Returnee Entrepreneurs and the Performance Implications of Political and Business Relationships under Institutional Uncertainty

Acknowledgements We would like to thank the reviewers, the guest editor Bradley Barnes, and the editor in chief Naveen Donthu for the constructive comments. We are grateful with the financial support from the Broman Foundation for Research and Entrepreneurship, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 71772165), and the National Key Project of Philosophy and Social Science from Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China (Grant No. 17JZD018).Peer reviewedPostprin

Towards Optimal Randomized Strategies in Adversarial Example Game

The vulnerability of deep neural network models to adversarial example attacks is a practical challenge in many artificial intelligence applications. A recent line of work shows that the use of randomization in adversarial training is the key to find optimal strategies against adversarial example attacks. However, in a fully randomized setting where both the defender and the attacker can use randomized strategies, there are no efficient algorithm for finding such an optimal strategy. To fill the gap, we propose the first algorithm of its kind, called FRAT, which models the problem with a new infinite-dimensional continuous-time flow on probability distribution spaces. FRAT maintains a lightweight mixture of models for the defender, with flexibility to efficiently update mixing weights and model parameters at each iteration. Furthermore, FRAT utilizes lightweight sampling subroutines to construct a random strategy for the attacker. We prove that the continuous-time limit of FRAT converges to a mixed Nash equilibria in a zero-sum game formed by a defender and an attacker. Experimental results also demonstrate the efficiency of FRAT on CIFAR-10 and CIFAR-100 datasets.Comment: Extended version of paper https://doi.org/10.1609/aaai.v37i9.26247 which appeared in AAAI 202

The Best of Both Worlds : The Effects of Knowledge and Network Relationships on Performance of Returnee Entrepreneurial Firms

In an increasingly globalized business world, international human mobility and its association with entrepreneurship presents attractive opportunities for business research. One increasingly important phenomenon in the field is returnee entrepreneurship, which is the reverse flow of migrants who acquired skills in developed countries back to their emerging-market home countries. In this way, knowledge from developed countries transfers back to, and fills technological and entrepreneurial gaps in, emerging countries. This thesis aims to explain returnee entrepreneurship by examining what factors differentiate innovation, internationalization and business performance of returnee entrepreneurial firms. The empirical investigation uses a mixed method approach comprising a qualitative single case study and four quantitative studies of a recent sample of 200 Chinese returnee entrepreneurial firms, and focusses on factors such as knowledge and network relationships, which are two advantages that returnee entrepreneurial firms are thought to have. By distinguishing among types of knowledge from various sources, and network relationships from both international and domestic origins, the findings show that international opportunity knowledge and domestic business relationships influence the innovation performance of returnee entrepreneurial firms. The structural characteristics of the international network of a returnee entrepreneurial firm are related to that firm’s international networking capability, which in turn influence its opportunity-driven internationalization. Additionally, the international experiential knowledge of returnee entrepreneurs nurtures their firms’ international market knowledge, and these experiences also indirectly affect firm internationalization by being transmitted through that market knowledge. Finally, international networking capability and innovation performance positively influence the business performance of returnee entrepreneurial firms, whereas the international business knowledge has a negative impact on business performance. The thesis challenges the enthusiastic view of returnee entrepreneurial firms by refining the heterogeneity of both the returnee entrepreneurs themselves, and the performance variances of their ventures. Empirically, this thesis suggests a combination of knowledge and resources from both ‘worlds’ that can best benefit the performance of a returnee entrepreneurial firm. This thesis also contributes to theory by providing new insights into the combined effect of (1) an individual entrepreneur’s international experience, and (2) a new venture’s knowledge base and capabilities; furthermore it also describes what that combined effect will be on the new venture’s performance

Foreign market entry knowledge and international performance : The mediating role of international market selection and network capability

While the literature emphasizes the importance of knowledge and foreign market knowledge for international performance, it is unclear about the intervening/mediating relationships. From a knowledge-based view and network approach, we posit that previous foreign market entry (FME) knowledge can be used in the selection of international markets and to enhance network capabilities and international performance. We test the relationships between these constructs in a sample of 140 Australian SMEs. We contribute to the international SME literature by explaining important mechanisms through which FME knowledge affects SMEs’ international performance. International market selection and network capability mediate its relationship with international performance

Causal foreign market selection and effectual entry decision-making : The mediating role of collaboration to enhance international performance

Foreign market selection and entry are important decisions for internationalizing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) because they involve uncertainty, and influence performance. While it is inherent in effectual foreign market entry (FME) decision-making to rely on international partners and relationships to develop international markets, causal foreign market selection and business relationships/networks have frequently been presented as alternative ways to expand abroad. We conceive SMEs' foreign market selection and entry as international business decisions and build on causal and effectual logic, and business network theory, to propose a model explaining SMEs' international performance. We contribute to international business and SME literature by uncovering two different paths (causal and effectual) to FME collaboration and international performance. FME collaboration mediates the relation between causal foreign market selection and effectual entry decisionmaking and international performance. Our theoretical explanation for the mediating mechanism through which international performance can be enhanced is the network approach