Thunderbird International Business Review最新文献

The industrialized high-income economies of East Asia—Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan—are some of the most rapidly aging in the world. We examine the changing demographics of these economies and analyze how organizations can best manage the transition to a workforce that is rapidly aging and beginning to shrink. We synthesize from different sources an overview of the aging situation, explain how it affects businesses, and provide cases of organizations that have implemented human resource policies to make their workplaces more inclusive and supportive of older employees. Government efforts to promote active aging, family-friendly regulations, higher birth rates, and create more open immigration policies to attract talent are also briefly discussed. We point out some steps that organizations can take to better integrate older workers and provide insights for managers and policy makers to deal with emerging issues.

The current trend of digitalization, internationalization, and digital technology are the drivers of enabling new business opportunities that motivate multinational corporations (MNCs) to expand internationally and leverage digitalization in the changing international business ecosystem for enhancing international performance (IP). Many scholars have identified the factors that impact IP of MNCs, but the focus on digitalization is limited. Therefore, using the digitalization lens, this study aims to explore the critical factors (CFs) of MNCs' IP. This study utilizes modified-total interpretive structural modeling (m-TISM) and MICMAC analysis to develop a hierarchical model that outlines the relationship among identified CFs impacting IP of MNCs. A five-level hierarchical model is developed. The findings present that risk acceptance, international orientation, digital capability, institutional voids, and cultural distance experienced by MNCs are the driving factors that impact IP of MNCs. Using the internationalization and dynamic capability theory, this study enhances the understanding of dynamics between identified CFs of MNCs' IP. The proposed hierarchical model provides a structural framework that helps practitioners and researchers understand the interrelation among CFs of MNCs' IP and digitalization in the rapidly evolving landscape of international business.

In the current VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity) global environment, how Chinese manufacturing enterprises embedded in global value chains (GVCs) can enhance organizational resilience through governance is an important issue that urgently requires attention. This study adopts a configurational perspective, employing fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) and necessary condition analysis (NCA) to examine the pathways through which six antecedent conditions—spanning three dimensions: GVC structural governance, GVC managerial governance, and industry dynamism—affect organizational resilience. The results indicate that digital platform integration, digital platform reconfiguration, supplier integration, customer integration, technological dynamism, and market dynamism do not serve as necessary conditions for enhancing organizational resilience. The study identifies six distinct configurations that contribute to organizational resilience, revealing a “convergent” effect. These configurations can be classified into four categories: “structural-managerial governance synergy-driven,” “market dynamism-oriented,” “technological dynamism-oriented,” and “structural governance-driven.” Additionally, one configuration was found to result in lower organizational resilience, primarily due to ineffective coordination between GVC structural governance and managerial governance. These findings offer a deeper understanding of the complex interactions between various factors influencing organizational resilience, providing both theoretical insights and practical guidance for firms seeking to strengthen their organizational resilience.

This study analyzes how EMNEs respond to uncertainty types throughout internationalization, investigating how entry and post-entry modes change given several external sources of uncertainty. It relies on a process-based, embedded case study of an EMNE's internationalization process, using backward-looking data to analyze its entry and post-entry moves in other emerging markets. We found that the researched firm did not respond to an uncertainty type in isolation but considered multiple types of uncertainty during internationalization, doing so holistically. These uncertainties were categorized into foundational and supporting. Whereas the former is a baseline uncertainty, the latter is a moderating uncertainty. The association between foundational and supporting uncertainties and entry and post-entry moves in foreign markets originates three international paths. These results generate guidelines on how to internationalize in highly uncertain emerging markets.

Despite decades of research on SME export channel choice, we know little about the role played by managerial mindsets. Managerial mindsets are the cognitive mental models managers rely on for processing and evaluating information and making decisions. In this paper, we develop and test the notion that, in addition to the influence of transaction cost factors, the global mindset of top managers has a significant impact on the export channels that SMEs use. We also suggest that this relation is sensitive to the level of political instability in the target market since such instability increases risk and uncertainty. A multinomial regression analysis was used to analyze the responses of a sample of 208 Chinese SMEs. The results provide support for our ideas. In this way, we contribute to a better understanding of how managerial thinking can influence the strategic choices that are made and the boundary conditions that exist when SMEs expand abroad.

A fascinating insight we present in this research is what instigated the flow of outward FDI from emerging economies (EE) to developed nations by employing the O-L-I framework. Here, we offer the novelty of our research through earlier studies that only used the O-L-I framework to understand the genesis of FDI outflow from developed nations (DN) to developing/emerging economies. The mapping of investment patterns from EE materialized in 3-D (EE to DN, EE to EE, and DN to EE) by incorporating country-specific ownership, location, and internalization advantages. Twenty years of panel data have been used from nine countries. We used pooled OLS, random-effects, and fixed-effect models to understand the cause–effect relationship. Our findings exhibit that technological advancement, infrastructure, and economic stability are the major drivers for outward investment flow from one nation to another. In addition, patents and infrastructure can initiate the outward flow of FDI from emerging countries to developed countries.

Despite the extensive research on the causes and effects of corruption, there has been scant research on the effect of corruption on earnings management of firms operating in emerging economies under different legal systems. The present paper fills this research gap by investigating the influence of corruption on earnings management of firms operating in the BRICS nations, which are either under common or code law at prima facie. Further, we make a novel attempt to examine the moderating role of cash holdings and cash flow in explaining this association. Our data includes 329 nonfinancial listed firms with 1552 firm-year observations ranging from 2014 to 2021. Using system GMM approach, we find that higher corruption leads to higher earnings management in five emerging BRICS nations. We also gather that managers operating in highly corrupt countries tend to hold high cash levels, maintain a higher cash flow, and engage 3.5%–3.8% more in earnings management. Our results are robust to both the measures of earnings management (real-activity-based and accrual-based). Our findings have significant implications for executives and directors of firms if earnings management is considered illegal in any of these countries and such law is enforced. In addition, our study would share important insights to the external stakeholders, such as investors, policymakers, and regulators.