Journal of International Management最新文献

This study explores the effect of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) on entrepreneurship productivity, which reflects the quality of entrepreneurship and is measured through the ratio of opportunity-to-necessity entrepreneurship, in emerging markets. Using data across 67 emerging markets during 2002 and 2018, we find that inward FDI has a positive effect on entrepreneurship productivity and this effect is positively moderated by both financial market efficiency and labor market flexibility. However, these effects are not found in developed economies. This study not only enriches our knowledge of the antecedents of entrepreneurship productivity and the value of inward FDI, but also helps explain why some emerging markets benefit to a greater extent from inward FDI than others. Moreover, it provides guidance for emerging market governments taking advantage of inward FDI to improve entrepreneurship productivity.

Business ecosystem participants face a significant challenge in navigating the dynamic environment due to high levels of interdependencies. Integrating dynamic capabilities theory and the business ecosystem perspective, we examine how business ecosystem participants increase performance in such an environment. Using longitudinal data from the Brazilian automotive cluster, we find that a higher degree of modularity and supplier involvement both lead to improved performance of business ecosystem participants. Moreover, we show that strategic agility acts as a mediator, positively influencing the indirect relationships between modularity and performance, as well as supplier involvement and performance. These indirect relationships are further moderated by the digitalization level. This research contributes to the business ecosystem literature by demonstrating that agility and digitalization are important drivers of business ecosystem participants' performance.

In response to the fast growing number of African returnees and the important roles that they play in transferring international knowledge back to the African continent, this qualitative, exploratory study unpacks the role of African returnees in delivering international knowledge obtained from another social context of the Global South through their work and/or study experience, and identifies social factors that facilitate or hinder international knowledge transfer from a social capital perspective. Drawing on qualitative interview data collected from 20 Ghanaian returnees plus an expert interview, observation notes and archival data, we develop an enhanced social capital model in the Global South context. Our model strengthens the understanding of the role of diaspora in international knowledge transfer in general, and that of African returnees in knowledge transfer in the Global South in particular. Specifically, this study offers insights on the interconnections among the three dimensions of social structure (i.e., market relations, social relations and hierarchical relations), African returnees' relations in their social structure, the sources of social capital derived from social relations through opportunity, motivations and ability, and the value created for successful knowledge transfer as a result of the integrative effects of returnees' social capital.

This study aims to identify the factors influencing the reverse knowledge transfer (RKT) of local market information from overseas subsidiaries to their multinational enterprise (MNE) headquarters. For this objective, this study uses both knowledge transfer capacity and relational capital as overarching theoretical concepts. Survey data are collected from Chinese MNEs operating in Africa, which is often referred to as an unknown ‘blue ocean’ economy. Results show that the components (i.e., knowledge development capabilities and possession of prior relevant knowledge) of knowledge transfer capacity increase relational capital. Specifically, knowledge development capabilities highly facilitate the overseas subsidiaries' RKT, and relational capital functions as a vehicle promoting such phenomenon. Findings can provide valuable theoretical contributions and practical implications to MNEs intending to enter ‘blue ocean’ markets.

This study examines the influence of acquiring firm CEOs' psychological attributes on the geographic distance of target firms in cross-border acquisitions. Drawing on the regulatory focus theory, we argue that CEOs with a higher dispositional prevention focus are more vigilant and loss-aversive, avoiding target firms at a greater geographic distance in cross-border acquisitions. Furthermore, building on the concept of regulatory misfit, we examine the moderating effect of acquiring firm CEOs' context-specific experience and the munificence of acquiring firms' industries in priming the dispositional prevention focus. In a sample of 218 cross-border acquisitions by public firms from the United Kingdom from 2006 to 2014, we find support for our hypotheses. This study emphasizes the role of micro-foundations in cross-border acquisitions and deepens the understanding of cross-border acquisition location choice decisions.

Organizational paradox has received substantial scholarly attention; however, the literature has not yet explored the idea that it can be ingrained and manifested as an international organizational culture. In this study, we conceptually explore and empirically examine paradoxical organizational culture and its impact on international firm performance. In this vein, this study advances our knowledge of international organizational culture by extending paradox theory. We propose a “paradoxical organizational culture” as a type of international organizational culture characterized by the sustained and visible coexistence of contradictory cultural features within an international organization. We also argue that the effectiveness of paradoxical organizational culture is amplified, not dampened, by authoritarian leadership. Quantitative analyses based on cluster groups were used to examine the relationships among paradoxical culture, leadership, and firm performance. The empirical results, based on original survey data collected from China (2256 individual respondents from 394 Chinese international firms), support our claims. Our study is expected to provide implications for those interested in the concepts of paradoxical organizational culture and authoritarian leadership in the international business context.

This article is set to examine the effects of foreign market conditions – i.e. foreign market customer demandingness and foreign market stakeholder engagement – on business model innovation of emerging market international businesses (EMIBs) during the COVID-19 pandemic. First, it examines the impact of foreign market customer demandingness and foreign market stakeholder engagement on business model innovation of EMIBs. Second, it tests the moderating roles of international marketing agility and entrepreneurial bricolage on these relationships and third, it looks into the (direct and indirect) impact of business model innovation on EMIBs' international performance. We use the COVID-19 pandemic as a context and the dynamic capabilities view to formulate and test our hypotheses using longitudinal survey data between March and December 2020, on 211 Vietnamese manufacturing businesses engaged in cross-border activities. The results provide robust empirical support for all our hypotheses. Our findings suggest that foreign customer demandingness and foreign market stakeholder engagement can determine the adoption of new business models by EMIBs'. We also provide evidence on the mediating role of EMIBs' business model innovation in the relationship between foreign market conditions and international performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, while international marketing agility can moderate positively the relationship between local market exposure and business model innovation by international businesses, entrepreneurial bricolage was found to moderate negatively this relationship. Our findings have important theoretical and practical implications for both international businesses and EMIBs.

While research on born-global firms has been subject to broad review, little is known about their dynamic capabilities and the connection of these firms with ambidexterity. To fill this void, we critically examine the extant dynamic capabilities and ambidexterity in born-global firms research from 1996 to 2022. We systematically review 74 articles interconnected with the accumulated but fragmented knowledge on this theme and chart important shortcomings in the existing research. To focus future academic debate and discussion, we therefore propose an integrated conceptual framework that merges this dispersed body of literature, which comprises four core and interconnected themes – knowledge and internationalisation, entrepreneurial orientation, strategy and performance, web resources, and innovation, capabilities and ambidexterity. In doing so, we uncover the role played by dynamic capabilities and the importance of ambidexterity in the adoption, modification or reconfiguration of born-global firm resources. Our review also reveals future research paths hereby identified to support and guide academics and researchers seeking new fields of study and correspondingly demonstrates the need to deepen studies approaching the dynamic capabilities and ambidexterity in these companies.

Recent studies on ‘Africa Rising’ and ‘Africa-to-Africa Internationalization’ have propelled conversations on how African Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) can continue to internationalize within African countries. From the tenets of the institutional theory and the dynamic capabilities perspectives, this study proposes and tests a framework of how and when dysfunctional competition drives SMEs' outward foreign direct investments within African countries. Analysis of a survey data from 196 Ghanaian SMEs operating across the African continent indicates that cross-border open innovation mediates the relationship between dysfunctional competition and SMEs' intra- Africa OFDI activities. Further analysis revealed that SMEs' strategic agility plays a double-edged sword moderating role in enhancing the effects of dysfunctional competitions and cross-border open innovation on intra-Africa OFDI. These findings have significant implications for the international business and finance literature as well as the management and growth of African SMEs.

The paper investigates the role of financial and social remittances in promoting new business creation in migrants' home countries. By considering a panel of 143 countries during the period 2006–2018, we propose a way to operationalize the complex definition of social remittances and show that both financial and social remittances are positively correlated with the decision to create new firms, even though the effects of financial remittances crucially depend on the level of social remittances. This non-linear relationship points to the fact that countries with better institutions are likely to generate more intense flows of social remittances. However, they also allow for faster socio-economic integration of migrants and may weaken diasporas' interest and direct financial engagement in entrepreneurial projects in the country of origin. Results obtained on the entire sample are confirmed when looking at the two subsamples of developing and non-OECD countries, respectively.