructuring and survival through three main elements: companies, relationships, and institutions. Companies are fundamental because they pave the way forward with their strategic responses. Relationships or clustering is the interactio…
Actores similares con resultados diferentes. El efecto clustering
A veces, los gobiernos, las empresas y los individuos nos preguntamos cuestiones tales como: ¿Por qué actores que son similares y actúan en un mismo escenario obtienen resultados diferentes? ¿Se puede alcanzar un resultado diferente a través de caminos similares? ¿Podemos prever esa heterogeneidad? En la literatura existen variadas respuestas a ese “fenómeno”, que irían desde la filosófica hasta la física.
The Dynamic Evolution of the Proximity Effect in the Textile Industry
This paper tests the evolution of the relationship between localization and proximity and their effect on firm performance for a sample of 10,490 Spanish textile firms in the period 2001–2006. Using coefficients of specialization two levels of geographical disaggregation are distinguished: (i) the provincial cluster and (ii) the industrial district. The results obtained show a positive and significant impact of the specialization level on productivity, both for industrial districts and provincial clusters (in this case only when the levels of specialization are high enough). In general, the effect is higher for industrial districts than for provincial clusters, although in both cases it dec…
Running faster and jumping higher? Survival and growth in international manufacturing new ventures
Going international early is increasingly the choice of new ventures in manufacturing industries. However, does earliness provide a positive outcome for internationalisation? To answer this, we have longitudinally analysed 3181 manufacturing new ventures established between 2002 and 2012. Using Cox regressions, we found that the 124 late internationals had the lowest risk of failure, while the 229 early internationals could not compensate for their mortality risk with significantly higher levels of growth in the post-internationalisation period. We discuss why an early internationalisation is more perilous than beneficial and provide some suggestions for the internationalisation of new ven…
Globalization and its impact on operational decisions
PurposeThis paper aims to analyse the impact of globalization on the manufacturing operations of industries and industrial districts and how it influences the specialization and diversification of manufacturing decisions.Design/methodology/approachThe sample includes 9,684 Spanish manufacturing textile firms and the analysis is both cross‐sectional and longitudinal.FindingsThe results show that globalization tends to diminish the district and subsector effects over time, but they also show the positive impact of specialization on productivity and of diversification on business growth.Originality/valueThe paper indicates to managers that the production function in textile firms has viability…
The influence of geographical concentration and structural characteristics on the survival chance of textile firms
[EN] Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the contribution of location (geographical concentration) and firm structure (age and subsector) to the risk of business failure. Design/methodology/approach The Markov s regression analysis was made for a sample of over 11,700 Spanish textile-clothing firms. Findings The results obtained from the analysis suggest that the risk of business failure is increased by some risk factors relative to the structural characteristics of the firms (younger firms and specialization in low-tech activities), and under determined locational circumstances. Research limitations/implications Our conclusions have been obtained starting from a sample of manu…
The Value of Local Externalities in Country-of-Origin Clusters: Evidence from China
Business cooperation and the exchange of information and knowledge are actions and decisions that firms can build in order to compete more effectively in globalized markets. These options are even more relevant for SMEs to access and expand in new international markets and through more commitment entry modes as foreign direct investment (FDI). While studies on the role of local externalities are well established in the Economic Geography literature, its international dimension is still unexplored in deep. This is surprising when the survival and growth of the subsidiaries depends on the efficient adjustment with its context. The objective of this paper is to analyse the perceptions of the r…
Retos en la internacionalización y supervivencia de los nuevos emprendimientos manufactureros
El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar la relación entre la orientación internacional y la supervivencia de empresas manufactureras de reciente creación. Para ello se estudió una muestra de 2.975 nuevos emprendimientos constituidos durante el período 2001-2010 en la industria textil-confección de España. Metodológicamente, se han empleado modelos de duración mediante regresiones de Cox, que modelizan el riesgo relativo asociado con una variable en función del tiempo transcurrido hasta que sucede el evento. Los principales resultados evidencian que la internacionalización de los nuevos emprendimientos es una condición necesaria aunque no suficiente para sobrevivir en una industria globaliza…
Innovating in the textile industry: An uncoordinated dance between firms and their territory?
Considering the process of innovati on development, this paper aimed to examine the eff ect of diff erent dimensions of proximity and the level of coordinati on that exists in a texti le cluster. This study employed a qualitati ve method, based on indepth interviews that were conducted with two leading fi rms in a texti le cluster in Valencia, Spain, which is subject to intense competi ti on from producers in Asia. Firms were selected according to the criteria of innovati on development and opportunity. This is a pilot study that precedes a more ambiti ous one. The results suggested that fi rms' innovati ons are developed in an isolated, disconti nuous, marginal, and uncoordinated way, and …
Global organizations and supply chain: new research avenues in the international human resource management
Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to aim at proposing a research agenda in the intersection of strategic supply chain management and logistics (SCML) of global organizations from the perspective of international human resource management (IHRM).Design/methodology/approach– To disclose the intellectual structure of research to date across both fields, the content of up to 280 articles dealing with IHRM and 174 papers addressing challenges in SCML in global organizations from a human resource management (HRM) viewpoint were analyzed. A stepwise hierarchical cluster and discriminant analysis were conducted to map a joint research agenda. Approaches from Upper Echelons theory and Co-Evoluti…
Is the influence of the industrial district on international activities being eroded by globalization?
Abstract This study provides insight into the impact of industrial districts on the international activities of firms, in the particular context of one traditional manufacturing industry: the Spanish home-textile industry. Using a sample of 128 manufacturing firms, the paper shows how location influences the timing and levels of exports and imports. Moreover, our results demonstrate how these influences have been diluted in recent years as the home-textile industry becomes more involved in the global arena. Our findings challenge some key arguments exploring the advantages of the district in the international activities of firms; in particular, first, in questioning the capacity of the dist…
Modelling and forecasting mortality in Spain
[EN] Experience shows that static life tables overestimate death probabilities. As a consequence of this overestimation the premiums for annuities, pensions and life insurance are not what they actually should be, with negative effects for insurance companies or policy-holders. The reason for this overestimation is that static life tables, through being computed for a specific period of time, cannot take into account the decreasing mortality trend over time. Dynamic life tables overcome this problem by incorporating the influence of the calendar when graduating mortality. Recent papers on the topic look for the development of new methods to deal with this dynamism. Most methods used in dyna…