Marta M. Vidal-Suárez

Language distance and international acquisitions A transaction cost approach

This paper analyzes the role language distance plays on the choice between greenfield investments and acquisitions when investing abroad. Based on transaction cost theory, the paper focuses on the impact of language distance on ex ante and ex post costs in international acquisition processes. In order to empirically test our predictions, a database of foreign direct investments made by listed Spanish firms was used. Empirical results point towards a tendency to avoid acquisitions as investment mode in international contexts characterized by high language distance.

Understanding the relevance of national culture in international business research: a quantitative analysis

This review is a comprehensive quantitative analysis of the International Business literature whose focus is on national culture. The analysis relies on a broad range of bibliometric techniques as productivity rankings, citation analysis (individual and cumulative), study of collaborative research patterns, and analysis of the knowledge base. It provides insights on (1) faculty and institutional research productivity and performance; (2) articles, institutions, and scholars’ influence in the contents of the field and its research agenda; and (3) national and international collaborative research trends. The study also explores the body of literature that has exerted the greatest impact on the researched set of selected articles.

Impact of cultural positions on FDI’s entry mode

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the influence of cultural positions on the choice of entry mode in foreign direct investment (FDI) – joint ventures vs wholly owned subsidiaries. The paper focusses on the impact of cultural positions along four cultural dimensions, as well as on the interactions between these positions and FDI’s contextual variables (i.e. linguistic differences). Design/methodology/approach – A fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis is performed on a data set of Spanish investments located in the European Union. Findings – Existence of interaction effects among cultural positions along different dimensions, as well as between cultural positions and FDI’s contextual variables. Research limitations/implications – Main limitations relate to the data set, as only FDIS carried out by big corporations and coming from a single country are considered. Practical implications – Managers making decisions on the choice of entry mode must take into account the position relative to e...

National culture and international alliances: a review of recent literature

This literature review explores the main advances in recent research dealing with the role of national culture and cultural differences on international alliances’ features. The review focuses on articles published between 2000 and 2012 in top management and international business journals. Through the analysis of the 100 selected articles, the chapter analyses the main research streams within the field (alliances’ formation, structure, goals, management and governance, and performance) and reflects on avenues for future research related to both thematic and methodological issues.

Expatriate management and national culture: a bibliometric study of prolific, productive, and most cited authors and institutions

Abstract This is a bibliometric study of reference literature related to the influence of national culture issues on expatriate management. It is based on publications in elite Management, International Business, and Human Resource academic journals between 2000 and 2012. The database comprises 222 articles involving 368 authors and 223 academic institutions. The analysis uses a broad scoring procedure that includes: (I) scholars and institutions’ productivity in terms of number of publications (both, total and adjusted), (II) authors and institutions’ productivity in terms of potential impact based on journals’ performance (a wide spectrum of different metrics is used in order to allow for alternative perspectives), and (III) a citation analysis. The use of multiple and diverse scores provides a comprehensive understanding of the ranking of academic institutions and scholars within this particular subfield of research. In addition, the article analyzes collaborative research patterns, expected institutional influence in the near future, and main issues to be included in the field’s research agenda.