Search results for "CORPORATION"
showing 10 items of 214 documents
Introduction: The Challenges of Defining and Studying Contemporary Entrepreneurship
2011
Entrepreneurship is a broad and complex concept, and is an important contributor to the economic prospects of companies, sectors, and entire nations. To a casual observer, entrepreneurship is most closely associated with smalland medium-sized enterprises, yet it plays a vital role, either directly or indirectly, in the sustainability of organizations of all sizes and types, private or public, national or multinational. The entrepreneur and the entrepreneurial process are critical to creating new economic activity—boosting innovation, wealth, growth, and employment. It strengthens competition between developed economies and supports social welfare within developing countries. There has been …
Overcoming the liability of foreignness – A new perspective on Chinese MNCs
2021
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…
Corporate lobbying: Role perceptions and perceived influence on political decisions of public affairs professionals
2021
Abstract This study aims to provide insight into public affairs professionals’ role conceptions and perceived influence on political decision making. We conducted a quantitative online survey with 238 corporate public affairs professionals in Germany who worked either “in-house” at a corporation, for an industry association, or in a public affairs consultancy firm. Based on their main stakeholder orientation (clients, political actors, or society) and primary objectives (mediator, expert, or advocate), a cluster analysis categorized the professionals into four main roles: persuaders, advisors, coordinators, and mediators. Although acting in line with ethical norms and being transparent abou…
Subsidiary-specific advantages for inter-regional expansion: The role of intermediate units
2018
Abstract This paper explores the distinctive deployment of resources and capabilities by subsidiaries in order to develop an intermediate role within the MNC. Based on the regional management perspective, we focus on a specific intermediate role—the springboard subsidiary—that helps overcome the liability of inter-regional foreignness. Our results, which are based on a dataset covering 188 subsidiaries, show that the probability of taking on this role is contingent upon experiential knowledge about the target region, as well as a rich knowledge base derived from a wide range of activities and a broad geographical scope. Our findings also show that possession of slack resources does not nece…
Knowledge sharing and subsidiary R&D mandate development: A matter of dual embeddedness
2014
Sharing knowledge across borders has proven to be especially relevant to multinational corporations (MNCs). Foreign subsidiaries have become active players in these knowledge flows. However, the network effects of interacting with multiple agents on the evolution of the R&D role played by subsidiaries are still undeveloped. The present study focuses on changes in subsidiary capabilities and on the dynamic mechanisms by which their R&D role might evolve, especially, as a consequence of their interaction with a variety of knowledge networks. We examine this issue by conducting four longitudinal case studies of subsidiaries operating in Spain. Using an inductive approach to theory building, we…
When are international managers a cost effective solution? The rationale of transaction cost economics applied to staffing decisions in MNCs
2005
Abstract A common claim in the literature of expatriation is the one referring to the high costs of expatriation. In this paper, on the basis of transaction cost economics (TCE), we show how limited this approach is. In particular, we consider a set of costs that, although ignored in traditional expatriation literature, must be accounted for when a MNC is deciding on whether to recruit expatriates or local managers in its subsidiaries. These costs include selection, training, and performance evaluation costs. We also formulate a series of hypotheses around the situations in which the total costs of recruiting expatriates are lower than those generated by local managers. We then test these h…
Intermediate units in multinational corporations: A resource dependency view on coordinative versus entrepreneurial roles
2021
Abstract Due to the dispersion of headquarters’ activities across organizational and geographical boundaries, intermediate units (IUs) are emerging as a key actor of international business. IUs are intermediate structural layers between headquarters (HQ) and local subsidiaries with specific HQ responsibilities. Our study relies on original data of 67 IUs and, taking on a Resource Dependence approach, explores empirically the two HQ roles attributed to IUs: coordinative versus entrepreneurial. According to our results, the main differences between both roles relate to external network embeddedness, internal network position and autonomy. We argue that these differences arise from the dominan…
Innovating across boundaries: A portfolio perspective on innovation partnerships of multinational corporations
2016
Abstract This paper examines how and under what conditions alliance portfolio diversity influences a firm's innovative performance, with special attention being given to potential performance differences between multinational corporations (MNCs) and domestic firms. Analyses of data from 1045 German firms, among which 598 MNCs, revealed an inverted U-shaped relationship between alliance portfolio diversity and MNCs’ innovative performance. Findings also indicate MNCs to be better positioned than their domestic counterparts with regards to translating alliance portfolio diversity into superior innovative performance. Importantly though, this only holds for MNCs equipped with strong internal R…
Photoelectrochemical evidence of inhomogeneous composition at nm length scale of anodic films on valve metals alloys
2016
Abstract Anodic films of different thickness (∼30 nm and 70 nm) were grown by anodizing sputtering-deposited Ta-19at% Al to different formation voltages. N incorporation into the anodic films was inducing by performing the anodizing process in ammonium containing solutions. Layered anodic films were prepared by a double formation procedure with a first anodizing step in ammonium biborate solution and second anodizing step in borate buffer solution, or vice versa. Glow Discharge Optical Emission Spectroscopy was employed to show the distribution of N across the oxide. Photoelectrochemical measurements evidenced a red shift of the light absorption threshold due to N incorporation. A model was…
Dopant radial inhomogeneity in Mg-doped GaN nanowires
2018
International audience; Using atom probe tomography, it is demonstrated that Mg doping of GaN nanowires grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy results in a marked radial inhomogeneity, namely a higher Mg content in the periphery of the nanowires. This spatial inhomogeneity is attributed to a preferential incorporation of Mg through the m-plane sidewalls of nanowires and is related to the formation of a Mg-rich surface which is stabilized by hydrogen. This is further supported by Raman spectroscopy experiments which give evidence of Mg-H complexes in the doped nanowires. A Mg doping mechanism such as this, specific to nanowires, may lead to higher levels of Mg doping than in layers, boosting the po…