New Perspectives in IB Research. Culture, Governance, Entrepreneurship and International Expansion.
Volume 3, Progress in International Business Research Series EIBA, Emerald Publishing Ltd, London 2008
Maryann P. Feldmann and Grazia D. Santangelo (eds.)
Contents of the book
- New Perspectives in IB Research
by Maryann P. Feldman, University of North Carolina and Grazia D. Santangelo, University of Catania
MANAGING CULTURAL DIFFERENCES ACROSS COUNTRIES
- Headquarters-subsidiary Relationships and the Country-of-origin Effect
by Anne-Wil Harzing, University of Melbourne and Niels Noorderhaven, Tilburg University
- An Exploratory Study of Cultural Differences and Perceptions of Relational Risk
by Susana Costa e Silva, Universidade Católica Portuguesa and Luciara Nardon, Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School
- Drivers of Interpersonal and Inter-unit Trust in Multinational Corporations
by Kristiina Mäkelä, Wilhelm Barner-Rasmussen & Ingmar Björkman, Hanken Swedish School of Economics and Business Administration
GOVERNANCE
- Normative Control in MNEs: A Micro-political Conflict Perspective
by Susanne Blazejewski, European University Viadrina
- Exploring Antecedents of Relationship Commitment in an Import-Export Dyad
by Diana Debora Welch & Abraham Carmeli, Bar-Ilan University
- Constructing Jurisdictional Advantage
by Maryann Feldman, University of North Carolina & Roger Martin, University of Toronto
THE GENESIS OF INTERNATIONAL ENTERPRENEURS
- Comparative International Entrepreneurship: The Software Industry in the Indian Sub-Continent
by Shameen Prashantham, University of Glasgow, Amer Qureshi, Q Consulting and Training & Stephen Young, University of Glasgow
- Reinterpreting a ‘Prime Example’ of a Born Global: Cochlear’s International Launch
by Lisa Hewerdine, University of Adelaide & Catherine Welch, University of Sydney
- Myths in Microfinance
by Roy Mersland, University of Agder & Oystein Strom, Ostfold University College
TECHNOLOGY AND INERNATIONAL EXPANSION
- R&D and Foreign Direct Investment with Asymmetries in Knowledge Transmission
by Maria Luisa Petit, Francesca Sanna Randaccio, & Roberta Sestini, University of Rome "La Sapienza"
- FDI and Spillovers in the Swiss Manufacturing Industry: Interaction Effects between Spillover Mechanisms and Domestic Absorptive Capacities
by Lamia Ben Hamida & Philippe Gugler, University of Fribourg and World Trade Institute Berne
- Market and Technology Access in European Firm Acquisitions: Beyond One Size Fits All
by Christoph Grimpe & Katrin Hussinger, University of Maastricht, Catholic University of Leuven and Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW)
Aim of the volume
This third volume in the Annual book Series of EIBA is the outcome of the 33rd European International Business Academy (EIBA) conference held at the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Catania (Italy). The conference brought together about 300 scholars from around the world to discuss theoretical and empirical issues in international business (IB), as well as their consequences and challenges to IB scholars and policy-makers. Organized around 10 thematic tracks, the conference is the annual forum for discussing major research issues in the IB realm. The volume is a collection of the best papers, which, selected through a blind refereeing process for presentation at the conference, make significant contributions by providing fresh new perspectives on a variety of relevant topics.
After thirty-three years, the IB field is maturing to consider new issues related to culture, governance and entrepreneurship. Besides the traditional topics of multinationals’ investment decisions and FDI spillovers, this collection of papers mirrors the recent evolution in the field by considering cultural differences in headquarter-subsidiaries relationships, perception differences of relational risk, and determinants of trust in interpersonal and inter-unit relationships. In addition, the governance of relationships within firms as in conflicts between parent-subsidiaries, between firms as in import-export dyads, and within locations as concerned the construction of jurisdictional advantage. Also considered are the genesis of international entrepreneurs in the context of the software industry in India, the related debate on the definition of ‘born global’ firms and the controversies about the efficacy of microfinance to support third world development.
Although these are just a few of the new perspectives rising within the IB realm, these chapters were selected to provide a coherent collection that demonstrates the vitality of research conducting in the field, IB’s responsiveness to new emerging topics in related areas and the fruitful incorporation of new ideas.
Volume organization
The edited volume is organized in four main parts. The first addressing the Management of Cultural Differences across Countries, the second dealing with questions about the Governance of multinationals and places, the third part focusing on the Genesis of International Entrepreneurs and the fourth on Technology and International Expansion.
The first section, Managing Cultural Differences Across Countries, has three chapters that address the lasting effects of country of origin influences on the transfer of organizational practices, the cultural perceptions of relational risk and the determinants of trust, at both the individual and organizational unit. In Chapter 2, the headquarter subsidiary relationship is examined, more specifically the effects of the country of origin on the transfer of management practices. The fact that multinational corporations are rooted in a cultural context that is specific to their countries of origin is often ignored. For example, U.S. multinationals will have a different cultural orientation than UK, German or Japanese multinationals and this will affect their relationships with subsidiaries. Chapter 3 contends that an important component of cultural differences relates to receptions of risk. In this chapter the role of cultural differences and perception of relational risk in foreign partnerships are studied, based on an exploratory study of Portuguese managers doing business internationally. Chapter 4 analyses trust in multinational corporations, and examins the drivers at both the interpersonal and inter-unit level.
Governance is the focus of the second part of the volume. An actor-centred conflict perspective is proposed in Chapter 5 which accounts for corporate coordination instruments as well as individual actors’ reactions on the local level of the MNE subsidiaries. The governance of firms market relationships is investigated in Chapter 6 and explores high-quality relationships, manifested by trust, respectful engagement and vitality, augment relationship commitment between importer and exporter.. The presence of product substitutes also seems to have a significant impact on relationship commitment. Chapter 7 aims to advance economic development theory through the concept of jurisdictional advantage by demonstrating how places might strategically position themselves to gain economic advantage and then considering how this place-specific advantage might be constructed.
The third part of the volume deals with the Genesis of International Entrepreneurs. In Chapter 8, it is attempted to extend the understanding of the ‘international’ dimension of comparative international entrepreneurship within a global industry viz. the software industry. More specifically, the chapter focuses on two local ecologies, namely a regional agglomeration (Bangalore, India) and less developed (and known) niche (Lahore, Pakistan). In Chapter 9 the case of Cochlear (an Australian company that produces hearing implants for the deaf), is re-examined, challenging the classification of the firm as ‘a prime example of a company that was “born global”. In Chapter 10, in which the myths about microfinance are disentangled, it is concluded that microfinance – the provision of financial services to the poor – is a viable business model.
In the fourth part of the volume, Technology and International Expansion are investigated. More specifically, the first two chapters deal with the issue of spillovers and absorptive capacity within the context of FDI inflows. In Chapter 11it is studied how the firms’ R&D investment decisions are affected by asymmetries in knowledge transmission, taking into account different sources of asymmetry such as unequal know-how management capabilities and spillovers localization within an international oligopoly. In Chapter 12 the intra-industry spillover effects from inward FDI in Swiss manufacturing firms are analyzed by accounting for the mechanisms by which spillovers occur (viz. the increase of competition, demonstration effects, and worker mobility), and the interaction between such mechanisms and the levels of domestic absorptive capacity. Motivations of external corporate expansion are addressed in Chapter 13, where it is shown how the importance of different takeover motivations changes along the deal value distribution.
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