Mo Yamin

ICT and MNE reorganisation: the paradox of control

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to highlight the ICT‐enabled enhancement of control capability in MNEs. The literature on MNE structures acknowledges the role of ICT as a support system, but the specific changes facilitated by ICT have remained significantly underdeveloped. The paper seeks to address this issue conceptually and link contemporary ICT advancement with changes in MNE strategy or structure. The paper further posits that certain applications of ICT may paradoxically reduce a key advantage of multinationality.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is of conceptual nature and critically examines and develops literature to generate insight on the implications of ICT applications for MNE development. Specifically the focus is on enterprise resource planning systems (ERPs) and the impact of enhanced visibility of remote operations to headquarter management.Findings – The finding is that ICT application entails a possible trade‐off. It may facilitate an enhancement of control capability for ...

An Evolutionary Analysis of Subsidiary Innovation and 'Reverse' Transfer in Multinational Companies

This chapter is intended as a contribution to the understanding of the role of subsidiaries in the development of technological capability in the multinational enterprise (MNE). The analysis is evolutionary in that technological development and innovation are viewed as largely incremental and localized processes. From this position, it is argued that autonomous innovative activities by subsidiaries, even though of necessity largely oriented towards the domestic markets of particular host countries, nevertheless constitute major building blocks in the technological development of the MNE as a whole.

A comparative examination of consumer decision styles in Austria

Abstract Mental orientations characterising a consumers approach to making choices – in short, consumer decision styles – have attracted considerable interest from researchers and practitioners for their value in predicting purchasing behaviour. As a result, they play a key role for marketing activities such as market segmentation, positioning, and tailoring marketing strategies. To contribute to an internationally valid and reliable research instrument, this paper tests a well-documented and accepted research instrument, the Consumer Styles Inventory in another country context and, for the first time, with a sample (n = 225) representative of the general population. Results indicate that some dimensions seem to be universal, while national idiosyncrasies emerged as well.

Strategy and structure of service multinationals and their impact on linkages with local firms

Drawing on case studies of two leading UK service firms in five host countries (Argentina, Brazil, China, Korea and Malaysia), we examine how the strategy and organization of service multinationals shape the development of linkages with local firms in host economies. We find that there is reduced autonomy of subsidiaries to engage with local firms as a result of relatively centralized strategies of multinationals. Because of global policies ensuring consistency of services or global sourcing policies to reduce costs, service multinationals tend to prefer global suppliers. Backward linkages occur in a few cases when the relationship can be a vehicle for market expansion for the multinational in a particular host market. Local governments play an important role in the cases where backward linkages are developed.

Tourism as a leverage of internationalization for consumer goods firms: A case study approach

Large-scale incoming tourism potentially creates a multinational market within the domestic economy of the recipient countries. More specifically, in a number of countries, there is a large influx of ‘foreign’ consumers, or tourists, from many countries and for a significant part of the year. As can be seen from Table 1, for countries such as France, Spain, Austria, or Greece the annual influx of tourists exceeds the population of these countries by very large margins.

A comparison of satisfaction outcomes associated with adapted and non-adapted products: Domestic versus imported washing machines in Turkey

This paper compares customer satisfaction outcomes associated with the consumption of products adapted to the local market and non‐adapted imports of washing machines in Turkey. It utilises literature on customer satisfaction to investigate customer outcomes associated with imports and adapted domestic products in developing countries and derives a number of hypotheses relating to overall and attribute satisfaction from this framework. The hypotheses are tested on data based on a customer satisfaction questionnaire administered to a randomly selected sample of households in Turkey. The findings indicate superior customer satisfaction outcomes for imported washing machines. It is clear that quality is the most important dimension of satisfaction for both groups of consumers. The findings also indicate, however, that locally‐focused strategies of domestic manufacturers do pose a potential challenge to multinational exporters. Product serviceability and the associated support services give domestic manufacturers an unambiguous advantage over importers.

A retrospective on: Infrastructure or foreign direct investment?

Originality/value This chapter shows that the relationship between MNE strategies and economic development is a contested one. The paper by Yamin and Sinkovics (2009) was one of the first in the domain of IB to suggest that developmental impacts of FDI are contingent on the existence of good infrastructure in recipient countries.

A New View of the Advantage of Multinationality

Do multinational enterprises (MNEs) enjoy an advantage over national firms? Clearly, the fact that national and multinational firms do coexist indicates that MNEs do not necessarily enjoy an absolute advantage over national firms. Nevertheless it may be still be true that particular attributes of multinationality create value for MNEs which national firms cannot enjoy. Such value must be set against possible costs of multinationality. Whether MNEs do enjoy a net advantage over national firms in a particular sector or activity is dependent on the relative magnitudes of the cost and benefits of multinationality in the particular case. In this chapter we are interested in organisational attributes that may, ceteris paribus, generate advantages for MNEs.

Revisiting the Uppsala internationalization model: Social network theory and overcoming the liability of outsidership

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to utilize key insights from social network theory (SNT) to enhance understanding of overcoming the liability of outsidership as a prerequisite for firm internationalization. Specifically, it examines the influence of structural attributes of networks on the motivational stance of both network insiders and outsiders in relation to overcoming the liability of outsidership. A related aim is to explore the role of network positions of insider actors in terms of its impact on the speed of market entry. Design/methodology/approach The paper draws on the extant literatures on firm internationalization, particularly the liability of outsidership, and SNT to identify to what extent SNT can be utilized to deeply understand the process of overcoming the liability of outsidership. The authors put forward eight propositions linking structural and positioning attributes of networks with overcoming the liability of outsidership. Findings SNT provides strong potential for a more comprehensive understanding of the internationalization phenomena through shedding light on the relationship between the liability of foreignness and the liability of outsidership. The paper demonstrates that while the cost of overcoming the liability of outsidership is higher in closed target network as compared to open networks, the expected benefits of an insidership position in closed or open networks are affected by the outsider firm’s perception of the liability of foreignness in the market it wishes to enter. Considering the differential enabling characteristics of closed and open networks in terms of facilitating tacit knowledge sharing as opposed to explicit information flows, the authors reveal that liability of foreignness operates as a negative moderator for the relationship between network structure and the willingness of the outsider to invest in gaining insidership. The analysis of the paper also shows that the positional attributes of the network insider are relevant in outsiders’ motivation in terms of the speed of market entry that they seek to achieve. Originality/value This study theoretically contributes to the internationalization research through integrating SNT with the liability of outsidership understanding of firm internationalization. This is a timely attempt as no systematic application of the conceptual apparatus of SNT in the internationalization research context has been studied. It adds a more coherent inside-out perspective into the overcoming the liability of outsidership discussion which has been extensively dominated by an outside-in perspective.

Understanding internationalisation through the lens of social network analysis

The notion of ‘networks’ has been applied by a growing number of researchers in different business and management sub-disciplines including organisational studies (Salancik, 1995; Uzzi, 1996; Zaheer and Bell, 2005; Kilduff and Brass, 2010; Tichy et al., 1979), knowledge management (Cross and Parker, 2004; Reagans and McEvily, 2003), innovation (Freeman, 1991; Ahuja, 2000; Dhanaraj and Parkhe, 20 06) and international business and marketing (Coviello and Munro, 1997, 1995; Ellis, 2000, 2011; Johanson and Vahlne, 2009; Zhou et al., 2007; Sharma and Blomstermo, 2003; Tikkanen, 1998; Mattsson, 1997; Johanson and Mattsson, 1985). However, while the notion of networks has beena potent idea in the social sciences (Borgatti et al., 2009), most application of the network concept has been criticised for being ‘merely descriptive’ (ibid.) and not going beyond loose metaphorical narratives.