Effects of cigarette advertising: reply to Boddewyn

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/75370/1/j.1360-0443.1990.tb03535.x.pd

A Framework for Understanding Firms’ Foreign Exit Behavior

Although research on foreign market entry and expansion behavior has attracted significant interest in the literature, there is a general lack of research (either conceptual or empirical) on the exit behavior of international companies. To address this issue, the authors develop a conceptual framework to understand firms’ foreign exit behavior. The objective is to lay the conceptual foundation for subsequent empirical research in this area. A series of research propositions have been advanced that can guide hypothesis generation for future research

Seeking legitimacy through CSR: Institutional Pressures and Corporate Responses of Multinationals in Sri Lanka

Arguably, the corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices of multinational enterprises (MNEs) are influenced by a wide range of both internal and external factors. Perhaps most critical among the exogenous forces operating on MNEs are those exerted by state and other key institutional actors in host countries. Crucially, academic research conducted to date offers little data about how MNEs use their CSR activities to strategically manage their relationship with those actors in order to gain legitimisation advantages in host countries. This paper addresses that gap by exploring interactions between external institutional pressures and firm-level CSR activities, which take the form of community initiatives, to examine how MNEs develop their legitimacy-seeking policies and practices. In focusing on a developing country, Sri Lanka, this paper provides valuable insights into how MNEs instrumentally utilise community initiatives in a country where relationship-building with governmental and other powerful non-governmental actors can be vitally important for the long-term viability of the business. Drawing on neo-institutional theory and CSR literature, this paper examines and contributes to the embryonic but emerging debate about the instrumental and political implications of CSR. The evidence presented and discussed here reveals the extent to which, and the reasons why, MNEs engage in complex legitimacy-seeking relationships with Sri Lankan institutions

Has advertising lost its meaning: views of UK and US millennials

The findings of a study of Millennials in the US and the UK—an increasingly important and digitally savvy segment of consumers—reveals that they see advertising as Companies promoting a product or service to people through media. Their perception is simple and all-encompassing with no evidence that they distinguish between different types of media or different types of communication. Some variation between the views of Millennials in the two countries is also identified, although this is less than expected. The findings contribute to an important and continuing debate among academics and marketing practitioners over how advertising should be defined in today’s multi-channel environment. The findings are also compared with other recent definitions of advertising and their implications are discussed

Internationalisation speed and MNE performance: A study of the market-seeking expansion of retail MNEs

Existing research is divided on whether firms that rapidly expand their overseas operations perform better than firms that internationalize slowly. Drawing on Penrose’s theory of the growth of the firm we argue that the positive effects of rapid internationalization give way to negative effects with increasing internationalization speed, leading to an inverted U-shaped association between internationalization speed and firm performance. We analyse the market-seeking expansion of 110 retailers over a 10-year period (2003–2012) and find support for a curvilinear relationship between internationalization speed and firm performance that is moderated by the geographic scope of firms’ internationalization path and firms’ international experience. Our study contributes to resolving conflicting views on the link between internationalization speed and firm performance

Home country supportiveness/unfavorableness and outward foreign direct investment from China

What drives the outward foreign direct investments (OFDIs) by emerging market firms (EMFs)? Drawing on a strategy tripod framework, this article proposes a theoretical model to predict OFDI by EMFs from China. Specifically, we use institution- and industry-based views to examine two facets of home country environment, namely the supportiveness from home government and unfavorableness from home industry, as important determinants of OFDI, and compare the relative strength of these effects. Further, we use resource-based view to argue that the effect of the home country environment is contingent on the international experience portfolios of EMFs

Organizational innovation in the multinational enterprise: internalization theory and business history

This article engages in a methodological experiment by using historical evidence to challenge a common misperception about internalization theory. The theory has often been criticized for maintaining that it assumes a hierarchically organized MNE based on knowledge flowing from the home country. This is not an accurate description of how global firms operate in recent decades, but this article shows it has never been true historically. Using longitudinal data on individual firms from the nineteenth century onwards, it reveals evidence of how entrepreneurs and firms with multinational activity faced with market imperfections changed the design of their headquarters and their organizational structures