Steven McGuire

Corporate Political Activity: A Literature Review and Research Agenda

This paper reviews the diverse literature on corporate political activity (CPA) and develops a framework that details and integrates existing research in this field. A systematic analysis of extant CPA literatures is conducted to order them into domains that have implications for organizational performance. The paper is structured into three such domain emphases, which require further research investigation: resources and capabilities focus; institutional focus; and political environment focus. The contribution of each to an understanding of CPA in pursuit or defence of corporate competitive advantage is discussed. The authors also suggest that the internationalization of business, including the more recent emergence of developing country economies and companies, presents scholars with the challenge of understanding CPA in more varied institutional settings. CPA practices continue to expand as commerce goes increasingly global and, consequently, involves a wider array of political actors and institutions. The paper contributes by increasing the clarity of CPA classification, reflecting on the implications of a multi‐polar world for CPA research and advancing future agendas for scholars in this research community.

The Diminishing Returns to Trade Policy in the European Union

The notion that the EU is a trade power is central to studies of the Unions international presence. Credible threats to withhold access to Europes markets are said to provide the Union with leverage in respect of other trade partners. This article queries the continuing ability of the European Union to act effectively this way. The current Doha malaise is a symptom of deeper changes in the international trade system. As emerging markets become more affluent and participate in foreign direct investment, their interest in market access per se become less important relative to other areas of regulation.

Learning and lobbying: Emerging market firms and corporate political activity in Europe

How do firms acquire the capabilities necessary to operate in the non-market environment? Though the field of non-market strategy has grown in prominence in the strategic management literature in recent years, most of the studies concern the political capabilities of developed country multinationals. This paper is an effort to explore the basis of the acquisition of corporate political capabilities by emerging market firms. It does so by adapting the concept to liability of foreignness and applying it to a non-market context. The non-market environment of the European Union is used here as the context.

Path dependence as a political construct, the disruptive influence of technology and Japanese aerospace

Japan has largely failed to develop an extensive aerospace industry designing and manufacturing entire aircraft. One explanation has been that the political cum security relationship between the US and Japan precluded the development of an autonomous aerospace industry. This relationship may be changing. Japan has succeeded in gaining extensive sub-contracting work on the new Boeing 787, including technology-rich work on wing design. As such, this paper puts a different take on the concept of path dependence; that it can be a social construction. This paper considers whether technological change in the sector is, however, opening opportunities for Japanese firms to break free from their current trajectory.

Living Hand to Mouth : Why the Bohemian Lifestyle Does Not Lead to Wealth Creation in Peripheral Regions

Abstract Using demographic data from a study of micro and small business owners operating in the crafts industry in rural Mid and West Wales, this paper identifies a mismatch between government business incentives and the bohemian values of local enterprises. This is highlighted as a contributing factor to explain why creative organizations in Wales do not generate the regional economic wealth expected from those working within the creative industries. Chaston [2008. Small creative industry firms: A development dilemma? Management Decision, 46(6), pp. 819–831] suggests that national policy relating to the economic development of regions is misguided because it is based on data collected in major cities. In periphery locations, many creative operations are concentrated in art and craft, yet little is currently known about these enterprises, and a limited amount of research has been conducted involving the craft sector in general. An initial investigation into micro and small craft enterprises is presented here, which indicates that although policy-makers view all creative firms as capable of economic development that will deliver growth and jobs [Oakley, 2011. In its own image: New labour and the cultural workforce, Cultural Trends, 20(3–4), pp. 281–289], the type of creative firm attracted to the periphery regions of Mid and West Wales does not necessarily exhibit the type of growth anticipated from the creative industries sector.

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.

Indigenous technological capabilities, emerging market firms and the aerospace industry

While emerging market economies have developed significant technological capabilities and increased their share of global value-added in aerospace, they have done so largely through utilising foreign direct investment (FDI) and offset arrangements to enter supply chains that remain dominated by European and American firms. The paper examines whether emerging markets are developing indigenous technological capability in aerospace technologies. Drawing on patent data from the Thomson Innovation database, the study seeks to understand whether anchor tenant capability is indeed forming in emerging markets. A tech-mining method is applied. The study suggests that China, in particular, has dramatically increased its innovative capacity in the area. However, the data also demonstrate the significant advantages enjoyed by incumbent firms from Europe and the USA, suggesting that the complexity of aircraft R&D remains a formidable barrier that can only be surmounted by determined government policies and anchor firms equipped with substantial innovation capabilities.

Does the WTO Matter

The world of multinational enterprises is changing dramatically. Their complex and dynamic international context presents them with special challenges – threatening their survival on one hand, and presenting them with unprecedented opportunities on the other. In this volume, international experts analyze different aspects of the transformations in global governance: ideological variations, trade governance, competition policy and the rise of civil society. They discuss the implications for multinational–government relations, multinationals’ self-governance, relations with NGOs and issues of competitiveness.

Multiple order-up-to policy for mitigating bullwhip effect in supply chain network

This paper proposes a multiple order-up-to policy based inventory replenishment scheme to mitigate the bullwhip effect in a multi-stage supply chain scenario, where various transportation modes are available between the supply chain (SC) participants. The proposed policy is similar to the fixed order-up-to policy approach where replenishment decision “how much to order” is made periodically on the basis of the pre-decided order-up-to inventory level. In the proposed policy, optimal multiple order-up-to levels are assigned to each SC participants, which provides decision making reference point for deciding the transportation related order quantity. Subsequently, a mathematical model is established to define optimal multiple order-up-to levels for each SC participants that aims to maximize overall profit from the SC network. In parallel, the model ensures the control over supply chain pipeline inventory, high satisfaction of customer demand and enables timely utilization of available transportation modes. Findings from the various numerical datasets including stochastic customer demand and lead times validate that—the proposed optimal multiple order-up-to policy based inventory replenishment scheme can be a viable alternative for mitigating the bullwhip effect and well-coordinated SC. Moreover, determining the multiple order-up-to levels is a NP hard combinatorial optimization problem. It is found that the implementation of new emerging optimization algorithm named bacterial foraging algorithm (BFA) has presented superior optimization performances. The robustness and applicability of the BFA algorithm are further validated statistically by employing the percentage heuristic gap and two-way ANOVA analysis.