André Sammartino

Exploring Trends in Regionalisation

In this chapter, we revisit the empirical findings of Rugman and coauthors concerning the overwhelming home-regionalisation among the worlds largest firms. Using a longitudinal research design and continuous measures of internationalisation, we observe a number of secular trends. Among other, we find that sales growth beyond the home region is faster than sales growth within the home region. We use our empirical results to critique and augment existing regionalisation theory. In particular, we raise doubts about the sharp distinction in the literature between expansion in the home region and expansion in host regions.

Flexible Footprints: Reconfiguring MNCs for New Value Opportunities

Powerful technological, regulatory, and economic forces compel the senior executives of multinational corporations (MNCs) to repeatedly re-evaluate and reconfigure value chains in the search for ongoing competitive advantage. However, releasing assets from existing activities and redeploying them to new opportunities is a challenging and poorly understood task. In particular, the standard strategic management concepts of use- and firm-flexibility overlook the crucial international dimension of location. Utilizing examples from GM, Qantas, and a mining MNC, this article argues that strategic flexibility should be consciously measured along all three dimensions. By using the decision tool set out in this article, MNC executives can map their worldwide footprint of strategic roadblocks and opportunities to expand into new markets, divest redundant businesses, and build flexibility to adapt to future challenges.

Dissecting home regionalization: how large does the region loom?

Purpose – The paper aims to motivate more rigorous theoretical and empirical specification of the home regionalization phenomenon, in particular the dynamics of shifting advantage over time within a multinational enterprise. It aims to improve dialogue among regionalization researchers.Design/methodology/approach – Contrasting the economizing and behavioral perspectives on internationalization, the paper presents five different archetypes of the home‐regionalization phenomenon. These archetypes are predicated on strategic management stylizations of competitive advantage.Findings – The paper demonstrates that the notion of home regionalization as a dominant and superior model for firm internationalization remains a promising yet under‐explained and inconsistently articulated thesis. By introducing and exploring the archetypes, it shows the diversity of home‐regionalization theses, and the prospect that multiple forms of regionalization may be at play for different firms, industries and locations.Originalit...

Subsidiaries in motion: Assessing the impact of sunk versus flexible assets

This chapter addresses an unresolved theoretical issue in international business: the impact of existing, committed assets in a host location on parent and subsidiary decisions regarding the configuration of future value-adding activities for the location. We develop a measure of investment committedness, or the degree of flexibility versus specificity of existing assets in a host location, to explore this issue. The measure assesses whether assets, such as brands, human capital, process technologies, and supplier relations, retain only scrap value outside their current application or they can be redeployed to alternative value-adding activities in the host location or shifted offshore, either within the multinational enterprise (MNE) or to another user. The measure is a key step in developing a model of strategic choice for the future configuration of value-adding activities by MNEs in host locations. Drawing on firm-specific data from 237 MNE subsidiaries operating in Australia, we first present a traditional integration-responsiveness classification of subsidiary activities. This static snapshot of the subsidiaries’ current profiles is then compared with the measures preliminary findings on the levels of investment committedness and strategic flexibility available to the sample MNEs and how this may shape strategic allocation decisions, including divestment and withdrawal.

The dynamics of regional and global expansion

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to model and test the dynamics of home-regional and global penetration by multi-national enterprises (MNEs). Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on international business (IB) theory, the authors model MNEs adjusting their home-regional and global market presence over time. The authors test the resulting hypotheses using sales data from a sample of 220 of the world’s largest MNEs over the period 1995-2005. The authors focus specifically on the relationship between levels of market penetration inside and outside the home region and rates of change in each domain. Findings – The authors demonstrate that MNEs do penetrate both home-regional and global markets, often simultaneously, and that penetration levels often oscillate within an MNE over time. The authors show firms’ rates of regional and global expansion to be affected by their existing regional and global penetration, as well as their interplay. Finally, the authors identify differences in the steady states at...

Craft Brewing in Australia: 1979–2015

This chapter explores the emergence of independent craft breweries in Australia over three and half decades. Three distinct periods of the segment’s evolution are identified. While much of the substantial growth has occurred this decade, with the total number of breweries doubling between 2010 and 2015, the foundations for this escalation were laid by several pioneering companies and individuals through the 1990s and early 2000s. This chapter explores the constraints and drivers of growth, and the rise of diverse business models. Of note also is the distinctive role played by Australia’s macro brewers, who acquired several of the early successful craft entrants, thus confusing the definition of the segment and shaping its prospects.

Women, Global Trade and What it Takes to Succeed

This report is the second emanating from the five year partnership between Women in Global Business (WIGB) and the University of Melbourne to annually survey Australia’s international businesswomen. It fills a critical gap in data about Australian businesswomen engaging in international business and expands our understanding of their successes, challenges and motivations. It provides unique insights and captures the views and opinions of these entrepreneurial women with global ambitions. We look at their significant but under recognised contribution to Australia’s economic growth and job creation. These women remain very optimistic about future growth. Our survey of 416 women, reveals a dynamic community of entrepreneurs and senior decision‐makers guiding organisations into markets around the world.

Working with personnel records: Outcomes of research with a large historical database

The hypotheses are that observed career structures will reflect both human capital requirements and informational issues around performance monitoring. The organisation will develop the employment characteristics typical of an internal labour market (ILM) when human capital requirements are firm specific and/or scarce in the external labour market. Such ILM structures may also arise due to asymmetric information about work effort, skill acquisition and skill levels.