Palitha Konara

Home‐institutional Imprinting and Lobbying Expenditure of Foreign Firms: Moderating Effects of Experience and Technological Intensity

The issue of whether a firm’s ‘home’ environment influences its nonmarket activities in a ‘host’ country is being increasingly discussed in the international business literature. In this paper, we use institutional and organisational imprinting theories to argue that multinational enterprises (MNEs) founded in countries with stronger regulatory institutions are likely to spend more on lobbying in a host country as compared to MNEs founded in countries with weaker regulatory institutions. We also argue that this effect is moderated by the MNE’s overall experience, its experience within the host country, and its technological intensity. We test our hypotheses using a sample of 378 foreign MNEs (among the largest 500) operating in the United States (U.S.), spanning the 8 year period 2006-2013, and representing 29 home countries. Our results support our hypothesis on the relationship between home-institutional imprinting and overseas lobbying expenditure, as described above. Our results also support our arguments that MNEs’ overall experience and technological intensity reduce the imprinting effect of home institutions on lobbying expenditure; however, our moderating effect of host-country experience on this relationship is not supported.

The direction of regulatory institutional distance and MNE’s subsidiary ownership strategy: Re-examining theory and evidence in the case of emerging markets

The possibility of institutional distance exerting an asymmetric effect on the entry strategies of multinational enterprises (MNEs) has attracted recent scholarly attention. In this context, we re-examine the relationship described by Hernandez and Nieto (2015) on the effect of the direction of regulatory institutional distance on MNEs’ choice of entry mode in host countries. We extend this research by (1) focussing on the context of emerging markets and (2) accounting for a greater variety of MNEs as well as institutions by including both large and small firms, and a larger set of home and host countries. In contrast to Hernandez and Nieto’s study, we find that, in the context of emerging markets, institutionally distant MNEs are more likely to choose the full-ownership mode when they originate from an institutionally stronger country in comparison to the host (emerging) country, and they are more likely to choose the joint-ownership mode when they originate from an institutionally weaker country. We discuss our findings with respect to Hernandez and Nieto’s study, which explores this relationship more generally (i.e. beyond emerging-market contexts), however in the context of small and medium enterprises.

Competition, Cooperation and Regulatory Intervention Impacts on Independent School Fees

Abstract This paper examines the factors determining fee levels set by independent schools, focusing on the impact of competition, cooperation and regulatory intervention in the sector. Results indicate that, once account is taken of factors such as the extent of local competition between independent schools, the impact of the 2003–2005 Office of Fair Trading investigation into the fee-setting cartel on independent school fees becomes insignificant. Meanwhile, the extent of competition between independent schools has a significant effect on levels of boarding school fees. Results highlight the importance of considering pricing strategies of groups within a cartel.

Introduction: The Rise of Multinationals from Emerging Economies—Achieving a New Balance

The spread of particularly American multinational enterprises (MNEs) in the first half of the last century marked an increasing domination of the world economy by these firms. In the second half of the twentieth-century the dominance of American firms was challenged by a wave of MNEs from Europe, Japan and Newly Industrialised Economies. At the turn of the century it is, however, a group of rather ‘unexpected’ firms, such as Embraer, Huawei and Tata, from emerging economies that have stamped their mark on the world stage. Since then more MNEs from emerging economies are joining their ranks. The rise of emerging economy MNEs (EMNEs) has coincided with a shift in many aspects of production from industrialised countries to emerging economies and the accelerating dispersion of international R&D activities. In some emerging economies, this process is accompanied by the rise of a type of state capitalism. These changes pose challenges and bring opportunities for all participants in international business, including EMNEs themselves, developed economy MNEs (DMNEs), governments and multilateral organisations such as the World Trade Organization (WTO).