Journal of World Business最新文献

Over the past decade, a consensus has crystallized recognizing the significance of family firm internationalization in international business (IB) research. This recognition comes with substantial opportunities, yet it also presents challenges, such as the pressing need for a more cohesive integration of the family business and IB domains. In this article, we (re)emphasize the relevance of family firm internationalization for IB research considering three IB grand challenges and two important aspects of internationalization where family firms can particularly contribute. We also propose several theoretical and methodological avenues for future studies to help further increase the understanding of family firm internationalization and of IB theories. Finally, we provide an overview of the core insights from the articles included in the related special issue and develop integrative conclusions about the research.

We compare migrant professionals’ experiences of language-based discrimination across physical and virtual spaces. The minority status of these professionals stems from their foreign origin and lack of proficiency in the local language of their new country of residence. We conducted a case study of a multinational corporation after a shift to remote work triggered by COVID-19. Our findings indicate that while language-based discrimination takes more interpersonal and overt forms in physical spaces, it becomes more organizational and subtle in virtual spaces. We shed light on how technology dependency and dispersion affect the forms and experiences of language-based discrimination in different spaces. Our contribution lies in defining language-based discrimination as a construct of modern discrimination, which has received scant attention in previous research.

Organizational unlearning occurs when organizations cast-off knowledge, beliefs, or routines. A key assumption is that the discarded information inhibits organizational performance. This view ignores the possibility that organizations may intentionally unlearn practices that are useful for some stakeholders. Using qualitative methods over eight years, we studied the processes by which a subsidiary of a French multinational company (MNC) unlearned diversity management when it was sold to a Polish state owner. This case enables us to understand the processes by which organizations unlearn, the power of the institutional environment in shaping the abandonment of diversity management, once a subsidiary changes ownership.

The purpose of this editorial, and the special issue, is to initiate a dialogue about the role of time in international business (IB) scholarship. While time is inherent in IB phenomena, it has, to date, received limited attention in IB research and theorizing. When IB scholars do account for time, they generally adhere to assumptions representing time as linear and objective. We discuss the importance of time in the philosophical, conceptual, and methodological domains of IB, defining each of these three interconnected domains, problematizing their dominant assumptions about time, and suggesting potential avenues for rethinking time in IB.

Existing empirical studies of cross-border acquisition completion by emerging market multinational enterprises remain highly contextual, yielding inconsistent evidence regarding the determinants of deal success or failure. We apply machine learning to expose underlying complexities. The learning results of LightGBM, from data on 24,693 cross-border acquisition deals involving 29 emerging countries, unveil a comprehensive picture of the relative importance and impact patterns of 59 predictors that were fragmentally, inconsistently, or not at all presented in the extant literature. Our findings offer fresh insights into the deal completion of cross-border acquisitions by emerging market multinational enterprises, suggesting novel future research priorities.

Firms from countries with weak corporate governance institutions tend to face liability of origin when they conduct cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As). We argue that they can overcome such challenges through hiring foreign independent directors (FIDs) as it can signal their commitments and efforts to align with international corporate governance standards. Based on a sample of Chinese listed firms between 2004 and 2017, we find that the FIDs have a positive impact on the likelihood of achieving cross-border M&As. Our mechanism tests show that FIDs could indeed facilitate firms' cross-border M&As through enhancing corporate governance practices as reflected by the adoption of Big 4 auditors and lower analyst forecasting errors. Moreover, the positive impact of FIDs is stronger for firms with higher state ownership, but weaker for firms with higher foreign ownership. Our findings are robust across a set of additional analyses.

Using socioemotional wealth, this study advances our understanding of the various internationalization strategies family businesses adopt by exploring the governance and resource configurations that exist when family firms pursue distinct internationalization strategies. Using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (FsQCA) on a sample of 775 Colombian family firms, our findings reveal a distinct set of resource and governance configurations that are present when family firms engage in less risky internationalization strategies such as exports, or in more risky internationalization strategies such as foreign direct investments (FDIs). The paper concludes with a discussion of theoretical and practical implications.

Much research on family business internationalization centers on the firm but is inattentive to the family behind the firm. We examine how business families internationalize from unstable and fragile institutions. Based on a qualitative multi-case study, we theorize business families as institutional arbitrageurs who facilitate international transactions between incompatible institutional contexts to create and preserve value in international markets while adapting to the unstable and fragile home institutional environment. Our findings suggest a three-stage internationalization process representing a cumulative and varied pattern of arbitrage practices at the level of the enterprise, extended family, and individual family members. Thus, we theorize the unique aspects of the family as a hypermobile international structure with international interests, relationships, and presence. Our findings also highlight the role of individual family members during internationalization. Our study contributes to the literature on business family internationalization and institutional arbitrage.

In a fast-changing world, strategic decisions to exit a foreign market become more complex for family firms, owing to their vulnerability to uncertainty in internationalization. However, there is scant research on family firms’ foreign market exit with respect to their responses to contextual influences from home and host countries. This study reconciles the socioemotional wealth (SEW) perspective and the friction lens to address this gap. Using a sample of 1,455 subsidiaries established by 413 Chinese family firms in 2009-2018, we find that historical military friction increases family firms’ foreign market exit, while cultural friction leads to a lower exit propensity. We also find that family management reinforces the friction-exit relationships, and this effect is strengthened when the family firm is controlled by the first generation. Our theory and related findings deepen our understanding of the foreign market exit decision of family firms while offering important theoretical and managerial implications.

This study investigated how the liability of outsidership affects emerging-market multinationals. We argue that besides lack of access to local networks, lack of access to leadership positions in global value chain networks is another possible source of the liability of outsidership, and it affects emerging market firms more than multinationals from developed countries. Accordingly, multinationals from emerging markets are more likely than those from developed countries to exit from a foreign market in which they had invested. Allying with technology partners and developed-country non-technology partners could help EMNEs overcome the LOO. Those findings are based on a study of mobile money services provided by multinationals from both emerging markets and developed countries during the period 2001–2022.