Journal of World Business最新文献

While research on the cross-cultural experience of entrepreneurs has demonstrated that exposure to diverse cultures is beneficial for new venture growth, it has neglected the performance implications of entrepreneurs’ cross-cultural experience at the ecosystem level. This study endeavors to explore the micro-macro link between cross-cultural entrepreneurs and the performance of entrepreneurial ecosystems in which they are embedded. Building on the dynamic capability perspective, we argue that entrepreneurial ecosystem orchestrators can leverage entrepreneurs’ cross-cultural experiences to develop ecosystem dynamic capabilities and consequently improve entrepreneurial ecosystem performance. Based on multi-wave survey data of 2,981 business incubators in China, our findings show that cross-cultural entrepreneurs are positively associated with entrepreneurial ecosystem performance via increased ecosystem innovation. Moreover, the integrative capability of ecosystem orchestrators moderates the relationship between cross-cultural entrepreneurs and ecosystem innovation. Our findings contribute to the literature on cross-cultural experience by extending it to the ecosystem level and inject fresh insights into the dynamic capability literature by uncovering the formation process of ecosystem dynamic capabilities.

Natural disasters pose significant threats to MNEs and their subsidiaries. We evaluate the impact and temporal significance of unsystematic disasters on MNE governance decisions. Focusing on JVs and drawing upon new internalization theory, we assess the significance of parent-subsidiary characteristics and experience after a disaster. Our dataset encompasses 7,938 disaster events across 132 countries affecting 5,375 Japanese MNEs and 20,053 subsidiaries over 26 years. We demonstrate the negative impact of disasters on JV survival and observe acquisition (exit) following a disaster based on higher (lower) levels of asset specificity, relative importance, and country and disaster specific experience.

This study examines the process and mechanisms of realized international scaling of born-digital firms through the business model lens. In an explorative multiple-case study of Finnish firms in cultural industries, it finds that born-digital firms adapt their business models through an iterative process to achieve practically scaled operations. The research unpacks the mechanisms guiding the process of business model adaptation and highlights the role of dynamic capabilities in their employment. The findings extend existing theorizing on scaling by offering a conceptualization of realized international digital scaling and the role of the business model in its implementation.

This paper extends our theoretical understanding of how international opportunities trigger the knowledge-commitment cycle and lead to growth. Longitudinal data from seven international firms was analysed to build a deep, processual understanding of the opportunities developed by the case study firms. Utilizing an abductive approach, the complexities and contextual dynamics of internationalisation processes were explored as they evolved, revealing that path-breaking opportunities are major events that disrupt the ongoing process of regular opportunity development and provide new knowledge that triggers a greater commitment to internationalisation. While firms may discover path-breaking opportunities at different points in their trajectory over hermeneutic and chronological time, key commitments to international markets are made when such opportunities are in hand or clearly in sight. Our use of an abductive process illustrates its intricacies and suitability for explaining temporal phenomena.

Increasing internationalisation in organisations demands further research on acculturation within international business (IB). Based on triangulated qualitative data on South Asian diasporas’ food consumption in the UK and Bahraini contexts, we introduce two acculturative orientations: essentialism and boundary spanning. We contribute to literature by linking acculturative orientations with relevant drivers and resulting adoption and adaptation of cultures to offer a new perspective towards analysing (im)migrants’ appropriation of culture in personal and work settings. We push the boundary of IB research by highlighting and enriching the understanding of, and reciprocity between, social and occupational contexts that shape (im)migrants’ acculturation.

We conduct a quasi-replication to re-examine the theoretical arguments and empirical findings in Surroca, Tribo, and Zahra (2013). These authors argued that MNEs transfer socially irresponsible (CSiR) practices from their headquarters to their foreign subsidiaries. Recently, however, dramatic changes in institutional environments, multinationals, and their practices have raised concerns about the validity and generalizability of the original arguments. The replication results show weaker evidence than what was presented in the original study and offer a different view of MNEs from emerging markets based on an updated sample. Thus, our replication contributes to a cumulative body of knowledge in the cross-discipline field of international business, CSiR, and sustainability.

Family small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face both general bounded rationality challenges and a unique expression of bounded rationality in their internationalization process: the bifurcation bias, a concept aligned with modern transaction cost theory (TCT). We argue that efficient governance in family SMEs, and especially features of the Board of Directors’ composition, can help alleviate bounded rationality. Complementing TCT with upper echelons theory (UET), we investigate which Board characteristics in family SMEs contribute to efficient governance and the ensuing strategy decisions. We focus specifically on strategy decisions in the internationalization sphere. Our empirical analysis of survey data from 328 Belgian family SMEs, operating out of a small open economy, reveals that family SMEs internationalize more if their Boards are ‘open’, ‘inclusive’, ‘experienced’ and ‘active’. These Board characteristics, all reflective of efficient governance, i.e., providing the Board with the capacity to alleviate bounded rationality constraints, positively contribute to internationalization, especially (and perhaps paradoxically) when the family SME is managed by a CEO who is also a family member.

We advance research on the impact of business English as a lingua franca (BELF) on the communication of multinational companies (MNCs). Study 1 helps predict country-level variations of linguistic style in the English language of 2,223 press releases from US, UK, German, and French companies. Press releases are a specific genre of narratives used to engage investors. Study 2 demonstrates in a controlled quasi-experimental setting that adapting linguistic styles alongside well-established frameworks of cultural values can shape investors’ attitudes and intentions. Within-language linguistic style differences in the use of BELF can create barriers to communication fairly overlooked in International Business.

A reliable understanding of corruption in IB has prescriptive implications for MNEs’ strategies to manage it. We propose three means by which research on corruption can improve its reliability: (i) develop theorizing and empirical modelling on mechanisms at the firm level; (ii) develop conceptual and empirical clarity and alignment on the distinct nature of corruption being investigated (i.e., scale versus predictability); (iii) develop acute measures of the types of corruption that an MNE's experience can seek to manage. Given this broad research setting, we revisit four published empirical studies on corruption and take a diagnostic approach by looking at the concepts and empirical analysis involved in this research. The four studies are Habib & Zurawicki (2002), Cuervo-Cazurra & Genc (2008), Sartor & Beamish (2018), and Qi & Nguyen (2021). By systematically replicating their findings in three ways, we conclude that theorizing on corruption at the country level is the most effective for making core conjectures about corruption's effects on overall measures of economic activity; however, understanding of the different dimensions of corruption alongside how experience leads to effective management requires greater theoretical and empirical precision and substantiation.