Douglas Nigh

Buffer or Bridge? Environmental and Organizational Determinants of Public Affairs Activities in American Firms

This article suggests corporate public affairs activities can be broken clown into two types: activities that “buffer” from the social and political environment, and activities that “bridge” with that environment. Drawing on previous work related to contingency theory, resource dependence, and strategic management, we developed hypotheses concerning conditions under which firms will emphasize buffering, bridging, or both. The hypotheses were tested with data collected from large American firms and Lohmollers partial-least-squares latent variable path analysis. Buffering is found to be positively associated with environmental uncertainty and organizational power. Bridging is positively associated with uncertainty and an institution-oriented philosophy on the part of top management.

The impact of U.S. company internationalization on top management team advice networks: a tacit knowledge perspective

This study surveys 37 U.S. multinational corporations (MNCs) to examine the effect of internationalization on one dimension of the top management team’s (TMT’s) character: international business advice network density. This study draws on international business (IB) theory, the resource-based view of the firm, and philosophy of science and its view of tacit knowledge. Results show that both the firm’s internationalization extent, and the interdependence that exists across its country–market activities, are positively related to the TMT’s IB advice network density. As the extent of the MNC’s business outside the United States grows and the linkages among its IB units intensify, the demand for IB expertise within the TMT increases, TMT members share each other’s knowledge of IB more extensively and the TMT’s IB advice network density increases. Copyright

The effectiveness of headquarters-subsidiary relationships: The role of coordination, control, and conflict

Abstract This study examines the relationship of the effectiveness of the headquarters- sunsidiary relationship to 1) the conflict between the headquarters and the subsidiary and 2) two key process of integration: coordination and control. Specifically, it is hypothesized that the effectiveness of the headquarters-subsidiary relationship is related negatively to the level of conflict and positively to the coordination of both primary and support activities. Furthermore, the use of bureaucratic and personal integration mechanisms are each posited as being positively related to headquarters-subsidiary effectiveness. To examine the hyphothese, information was collected from 105 foreign subsidiary in the U.S., representing 14 different countries. based on the responses of top-level subsidiary managers, coordination of parimary activites and personal integrating mechanisms had the expected positive relationship and conflict the expected negative relationship with headquarters- subsidiary effectiveness. No support was found for the expected relationship between effectiveness and the use of bureaucratic integrating mechanisms and the coordination of support activities.

U.S. Joint Ventures in China: Motivation and Management of Political Risk

This article examines U.S. joint ventures in the People9s Republic of China. It focuses on the motives for these joint ventures and the American investors9 assessment and management of political risk. Information was collected in interviews with management personnel from eleven U. S. firms which had made direct investments in China by the fall of 1983. There are some significant differences for U. S. direct investments in China as contrasted to those in other countries, which have important implications for the establishment of future U.S. joint ventures in China.

Top management departures in cross-border acquisitions: Governance issues in an international context

This study examined top management team departures in U.S. manufacturing firms acquired by a foreign multinational during the six-year period following acquisition. Results indicated that greater cultural distance between the United States and the home country of the foreign multinational, higher levels of international integration in the target industry, and poor preacquisition performance in the U.S. target company were related to greater postacquisition top management departures. These effects were moderated significantly by the foreign acquirers international business and U.S. acquisition experience and showed different patterns over the short-term, intermediate-term, and long-term. Implications for future research on top management teams involved in cross-border acquisitions are discussed.

Announcements of withdrawal from South Africa revisited: Making sense of contradictory event study findings

This research addressed empirical and conceptual issues raised by McWilliams and Siegel (1997) in light of the contradictory findings of several recent event studies dealing with announcements of w...