William Newburry

Autonomy and effectiveness of equity international joint ventures (IJVs) in China

Using a sample of 153 equity international joint ventures (IJVs) located in China, this paper examines when autonomy is correlated with IJV effectiveness. Correlations are strongest with respect to autonomy to implement (without power to formulate) strategic business plans. The ability to both formulate and implement strategic business plans is also associated with effectiveness, especially when evaluated by the IJV chief executive officers (CEOs). The autonomy-effectiveness relationship is stronger for IJVs that are older, larger, operating in heavy industry, or have parents with more similar goals. Strong autonomy-effectiveness correlations exist whether IJV CEOs or regional headquarters personnel evaluate their IJVs, although correlations are generally higher when IJV CEOs evaluate their IJVs.

The Impact of Stakeholder Power on Corporate Reputation: A Cross-Country Corporate Governance Perspective

Corporate reputation has roots in national beliefs about the role of the business corporation in society; these beliefs are constructed in accordance with the preferences of powerful stakeholders. Building on a stakeholder-power approach to corporate governance, we investigate whether differences in the legal rights and protections of shareholders, creditors, and workers across countries affect the general public’s reputation assessments of business corporations. Using a sample of 593 of the largest publicly traded companies in the world from 32 countries during 2007 to 2011, we find that in societies where shareholders enjoy a high degree of legal rights, the impact of stock market returns on corporate reputation becomes more positive. Likewise, the negative relationship between earnings volatility and reputation becomes greater when creditor rights are stronger. Contrary to expectations, we found no evidence of an interaction effect between labor rights and corporate social performance on corporate reputation.

Parent company dissimilarity and equity international joint venture effectiveness

Based upon existing literature and research findings, the relationships between functional and dysfunctional parent company dissimilarity and equity international joint venture (EIJV) effectiveness are examined. Managers of potential EIJVs face a dilemma. While they want to work with partners that are similar, they need partners that are dissimilar in order to gain from collaborating. The findings of this research are important because they give managers some indications of which kinds of dissimilarities should be avoided because they are dysfunctional and which dissimilarities can be encouraged since they are functional. A cross-national study of 140 EIJVs shows that substantial differences in the primary industries of the parent companies contributed significantly to EIJV effectiveness, whereas substantial differences in the reputations of the parent companies detracted significantly from EIJV effectiveness. Also, cultural differences among the parent companies in individualism-collectivism and in uncertainty avoidance produced a positive impact on EIJV effectiveness. With respect to differences in parent company goals, this study found a consistently negative (although not statistically significant) correlation with EIJV effectiveness. Functionality and dysfunctionality of differences in equity distribution, parent company size, and ownership type were also examined with respect to five common performance measures and a general effectiveness index.

Who Boycotts Whom? Marginalization, Company Knowledge, and Strategic Issues

The authors apply marginalization theory to develop a model of boycotts that incorporates both individual motives and corporate strategic issues. Overall, their analysis of more than 25,000 individual evaluations of 59 companies suggests that members of marginalized groups are more likely to boycott. Individuals are less likely to boycott companies about which they are knowledgeable and more likely to boycott companies that are organized boycott targets. In addition, the authors find systematic differences in the types of boycotts associated with strategic issues that are supported by members of marginalized groups. Overall, boycott supporters tend to be upwardly mobile members of marginalized groups.

Students as a Resource for Introducing Intercultural Education in Business Schools.

Despite a recognized need for a global mindset, opportunities for US business school students to gain hands‐on diversity training regarding intercultural issues remain rare. The reasons for this neglect include a lack of agreement on how to teach intercultural awareness and a paucity of faculty qualified to do so. In order to introduce intercultural education into a core business course, students were offered the opportunity to participate in an extra‐credit project that required the development of a proposal for an international joint venture and afforded them the chance to learn about each other while pursuing a superordinate goal of value to each. Thirty‐nine cross‐cultural teams were created, each of which had a partner from the US and a partner from a different country. Both quantitative and qualitative analyses revealed that the value of the project was closely related to the amount of learning that reportedly took place in both the business and cultural realms. Importantly, 73% of the students reported a strong interest in meeting people from different cultures as a result of participation in the project.

Multi-level impacts on perceived career opportunity from global integration: human capital development within internal institutional environments

Using human capital and institutional theories, we analyze the impacts of individual- and office-level factors on the career perceptions of employees in a globally integrated firm. More specifically, we examine factors related to both employee human capital and their institutional operating environments that might influence whether employees perceive that their careers would benefit from greater global integration of their company. The hypotheses were tested using survey data from 398 employees nested within 44 offices in 15 countries, collected from a single multinational company. We find evidence that two of our hypothesized human capital-related factors (shared clients and service years) at the individual level and three of our institutionally-based predictors at the office level (office size, office centrality and client multinationality) have significant impacts on perceived career benefits from global integration. We also find marginal significance for a fourth office-level factor (office performance). This study contributes to the relatively limited literature on local employee career perceptions, while also helping to reconcile different streams of literature by simultaneously examining multiple levels of analysis. By utilizing hierarchical linear analysis, the study is able to differentiate between individual- and office-level effects.

Do green policies build green reputations

Purpose Today, we are witnessing a wave of multinational corporations who seek to be recognized for being environmentally conscious, which can become a source of competitive advantage. But how many of them actually have the policies in place to achieve this? Drawing from the strategy literature, this paper aims to argue that firms who seek to achieve green reputation must align their policies in a way to achieve this goal. Design/methodology/approach This paper presents a framework that discusses the key elements of the corporate environmental management process, and then empirically examines the impact of green policy on green reputation among Fortune 500 US firms. Findings The findings support a positive significant relationship between green policy and green reputation, with environmental performance to partially mediate this relationship. Insights from this study highlight the importance of focusing on company-level green policy for building green reputation as well as for discriminating across the flux of corporations that all claim to be environmentally conscious or green. Research limitations/implications First, the study is limited by the unavailability of environmental performance data at the subsidiary level, which, if incorporated, would yield a better specified model. Second, to strengthen the causal relationships examined in the models, time-series analyses would likely be useful. Third, other informal measures that could be incorporated can include other forms of corporate verbal communications, which include 10K reports as well as shareholder letters. Practical implications Given the increased flux of firms that are racing to be known as environmentally conscious firms, one can benefit from the use of an internal mechanism that can discriminate between rhetoric and action. Therefore, when differentiating between firms’ environmental consciousness, investors and key stakeholders should investigate more internal environmental firm policies, because they are likely to be more indicative of their actions. Originality/value This study uses a quantified assessment of companies’ actual environmental footprints, drawing from a cross-sector sample within the manufacturing industry. The secondary data used in this study are combined from a number of prominent data sources in corporate social responsibility/environmental management literature.

International Business in Latin America, and Latin Americans in International Business: Insights from AIB-LAT

The Latin American chapter of the Academy of International Business (AIB-LAT) has experienced a process of establishment and recognition — recognition not only in its own region, but also by academics worldwide who are interested in understanding the business and institutional dynamics and realities of Latin America, and in strengthening relationships with faculty and universities from this part of the globe.

Internationalization, innovation and sustainability of MNCs in Latin America

Introduction 1. Maintaining a Global Competitive Advantage: Sustainable Tourism in a World Heritage Site in Peru James Patrick Johnson and Ronald Rivas 2. Foreign Direct Investment in the Water Sector in Latin America Frederico Araujo Turolla 3. Absorptive Capacity in Franchising System: Empirical and Comparative Dimensions from Brazil Rogerio Stival Morgado and Afonso Fleury 4. Brazilian Franchising Networks: Degree of Internationalization and Current Status Livia Lopes Barakat, Sherban Leonardo Cretoiu and Mayara Ximenes Dalbem 5. Private Equity Investments in Emerging Markets, National Governance and Geographic Distance: The Case of Latin America, 1996-2009 Santiago Mingo, Francisco Morales and Marc Junkunc 6. The Internationalization of Brazilian Fast-Food Chains: A Marketing Failure? Gilberto Figueira da Silva, Angela da Rocha and Henrique Pacheco 7. Challenges in Strategy and Management of Multinational R&D Centers in Emerging Markets: Perspective from a German Headquarters in the Chemical Sector Osmar Mitsuo Saito, Roberto Carlos Bernardes and Marcos Amatucci 8. Internationalization of Asian MNCs in Brazil: Factors and Motivations Mario Henrique Ogasavara and Gilmar Masiero

Introduction: the rise of EMNCS

INTRODUCTION Emerging market multinational corporations (EMNCs) can become successful global players across a wide spectrum of industries, as demonstrated by companies such as the Brazilian airplane manufacturer Embraer, the Mexican bakery Bimbo, the Russian information technology (IT) firm Kaspersky Labs, the Indian conglomerate Tata Group, the South African brewer SABMiller, and the Chinese computer manufacturer Lenovo. This has resulted in a plethora of publications that discuss how such companies can challenge established multinationals from advanced economies and the distinct sources of competitive advantage they develop to achieve this. However, the paths EMNCs take toward global leadership have not always been smooth. Although many have benefited from the lessons learned from the mistakes made by their predecessors in advanced economies and the advice of academics and consultants on how to select and operate across countries, many also face new challenges that have been largely ignored in previous studies. These new challenges emerge from the conditions of EMNCs’ countries of origin, for example, lack of supporting institutions or weak innovation systems, and from firm characteristics that are more prevalent among multinationals from emerging countries, such as family or state ownership. A large number of authors have analyzed topics that reflect on different aspects of EMNC behaviors. A first set has focused on providing managers of advanced economy multinational corporations (MNCs) with guidance on how to operate more profitably in the challenging conditions of emerging markets. This line of research tends to concentrate on how managers can use and modify capabilities developed in advanced economies in the differing contexts of emerging markets. A second set has focused on understanding how EMNCs represent new competition to MNCs from advanced economies. This line of inquiry tends to present case studies of leading EMNCs and discuss the different business models they have developed. A third set analyzes how the actual behavior of EMNCs differs from current theoretical expectations. Rather than focusing on how EMNCs emerge as new competitors, and praising their advantages, in this book we take a contrasting and more critical stance, analyzing the challenges that these firms face and drawing lessons from past mistakes. We do, of course, marvel at many of these firms’ accomplishments in the last few decades; however, these achievements present a skewed picture of the reality of these firms. Everybody praises the success stories without realizing that, in many cases, firms have struggled in countless unacknowledged ways.