0000000000712493
AUTHOR
Ilan Alon
The Case for Regulating Huawei
Huawei’s growth overseas has paralleled that of China Inc ( Li and Farrell, 2020 ). Through favorable policies such as the Belt and Road Initiative, China has paved the way for Chinese multinationals to capture global markets, acquire and exploit new technologies, and have privileged access to local resources. In turn, Huawei has played an important role in the development of China Inc., its technological capabilities and global diplomatic relations. But Huawei plays by a different set of rules: it has been accused of unfair and illegal practices, and for breaking international norms. This perspective explores the need for regulatory oversight of Huawei.
Orientations and Capabilities of Born Global Firms from Emerging Markets
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of entrepreneurial orientation and networking capabilities of born global firms in an emerging market on marketing strategy and foreign market performance. Design/methodology/approach Structural equation modeling was used to analyze data from 1,001 internationalized firms in an emerging market and to test seven hypotheses regarding the development of marketing strategy and foreign market performance. Findings Marketing strategy was found to mediate the relationship between entrepreneurial orientation and networking capability and foreign market performance, while foreign market performance is affected by entrepreneurial orientation…
Corruption, regime type, and economic growth
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Can Signaling Theory Help Agency and Resource Scarcity Theories Explain Franchisee Failure? Predicting SBA-Backed Loan Defaults
This study examines the use of analytic techniques to develop a model that predicts the potential default of Small Business Administration (SBA) backed loans issued to American franchisees. Data collected by World Franchising (WF) in their 2008 survey and by SBA from 2000-2008, covering 271 diverse US franchise chains, on the reported failure rates and charge off percentages of SBA backed loans was used to explore associations between franchisor characteristics and franchisee loan performances. The predictive capability of the derived model was assessed using a data mining technique in which the original data set is split into two different subsets: one for estimation and one for validation…
Credit Risk Research: Review and Agenda
This article provides a comprehensive review of scholarly research on credit risk measurement during the last 57 years applying bibliometric citation analysis and elaborates an agenda for future research. The bibliography is compiled using the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) Web of Science (WOS) database and includes all articles with citations over the period 1960–2016. Specifically, the review is carried out using 1695 articles across 72 countries published in 442 journals by 2928 authors. The findings suggest that credit risk research is multifaceted and can be classified into six streams: (1) defaultable security pricing, (2) default intensity modeling, (3) comparative analys…
Cross-national cultural values and nascent entrepreneurship
This article, differentiating between factual and normative values, investigates the links between national culture and entrepreneurial activity in 24 countries based on 154 observations. We test hypotheses on the relationship between national culture—measured by Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE)—and nascent entrepreneurship as represented by Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM). Both the GEM and the GLOBE databases are robust in terms of forming empirical connections between factual and normative culture and entrepreneurship at the country level. Using these two separate databases to examine our hypotheses enables us to avoid the methodological biases th…
Social Franchising : A Bibliometric and Theoretic Review
Author's accepted manuscript. This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Promotion Management on 07/03/2019, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/10496491.2019.1584777. We present a comprehensive review of social franchising literature and an integrated framework highlighting factors and theories driving the concept. Bibliometric and content analysis are used to analyze 111 articles between 2002 and 2018 from ISI Web of Science and Scopus. The following three research streams are identified: motivations for social franchising, how social franchising work, and impact of social franchising. These are integrated into a conceptual fr…
Intellectual Structure of the Belt and Road Initiative Research: A Scientometric Analysis and Suggestions for a Future Research Agenda
China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has attracted increasing attention worldwide since its inception in 2013. Although the research is fast increasing in terms of publications, there is a lack of knowledge about the intellectual structure, research trends, and appropriate theories underpinning. Using bibliometric data from 1583 articles from 2013 to 2019 in the Web of Science and Scopus databases, we used bibliometric techniques and scientometric analyses to identify and analyze the intellectual structure, hotspots, and emerging trends in this field. We identified 18 clusters that we categorized into three groups for thematic discussion. Research gaps and future research directions were …
The research frontier on internationalization of social enterprises
Abstract Social enterprises (SEs) are hybrid organizations that simultaneously pursue financial and social goals, while addressing institutional voids. Despite the extensive cross-border activities of SEs, the state of research addressing such flows of funds, technology and personnel is undeveloped. In this introductory article, we discuss the unique aspects of SEs and explore how the international business literature can inform our understanding of their internationalization. We outline promising areas for future research related to the drivers of and the processes underlying SE internationalization as well as its consequences. With this as a background, we introduce the five articles in t…
US-Based Fast Food Restaurants: Factors Influencing International Expansion of Franchise Systems
Studies of international franchising are scant, but growing, and can be divided into two main streams of research: those focused on environmental predictors of internationalization and those focused on strategic, firm level characteristics. Belonging to the latter category, this study empirically examines a set of firm level attributes as predictors of the decision-making on whether or not firms seek international expansion. Using longitudinal data from Bonds’ Franchise Guide 2001-2008, we draw upon a sample of U.S. based fast food franchise systems for testing our hypotheses. Specifically, our database is comprised of 1058 observations for 158 chains and we estimate a semi-parametric logis…
Micro-Franchising in the Bottom of the Pyramid Market : Rwanda
This study examines how a mission-driven shared identification can help mitigate the failure of a micro-franchise in Rwanda, a bottom of the pyramid market. A single case study was adopted followin...
A Review of Born globals
AbstractThis article synthesizes and categorizes twenty years of research on “International New Ventures” and “Born Globals” (INV/BG). A total of 7,793 citations are used to create a citation map consisting of the field’s top contributions. These citations are, then, used to identify the most influential articles—276 articles published in 45 ISI ranked journals. We employ bibliometric co-citation analysis to distinguish six distinct research streams including “International intensity and Global diversity,” “Market Orientation,” “Entrepreneurial Perspectives,” “Capabilities,” “Networks and Social Capital,” and finally, “Strategic Choices and Environmental factors.” Based on our findings, we …
Climate change, consumer lifestyles and legitimation strategies of sustainability-oriented firms
Abstract This study explores the links between climate change, consumer lifestyles, and legitimation strategies of sustainable firms. Our findings offer new insight into this under-researched area based on qualitative case studies of four Nordic firms operating in industrial and consumer contexts. We find that climate change consciousness is a major driver for all case firms’ sustainability-focused operations, but the dynamics differed. Achieving sociopolitical legitimacy emerges as an important factor for the case firms operating in the energy sector, especially as it connects to government incentives and regulative pressures. However, cognitive legitimacy is increasingly important for the…
Master International Franchising in China: The Case of the Athlete’s Foot
Franchising in China is a relatively new and growing phenomenon, which has gained momentum since the 1990s. Among the franchising pioneers in China are large and well-known food and beverage brands, such as KFC and McDonald’s. Less well known, but equally important, are the non-food retailing and service industries, which also made inroads in China using franchising. One such example is the case of the Athlete’s Foot Company. This American company has been a major competitor in the athletic shoes and sportswear sectors globally, made early entry into China using master international franchising, and, consequently, ran into problems indicative of the issues companies that expand internationa…
Individualism, collectivism and reward crowdfunding contribution intention and behavior
Abstract The study examines the role of the individualism-collectivism (IDV) cultural dimension in reward crowdfunding contribution intentionality and behavior. An extended Theory of Planned Behavior framework is used for comparative analysis using survey data collected from users of national platforms from opposing cultures along the IDV dimension – China and Finland. Main findings suggest that: attitudes are positively associated with information sharing and financial contribution intentions in both cultures; collectivism enhances the effects of subjective norms on both intentions; behavior control is more strongly observed in individualistic cultures; and information sharing intentions a…
Final Reflections: Global Challenges from Innovation and Connectivity
Lattemann et al. summarize the discussions in the edited book on Huawei goes Global—with Vol. I examining the major global threads caused by the rise of tech-giant Huawei. They recap the debate about the tensions between China and the Western world about global leadership, geopolitical power, national security, ideological, and economic threats, global connectivity, and about the shape of the upcoming technological world order. The culminating point is the question about the link between Huawei and the Chinese Government. The 5G standard, pushed by Huawei, has the power to change the world. The closeness of the ties between Huawei and the Chinese Government will decide if the world will end…
Business Cultural Intelligence Quotient: A Five-Country Study
Cultural intelligence (CI) has often been linked to performance at the individual, team, and firm levels as a key factor in international business success. Using a new measure of CI, the business cultural intelligence quotient (BCIQ), our study provides empirical evidence on several key antecedents of CI using data on business professionals across five diverse countries (Austria, Colombia, Greece, Spain, and the United States). The findings suggest that the most important factors leading to cultural intelligence, in order of importance, are the number of countries that business practitioners have lived in for more than six months, their level of education, and the number of languages spoken…
An Institutional Perspective on Religious Freedom and Economic Growth
AbstractThe increase in religion-related conflicts around the world emphasizes the urgent need for a better understanding of the role of religion and religious freedom on socio-economic development, both theoretically and empirically. While studies on the role of religion on economic development have existed as early as Weber (1905), there is a dearth of studies on the effect of religious freedom on economic growth, and the existing studies overlook possible negative impacts on economies by unrestricted religious freedom. Drawing on institutional theory, we propose that different types of religious restrictions can exert either positive or negative effects on economic growth. We test our pr…
Final Reflections: Connectivity, Innovation, Transformation, and Global Challenges
Despite the beginning of the trade war between China and the U.S. in 2018, and despite Huawei’s competitive disadvantages in its globalization process, such as being a latecomer in the market, lack of technological leadership, and liability of foreignness with a negative country of origin image, within 30 years, Huawei managed to become a leading global provider of information and communications technology. Lattemann et al. summarize the discussions in the edited book on Huawei goes Global—with Vol. II studying the question how Huawei overcomes these challenges stemming from the institutional distances between China and the host country they are operating in. The authors show how latest Int…
Institutions and training: A case of social franchising in Africa
Corruption in economics: a bibliometric analysis and research agenda
We conducted a bibliometric analysis of the literature on corruption in the discipline of economics (4,488 articles) over the past 51 years between 1968–2019. Through this methodology, we identifie...
Governance, foreign aid, and Chinese foreign direct investment
This article examines how Chinese foreign aid interacts with the quality of the host country's governance in shaping Chinese state-owned enterprises' (CSOEs') foreign direct investment (FDI) in Africa. By analyzing the firm-level greenfield FDI data of CSOEs between 2003 and 2014 and distinguishing between China's official development assistance and less concessional forms of Chinese foreign aid, we reveal two main findings. First, the quality of the host country's governance negatively affects CSOEs' FDI. Second, other official aid and loans from China negatively moderate the relationship between the quality of the host country's governance and FDI by CSOEs. Specifically, the tendency for …
Corruption in international business: A review and research agenda
Abstract We systematically reviewed the literature on corruption in international business (137 articles) for the last 17 years between 1992 and 2019. Additionally, we identified seven research streams in this growing literature: (1) the legislation against corruption, (2) the determinants of corruption, (3) combating corruption, 4) the effect of corruption on firms, (5) the political environment and corruption, (6) corruption as a challenge to existing theories of management, and (7) the effect of corruption on foreign direct investment and trade. Based on this review, we recommend that strong international laws are needed to minimize the negative impact of corruption on international busi…
Outward Foreign Direct Investment by Chinese National Oil Companies
Developed countries have become increasingly suspicious about the rapid growth of Chinese investments in their home countries and abroad, commonly citing potential threats to national security and global governance as the main sources of anxieties. As a result, policy measures in some developed markets have been put in place to create additional regulation and oversight, specifically in highly regulated and strategic industries, such as the oil sector. This article refutes a number of popular myths about Chinese investments in the global oil industry, and suggests a more rigorous dialogue with the Chinese authorities relating to their integration into international institutions.
The impact of COVID ‐19 on franchising in emerging markets: An example from Brazil
The outbreak of COVID‐19, the disease caused by the SARS‐CoV‐2 virus, has had significant economic, political, and social consequences worldwide. The franchising sector, consisting mostly of retail and service businesses, is an example of an industry that has been deeply affected. The experiences of franchising stakeholders in Brazil highlight the strengths of the franchising model in such situations. This investigation, based on primary data from webinars with food service, education, retail, and business‐to‐business service companies in Brazil, coupled with reports from commercial and franchising entities, reveals how the COVID‐19 outbreak has affected the franchising sector. It illustrat…
COVID-19 and International Business: A Viewpoint
Bibliometric Analysis of Absorptive Capacity
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Political discretion and corruption: the impact of institutional quality on formal and informal entrepreneurship
This paper analyses the impact of political discretion and corruption on firm creation rates, distinguishing between formal and informal entrepreneurship. The results show that political discretion discourages the creation of formal enterprises as fewer restrictions on the government's opportunistic behaviour increases uncertainty and risks for entrepreneurial activities. Corruption also has a negative influence on formal entrepreneurship, as it increases the costs of the procedures required to create and manage the company with no assurance that the other party will fulfil the agreement. Regarding informal entrepreneurship, our results show that the negative impact of corruption also appli…
Language and communication in international students’ adaptation: a bibliometric and content analysis review
AbstractThis article systematically reviews the literature (313 articles) on language and communication in international students’ cross-cultural adaptation in institutions of higher education for 1994–2021. We used bibliometric analysis to identify the most impactful journals and articles, and the intellectual structure of the field. We used content analysis to synthesize the results within each research stream and suggest future research directions. We established two major research streams: second-language proficiency and interactions in the host country. We found inconclusive results about the role of communication with co-nationals in students’ adaptation, which contradicts the major a…
Dialogue in the Dark: Shedding Light on the Development of Social Enterprises in China
International audience; The application of for-profit business practices to nonprofit organizations, social enterprises are a way for nonprofit organizations to find funding in a time of rising costs, falling donations, and increased competition from for-profit businesses in the social sector. Although well established in the mature economies of the West, these enterprises are a novelty in the emerging economies of Asia and in the transitional economies of the former communist world. The experiences of Dialogue in the Dark, a social enterprise concerned with the problems associated with blindness, highlight the unique challenges that social enterprises face in China and offer lessons for en…
The development and validation of the Business Cultural Intelligence Quotient
Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to present a new instrument for measuring cultural intelligence in the business context (BCIQ).Design/methodology/approach– The paper describes the process of the conceptualization of the model and the development of the instrument, the sample, as well as the validation of the instrument. Directions on the use of the instrument and future research are discussed.Findings– The instrument shows good psychometric properties and good predictive power and outperforms other publicly available CQ measures on a number of dimensions.Originality/value– The unique features and advantages of the present instrument are as follows: first, a refined factor structure co…
A bibliometric review of cryptocurrencies as a financial asset
Within a decade, cryptocurrencies have captured significant attention. After Bitcoin's emergence in 2008, new cryptocurrencies started to enter the financial market. We use bibliometric analysis to...
Next-Day Bitcoin Price Forecast
This study analyzes forecasts of Bitcoin price using the autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) and neural network autoregression (NNAR) models. Employing the static forecast approach, we forecast next-day Bitcoin price both with and without re-estimation of the forecast model for each step. For cross-validation of forecast results, we consider two different training and test samples. In the first training-sample, NNAR performs better than ARIMA, while ARIMA outperforms NNAR in the second training-sample. Additionally, ARIMA with model re-estimation at each step outperforms NNAR in the two test-sample forecast periods. The Diebold Mariano test confirms the superiority of forecast …
Family business internationalization: an insight into opportunities and challenges.
The theme of internationalization in family businesses is a highly topical issue that is increasingly attracting management scholars. This is because, in addition of being a particular type of business (Alcorn, 1982), they play a central role in most economies worldwide. Accounting for 65-80 percent of all the world’s firms, they generate around 70-90 percent of annual global GDP, and are the source of 50-80 percent of new jobs in most countries. Their essence lies in the close bond they have with their founders and above all, in the family’s involvement in the business ownership and management (Franco and Prata, 2019). This bond may prove to be a limit for fuelling internationalization pro…
Corporate Governance Mechanisms for Monitoring or Empowering CEOS? A Study of Chinese Listed Firms
This study examines the impact of governance mechanisms in monitoring or empowering top executives on firm performance. We distinguish between two competing theories, namely agency theory and stewardship theory, which hold conflicting assumptions about CEOs behaviour and hence offer different recommendations concerning corporate governance structure. We conduct an empirical study based on 837 publicly listed companies in China over the period of 2005-2007, the findings of this study provide strong support for stewardship theory. The results suggest that governance mechanisms that can empower CEOs work better in the Chinese context, specifically, a longer CEO tenure and lower board independe…
Experiential Learning Using Social Media in International Business Education
This study analyzes the attitudes and perceptions of students toward an experiential learning project in an international marketing Master’s course at a business school in Norway and at comparable institutions in the United States and Israel. The findings validate the implementation of experiential learning exercises that incorporate social media and technology as an effective alternative to traditional teaching methods, in order to enhance learning outcomes.
Case in Disruption: LexShares and the Litigation Finance Sector
Specializing in crowdfunding litigation via a web‐based platform, LexShares is part of a new generation of businesses designed to take advantage of the opportunities for disintermediation offered by the digitization of the economy. By connecting investors directly to plaintiffs and lawyers, LexShares has created an alternative financial investment product that is not dependent on the performance of traditional financial markets. Its business model shows how a single company can revolutionize its business sector by introducing and leveraging a disruptive technology. The company's experiences in the realm of litigation finance offer myriad lessons for business leaders seeking a competitive ed…
Determining the RMB Exchange Regime
Although China has claimed since 2005 that it will move towards a more market-oriented system of managing its foreign exchange, it has remained, in part, a managed economic system. This chapter examines the relative importance of fundamentalist, chartist and currency arrangements in determining the RMB exchange regime using both traditional linear and non-linear artificial intelligence models. We find that the emphasis on the US dollar as a reference currency has declined. Fundamentalist forces are becoming strong determinants of the currency exchange. The genetic programming approach is among the best performing in minimizing forecasting error.
Knowledge management in franchising : a research agenda
PurposeThis paper aims to offer a comprehensive systematic review of knowledge management (KM) in franchising literature over the past 29 years.Design/methodology/approachBy means of bibliometric citation analysis, ISI Web of Science (WoS) database is used to analyze articles from 1990-2018. A total of 169 articles by 369 authors across 40 countries published in 113 journals from 200 institutions were clustered and examined through HistCites and VOSviewer.FindingsThe exploration of KM in franchising is associated with 3 factors: governance structure; performance outcome; and franchise network growth. The findings also reveal that KM in franchising is still an emerging discipline encompassin…
Corruption, political discretion and entrepreneurship
Purpose While common sense suggests that corruption will likely have a negative impact on the economy as it raises the cost of doing business, research on the topic showed inconsistent results (positive, negative and neutral). This paper aims to verify whether corruption has a “grease” or “sand” effect on the wheels of entrepreneurial rates and under which conditions corruption will have stronger or weaker effects. Design/methodology/approach Using institutional theory as the basis for the hypotheses, generalized least squares estimation is conducted to empirically examine the role of corruption and political discretion in entrepreneurship in a sample of 93 countries. Findings Countries wi…
Franchising in Russia
The Marketisation of Higher Education: Antecedents, Processes, and Outcomes
This chapter explores the ideological antecedents, processes, and outcomes of the marketisation of higher education, with an emphasis on business schools in particular. The chapter begins with a discussion of the theory of Scandinavian New Institutionalism in the context of higher education, explaining how ideologies spread across nations and fields through adoption and adaptation. It then elaborates the ideologies of neoliberalism and managerialism, and their relation to New Public Management. The chapter continues by elucidating the processes which are related to marketisation—namely commodification, corporatisation, and de-professionalisation. It then enumerates the various outcomes of t…
Greenfield FDI attractiveness index: a machine learning approach
Purpose This study aims to propose a comprehensive greenfield foreign direct investment (FDI) attractiveness index using exploratory factor analysis and automated machine learning (AML). We offer offer a robust empirical measurement of location-choice factors identified in the FDI literature through a novel method and provide a tool for assessing the countries' investment potential. Design/methodology/approach Based on five conceptual key sub-domains of FDI, We collected quantitative indicators in several databases with annual data ranging from 2006 to 2019. This study first run a factor analysis to identify the most important features. It then uses AML to assess the relative importance of…
Women executives and financing pecking order of GEM-listed companies: Moderating roles of social capital and regional institutional environment
Abstract This paper investigates the financing options of female executives within China’s unique environment. We examined 154 GEM enterprises listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange from 2009 to 2016. The data were analyzed using statistical procedures including multilevel regression analysis based on the existing financing pecking order models. Empirical evidence shows that women executives are less likely to use internal and debt financing. In terms of internal financing willingness, social capital and external institutional environment have negative and positive moderating effects respectively. In terms of debt financing willingness, social capital has a positive moderating effect. In add…
International governance mode choice: Evidence from Brazilian franchisors
Abstract The purpose of this article is to test a novel, integrative theory of governance mode selection in the context of international franchising from Brazil. Given the Brazilian emerging market context, we added and tested another variable in the model relating to environmental distance between the home (Brazil) and host countries. To test the theory, we employed two logistic regression models and representative data from the Brazilian Franchising Association in addition to the World Bank's Doing Business index, and the CEPII (Centre d'etudes prospectives et d'informations internationales). Findings show that three factors influence Brazilian franchisors' choices regarding international…
Financial wealth, socioemotional wealth, and founder exits: an empirical examination of Chinese IPOs
Initial public offerings (IPOs) are typically viewed as the peak of entrepreneurial success, providing founder-CEOs a chance to profitably exit. Founder-CEOs, however, are often motivated by non-financial considerations in addition to the desire to amass wealth. According to the behavioral agency model, the founder-CEOs’ framing of gains vs. losses of their wealth creation at IPO determines their risk aversion vs. risk taking behaviors. In addition, the behavioral agency model argues that founder-CEOs with a great deal of socioemotional wealth fear losing that wealth. This fear will attenuate their aversion to losing financial wealth. To test our model, we collected a sample of 130 entrepre…
Predictors of applying for and winning an ERC Proof-of-Concept grant: An automated machine learning model
Research often fails to be translated into applications because of lack of financial support. The Proof of Concept (PoC) funding scheme from the European Research Council (ERC) supports the early stages of the valorization process of the research conducted by its grantees. This article explores the factors that predict who will apply for ERC grants and which grant proposals will prove successful. By combining information from two datasets of 10,074 ERC grants (representing 8361 individual grantees) and 2186 PoC proposals, and using automated machine learning, we can identify the main predictors of the propensity to apply and to win. Doing so fills a void in the literature on likelihood to a…
Motivational configurations of cultural intelligence, social integration, and performance in global virtual teams
Abstract Global virtual teams (GVTs), electronically connected workgroups of geographically dispersed team members in multinational settings, may suffer from less social integration. However, they may also benefit from an increased ability to process information due to a richer portfolio of ideas and problem-solving approaches that the team’s diversity provides. We propose that the cultural intelligence (CQ) of team members contributes positively to social integration in GVTs and improves performance. Using data from 263 GVTs, we utilized both structural equation modeling and necessary condition analyses to explore the associations between motivational CQ and a team’s social integration and…
Supply chain – marketing integration: How do European SMEs go to China via the New Silk Road
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss China’s New Silk Road initiative as an opportunity for European small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to export to Chinese market. It offers research propositions on redefining the business process of European SMEs and Chinese importers in light of the initiative. Design/methodology/approach SMEs’ export barriers, particularly in SCM and marketing, are identified through literature review. Then they are discussed in accordance with the measures that New Silk Road proposed. Findings Logistic infrastructure development under the New Silk Road significantly lowers the supply chain barrier. Marketing remains a challenge for European SMEs to e…
Overcoming the liability of foreignness – A new perspective on Chinese MNCs
Abstract We maintain that previous research on multinational corporations' liability of foreignness has underemphasized the importance of the firm's dependence on their parents, subsidiary and local resources. To address this issue, we conducted 43 semi-structured interviews with expatriate and local managers of Chinese high-tech MNCs over two years (2017–2019) and across China, Poland and Hong Kong to understand how they cope with the liability of foreignness in Poland. Using the resource dependence perspective, the linkage, leverage, learning (LLL) paradigm and the institutional view, we identified six dimensions affecting the liability of foreignness: resource commitment, information flo…
China’s intellectual property rights provocation: A political economy view
It is well recognized that intellectual property rights (IPR) violations are at the heart of the economic conflict with China. Little agreement, however, exists about the origin and solutions for this provocation. Broadly speaking, two prescriptions have been proposed: the natural evolutionary and the rule of law views. While both have merits and add to our understanding, they do not go far enough to address the more fundamental IPR policy issue: China has benefited from a rule of law overseas and a rule through law at home, manufacturing unfair advantage to its firms, many of which are owned and/or influenced by the government. While recognizing China’s recent effort in improving IPR prote…
A learning portal model of emerging markets multinationals
Strategic agility explanations for managing franchising expansion during economic cycles
Purpose This paper aims to demonstrate how franchising firms can manage system expansion by weathering the economic effects of a location (i.e. country-level economic cycles) by shifting their resources. Design/methodology/approach The authors use a comprehensive database of 151 US hybrid franchising organizations, including observations for the years between 2001 and 2008. Data analysis is conducted with count model panel data with a Poisson distribution. Findings The model reveals a curvilinear U-shaped relationship between location (i.e. economic cycles) and franchising expansion. Originality/value This study contributes to competitiveness literature by showing how franchising firms res…
Regime Type and COVID-19 Response
From late 2019 to the first half of 2020, the world has witnessed the epic spread and destruction of the novel coronavirus which was discovered in Wuhan, China. The huge number of infections and deaths caused by the virus, the collapse of the healthcare system and the economic consequences have few modern equivalents. While governments of all countries are responding to the pandemic, a heated debate rages about which political system, democracy versus authoritarian, is better positioned to respond to the pandemic. While the worldwide effort to contain the virus continues, we offer a preliminary comparison between democracies and authoritarian regimes in their responses to COVID-19, and pol…
Crowd-out effect on consumers attitude towards corporate social responsibility communication
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is assumed to function better in open societies and competitive markets where market forces drive communication and voluntary adoption of self-regulated quality CSR practices. Thus, the common wisdom maintains that consumer awareness of positive CSR activities of an organisation elicits positive perceptions about the organisation. Contrarily, we find negative and insignificant effect of CSR communication on perceived CSR performance in the context of Norway. The findings are consistent with predictions of crowding-out theory which submits that moderately enforced government policies can displace consumers’ intrinsic motivations to contribute to public g…
The Institutionalization of Political Risk Assessment by Chinese Multinational Firms
Some researchers have claimed that Chinese firms are impervious to political risk, calling into question the institutionalization of political risk by Chinese firms. Building on resource dependence theory and the literature on non-market strategies, this study finds significant impact by ownership structure, firm scale, and the degree of internationalization on the institutionalization of political risk assessments (IPRA) by Chinese firms. As such, state-owned firms and larger firms cultivate a higher level of IPRA. We find a positive impact of a firm’s scale and scope of internationalization, but insignificant impact of depth of internationalization.
Franchising research on emerging markets: Bibliometric and content analyses
Abstract This study reviews the franchising literature on emerging markets. We used the Bibliometrix R-package and VOSviewer software to perform a bibliometric analysis of 297 articles between 1989 and 2020 obtained from the Scopus database. We combined bibliometric coupling, historiographic citation, keyword co-occurrence, and conceptual thematic analysis, with a content analysis of the most cited articles based on total global and local citations. We identified two main research clusters: international franchising and social franchising. This article provides a deep understanding of the intellectual and conceptual structure of the academic field. It complements existing qualitative review…
Bibliometric analysis of absorptive capacity
Abstract This study contributes to our understanding of absorptive capacity (AC) by reviewing AC articles systematically using two types of blibliometric co-citation analysis – bibliometric co-citation and bibliometric cartography – for the last 25 years. In total, we analyzed 336 articles (using HistCite ) and 2088 articles (using VOSviewer ), respectively, finding five research streams in AC: (1) intra-organizational learning; (2) inter-organizational learning; (3) knowledge transfer; (4) dynamic capability; and (5) micro-foundations. This integrative literature review of AC adds to the categorization of the literature, links the international business research to AC, and provides promisi…
Cultural intelligence, global mindset, and cross-cultural competencies: a systematic review using bibliometric methods
We conducted a systematic review of 158 publications on Cultural Intelligence (CQ) and related concepts, Global Mindset (GM), and Crosscultural Competence (CC) using bibliometric methods. We apply citation analysis to highlight the most influential (in terms of citations) journals, publications, and specific researchers in the field. We apply factor and cluster analyses to analyse co-citations to identify the current knowledge structure in the research field. With content coding on the resulting groups of co-citations, we identify five research streams showing the overlap between the CQ, GM, and CC constructs, and also revealing the separations in the research on the constructs. We perform …
The choice of master international franchising – A modified transaction cost model
Abstract This study develops and tests a novel transaction cost model of master international franchising. Based on data from international franchise firms headquartered in six countries, we show that master international franchising is the franchisor’s preferred governance mode under the following conditions: large bilateral franchisor’s and franchisees’ transaction-specific investments, high institutional uncertainty and high behavioral uncertainty. Our model extends the literature by presenting a modified transaction cost model of master international franchising that investigates the bonding effect of bilateral transaction-specific investments and environmental uncertainty as determinan…
Greenfield or M&A? An institutional and learning perspective on the establishment mode choice of Chinese outward investments
Abstract We develop and test a model of Chinese greenfield investments using institutional and learning theories. Both the host country institutional context and the firm's international characteristics affect the establishment mode. Using 152 Chinese emerging market multinationals (EMNEs) with 401 subsidiaries distributed in 26 countries from 2003 to 2013, we build a database of 284 pairs of host country/Chinese firms to test two hypotheses. We find that, first, governance environment affects the establishment mode: greenfield investments are preferred over acquisitions in relation-based host markets, and M&As are preferred in rule-based countries. Second, the depth of Chinese EMNEs' inter…