Journal of International Management最新文献

Global offshoring has become a key strategy for international staffing, especially in the software industry. Global software teams engage in boundary spanning activities that may help MNEs achieve international connectivity and cope with external disruptions through their use of virtual work. However, offshoring IT professionals who bridge these boundaries in offshoring MNEs must contend with discontinuities, or perceived disruptions in expected communication flows, which impact their job satisfaction. Drawing on survey data from 193 professional consultants from an IT services offshoring MNE located primarily in Eastern Europe and working for a U.S. client, we test a model grounded in Organizational Discontinuity Theory. We find that potential discontinuities arising from the virtual work environment have no impact on the job satisfaction of offshoring IT professionals, but that those who experience team-level continuities of identification and shared vision are more satisfied with their jobs. Our findings suggest that virtual work may have become normalized such that it is not problematic in and of itself, and that fostering connectivity in boundary spanning global teams may be beneficial for MNEs. Our findings have important implications for MNEs managing disruptions created by global work arrangements as well as exogenous disruptions.

This study investigates how firms' awareness of environmental sustainability affects the revision of their internationalization strategies. Combining Stakeholder and Signalling theories, we argue that firms concerned with environmental sustainability have a higher propensity to return to their home country when confronted with the need to relocate foreign manufacturing subsidiaries, in order to match Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) stakeholder expectations and enhance the effectiveness of sustainable disclosure endeavours. We also argue that the home country's environmental policy stringency, reflecting a stronger pressure by stakeholders and a higher need for effective signals, positively moderates the relationship between the firm environmental sustainability concern and the likelihood to move back home. The empirical analysis conducted on a sample of 150 relocations performed across European nations in 2002–2016 reveals that MNEs signalling their CSR are more likely to backshore only in case of rigid environmental laws, which are perceived as an opportunity to align with CSR stakeholder expectations and to amplify the benefits of disclosing the shortening of their global value chain.

Firms from the energy sector are being pressed to increase their orientation towards climate change mitigation so that the Paris Agreement goals are met. Consequently, this sector is currently experiencing a substantial restructuring, which encompasses divestment strategies. We argue that both learning and commitment are important variables in understanding this phenomenon. Hence, we draw on the Uppsala model to propose three sets of hypotheses based on cultural, political, and economic distances, the liability of outsidership, and commitment to understanding how impediments to learning and resource commitment affect divestment events. We tested them by using Cox proportional hazard models with longitudinal data. Our sample consisted of Oil&Gas licenses from Brazil from 1999 to 2020. Our main findings point out that economic distance is the most important determinant for divestments. Cultural distance only influences unintended divestments, while political distance is not significant. We also found that insidership matters, as it is negatively associated with unintended divestments, while it is positively related to intended divestments. Lastly, we found that commitment reductions increase the likelihood of full divestments. While traditionally Uppsala model has been applied to explain the evolution of international investments, our study showcases its functionality to provide a nuanced explanation of MNE divestment decisions considering intended and unintended divestment modes.

Global value creation (GVC) by a multinational enterprise (MNE) is an important aspect for maintaining global competitiveness. A firm's dynamic capabilities enable it to integrate, build, and reconfigure internal and external resources and competencies to address and meet customer demands in a rapidly changing business environment in a globalized world. Maintaining an MNE's competitiveness is also important. There are few studies on the MNE dynamic abilities and their influence on GVC strategy. In this context, the aim of this study is to identify the factors impacting global value creation capability of MNEs and to investigate how it could impact global competitive advantage, with financial investment and technology adoption as moderators. A research model was prepared through the lens of dynamic capability view (DCV) and based on literature. It was later validated with CB-SEM using 317 respondents from 12 MNEs. This study has found that knowledge acquisition, knowledge integration, and knowledge connectivity capabilities impact global value creation capability of the MNEs, which in turn impacts global competitive advantage under the influence of financial investment and technology adoption as moderators.

This paper extends language-sensitive research in international management by shedding light on the role of language skills in the integration and employment of refugees. We approach refugees as agents whose actions are shaped by their own habits, imagination, judgment and motivations, even while severely constrained by external forces. We explore how refugees perceive the role of language skills as a part of their employment and integration, and how these perceptions are aligned with and influenced by linguistic practices and expectations in the receiving context. Our analysis in the empirical context of Finland uncovers important variations in how refugees make sense of the role of language in their integration trajectories, especially the role of English versus local language skills. This is noteworthy given the strong current emphasis on local language skills as critical for refugees' employment and societal integration. Our findings suggest more differentiated treatment and improved advisory services as effective strategies to improve refugee labor market integration.

Researchers in the social sciences have increasingly employed nighttime lights (NTL) data to examine a variety of questions relating to various political, social and natural risks associated with economic sanctions, conflicts, natural disasters, climate change, poverty and inequality. These same issues have emerged in the international business (IB) literature, but IB researchers have not yet used NTL data. We propose that NTL data provide unique benefits to IB researchers when they study countries where national data are not reliable and/or subnational locations where detailed spatial data does not exist. In this perspective paper, we introduce the NTL data and the social science literature that uses them. We suggest that these studies point to possible uses of NTL by international business scholars who examine political, social, and natural risks.

Due to their direct and indirect network effects, platform firms play a significant role in the global economy. These firms have disrupted the innovation value chain by creating and capturing value from the scaling up of their business activities. Despite the role they play in disruptive innovation, we know relatively little about the ways in which platform firms engage with their institutional and other stakeholders through non-market corporate political activities and social strategies. This special issue on ‘non-market strategies and disruptive innovation in the platform economy’ aims to contribute to the current literature which has examined the rise of platform firms and their value creation. It also intends to capture drivers of value creation by drawing insights from the non-market strategies literature developed in the context of traditional firms. This introductory article and the papers included in this special issue provide important insights into non-market strategies and platform firms, and highlight potential topics suited for future research.

Managing pandemics is an enduring societal problem because major health emergencies have historically led to substantial changes and developments. While extant research has examined cultural and institutional factors that have influenced how governments have responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been far less exploration of the factors associated with differences in the provision of preventative collective services, such as building health security capacities. This article examines the contingency impact of national culture on the association between a country's economic development and its pandemic preparedness. Methodically, the study uses a moderated Bayesian inference analysis, which is a machine learning technique that has been called for in international business research. Unlike traditional frequentist linear regression analysis, which aims to identify a single set of best-fit coefficients for a specified set of variables, Bayesian regression analysis generates posterior distributions of coefficients based on priors for an average of multiple potential models using the Markov Chain Monte Carlo technique. The use of moderated Bayesian inference analysis provides a novel approach to analyzing complex data in international business research. The study's findings can support governments in their resource allocation and policy development to address shortcomings in their preparedness for infectious disease outbreaks.

This paper aims to explore transnational entrepreneurship, with a particular focus on the processes of exploring and exploiting opportunities across borders for female entrepreneurs in the modest fashion industry. Modest fashion (MF) -conservative and non-revealing clothing- provides an understudied and relevant research context in which it is possible to analyse the role of transnational communities and their culture, in addition to the role of religious values, in entrepreneurship and –more specifically- in female entrepreneurship. The study is based on multiple case studies of female transnational entrepreneurs (FTEs) in the modest fashion industry, using an exploratory and grounded research methodology. The findings illustrate that FTEs cope with their multi-layered identities and transform them into entrepreneurial opportunities. They leverage their transnational family and transnational community for international opportunities' exploration and exploitation, while they leverage the emergent transnational MF ecosystem for international opportunities' exploitation. This study contributes to studies on international entrepreneurship and, more specifically, sheds light on a less explored case of transnational entrepreneurship. For instance, it underlines the role of religious values in the process of transnational entrepreneurship, from the opportunity perspective. It also responds to recent calls for research in contextualising entrepreneurship by highlighting the role of cultural and gender variables in exploring and exploiting international opportunities across borders.

Global value chains (GVCs) have increased in importance and prominence within international scholarly literature over the last several years, with substantial contributions in the domains of international business, management, and corporate responsibility. The significance of GVC has been particularly highlighted over the past few years due to business interruptions and contextual turbulence (Covid pandemic, political, military, and socio-economic). Despite the growing attention of scholars and practitioners, relevant scientific research remains inconsistent, incomplete, and dispersed. In response, the present study is the first to comprehensively encapsulate the current state of research on GVCs through the lens of corporate sustainability by conducting a systematic review of all pertinently focused, peer-reviewed academic papers. This study defines and refines the association between sustainability standards, policies, and GVCs within an international business context. It also synthesizes the findings utilizing a multi-theoretical and multi-disciplinary framework to conclusively present avenues for future research and practical executive implications for international businesses, GVCs accounting, and business performance.