Kendall Roth

Why Companies Go Green: A Model of Ecological Responsiveness

The authors conducted a qualitative study of the motivations and contextual factors that induce corporate ecological responsiveness. Analytic induction applied to data collected from 53 firms in the United Kingdom and Japan revealed three motivations: competitiveness, legitimation, and ecological responsibility. These motivations were influenced by three contextual conditions: field cohesion, issue salience, and individual concern. In this article, the authors also identify the conditions that likely lead to high corporate ecological responsiveness.

Adoption of an Organizational Practice by Subsidiaries of Multinational Corporations: Institutional and Relational Effects

We examine the adoption of an organizational practice by subsidiaries of a multinational corporation (MNC) under conditions of “institutional duality.” Drawing on institutional theory, we identify ...

Institutional Theory in the Study of Multinational Corporations: A Critique and New Directions

This paper was motivated by the growing interest of scholars of multinational corporations (MNCs) in the institutional perspective. Our review of the literature suggests that international management applications of this perspective have been dominated by a narrow set of neoinstitutional ideas. We develop a set of provocations that challenge the validity of traditional neoinstitutionalism in the context of MNCs. We then offer ideas for more novel theory building in the study of MNCs, based on integrating “old” and “new” institutionalism.

FOREIGN SUBSIDIARY COMPENSATION STRATEGY: AN AGENCY THEORY PERSPECTIVE

This study extends agency theory to explain the design of compensation strategy in foreign subsidiaries competing within global industries. Results from 100 subsidiaries in five countries indicate ...

An empirical analysis of sustained advantage in the U.S. pharmaceutical industry: impact of firm resources and capabilities

The authors test a model of the relationships among firm resources, firm capabilities, and sustained competitive advantage between 1971 and 1989. Sustained comparative advantage was captured by two variables: therapeutic differentiation and global NCEs. The results show that R&D and salesforce expenditures have indirect and direct effects, respectively, on sustained competitive advantage. Firm capabilities were differentiated into component and integrative capabilities. Component capabilities were captured by the firm’s internal R&D efforts and therapeutic market focus, while integrative capabilities were concerned with the firm’s ability to obtain FDA approvals and to develop radical new drugs. Findings on each of these four capabilities on therapeutic differentiation and global NCEs are mixed. The direct and indirect effects of these resources and capabilities on therapeutic differentiation and global NCEs suggest important managerial implications in the way firms coordinate and combine their assets so as to achieve sustained competitive advantage. Copyright

Firm-Specific Assets, Multinationality, and Financial Performance: A Meta-Analytic Review and Theoretical Integration

Drawing upon internalization theory, this study investigates the complex relationships involving firm-specific assets, multinationality, and financial performance. Through a meta-analysis of 120 independent samples reported in 111 studies, we test the predictions of internalization theory in the context of the multinationality-performance relationship. Moreover, we further develop and refine our understanding of internalization theory with a focus on the effects of firm-specific assets on the multinationality-performance relationship. Findings suggest that while advertising intensity fully mediates the relationship between multinationality and performance, R&D intensity has both direct and indirect effects on firm performance. In addition, the results delineate the conditions under which firm-specific assets have the strongest impact on the extent to which multinationality relates to performance. Meta-analytic evidence also suggests that multinationality has intrinsic value above and beyond the intangible assets that firms possess after controlling for firms’ international experience, age, size, and product diversification.

The Use of the Multinational Corporation as a Research Context

The multinational corporation (MNC) has been increasingly used as a context for conceptual and empirical work. Based on a review of several leading management journals, we identify three main purposes for which the MNC has been employed: (1) study of MNC-specific phenomena; (2) validation and expansion of existing theories; and (3) development of new theories. We suggest that the latter purpose represents the highest potential contribution of MNC research, yet it is the least utilized so far. We then offer ideas of how to increase the contribution of MNC research through capturing the conceptual distinctiveness of the context, examining the theoretical paradoxes inherent in these organizations, and theorizing about novel combinative phenomena emerging in this context.

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.

Globalization versus regionalization: Which way for the multinational?

ncreasingly, I managers are confronted by calls for dramatic change in the way their businesses should compete internationally. Nowhere is this more apparent than in so-called “global” industries, where managers have been urged to introduce offshore manufacturing, cut costs through worldwide economies of scale, standardize products internationally, and subsidize national market-share battles through international cash flows or other support activities. These actions form the basis of “global strategies” that have been suggested as the emerging pattern of international competition. Two fundamental assumptions drive this thinking. The first is that a sizable number of competitors are indeed using global strategies to compete; the second is that performance can be improved by pursuing global strategies, particularly in an industry that has global structural characteristics. For managers in global industries the message has been, “Either quickly adopt a global strategy or see your competitiveness diminish.” In fact, some observers have gone so far as to suggest that the imperatives to globalize are so great and the benefits so pronounced that globalization is fast becoming the strategic norm rather than the exception. Although such comments are directed toward managers in the front-line global industries (for example, semiconductors, aircraft parts, pharmaceuticals, and heavy machinery), they are also being heard by senior managers in numerous other industries that are beginning to face greater and greater levels of international competition.

Business-Level Competitive Strategy: A Contingency Link to Internationalization

The contingency fit between the organization and its environment suggests strategic adaptation to contextual conditions. Thus, it may be expected that businesses will use different strategic positioning when confronting an international context. To determine if such a difference does exist, an analysis of the business-level strategy of domestic businesses was compared to businesses engaged in domestic and international activities. Group differences existed suggesting the importance of internationalization as a contingency variable to examining the content of business-level strategy.