Making the next move: When does the newness of experience matter in overseas sequential entries of multinational companies?

© 2017 Elsevier Ltd Traditional internationalization models suggest multinational companies (MNCs) can exploit their accumulative experience to facilitate their sequential entries. However, experience may depreciate over time. Thus, obtaining benefits from prior experience for MNCs is based on two critical premises, i.e., interpreting and applying experience correctly. We argue that there is a need to study the newness dimension of experiential learning. In doing so, we aim to explore to what extent the newness of experience matters in overseas sequential entries for MNCs. Moreover, we expect that the benefits from recent experience in guiding sequential entries are contingent on the extent of context similarity between the most recent entry location and sequential entry location and the outcome expectancy of focal entry. With a sample of 112 Chinese listed firms and 410 observations during the period of 2000–2012, we find that else being equal, the newness of experience of MNCs is positively associated with sequential entry and such a relationship is positively moderated both by context similarity in institutional environment and the outcome expectancy of the focal entry. We also compare the effects of the newness of different types of experience and find that the newness of the most recent experience has a larger influence on sequential entry than location-specific experience and general experience

How do linking, leveraging and learning capabilities influence the entry mode choice for multinational firms from emerging markets?

© 2017, © Emerald Publishing Limited. Purpose: Based on the linkage-leverage-learning (LLL) framework developed by Mathews (2006), the purpose of this paper is to examine how linking, leveraging and learning capabilities influence the choice of foreign-entry mode, and the way such influences are contingent on context factors in the emerging markets. Design/methodology/approach: Contrary to a prior literature applying the LLL framework, which mainly used case studies, this paper adopts a quantitative approach and is based on a sample of 321 Chinese listed companies to test the hypotheses. Findings: The results show that multinational firms from emerging markets (EMFs) with stronger LLL capabilities are more likely to choose the wholly owned mode in foreign entries. In addition, the relationship between linking capability and wholly owned entry mode choice is weaker at higher levels of cultural distance between home and host country. At the same time, the relationship between learning capability and wholly owned entry mode choice is weaker at higher levels of cultural distance between home and host country, and of institutional distance between prior entries and the focal entry. Research limitations/implications: An entry mode strategy for firms without ownership advantages and the identification of boundary conditions for applying different LLL capabilities are recommended. The generalizability of the findings from a single-country setting still needs further validation with other emerging economies. Originality/value: This paper treats internationalization of firms from emerging countries with a different perspective. The underlying idea in this study is that internationalization is not only a process for EMFs to utilize externally accessible assets abroad, but also a process of simultaneously combining internationalization with experiential learning and capability utilization in overseas markets. In addition, the authors also contribute to the literature by providing strong empirical evidence for validating the LLL model and extending the existing entry mode studies

A New Spin Gapless Semiconductors Family: Quaternary Heusler Compounds

Using first-principles calculations, we investigate the band structures of a series of quaternary LiMgPdSn-type Heusler compounds. Our calculation results show that five compounds CoFeMnSi, CoFeCrAl, CoMnCrSi, CoFeVSi and FeMnCrSb possess unique electronic structures characterized by a half-metallic gap in one spin direction while a zero-width gap in the other spin direction showing spin gapless semiconducting behavior. We further analysis the electronic and magnetic properties of all quaternary Heusler alloys involved, and reveal a semi-empirical general rule (total valence electrons number being 26 or 28) for indentifying spin gapless semiconductors in Heusler compounds. The influences of lattice distortion and main-group element change have also been discussed.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures, 1 supplementary file, submitted for publicatio

Vibration control of In-Wheel SRM for electric vehicle applications

The Switched Reluctance Motor (SRM) processes great application potential in In-Wheel Motor (IWM) electric vehicles (EV). However the problem of vibration and noise is always a disadvantage of this kind of motor. By utilizing the analytical Fourier fitting method, a convenience method for modeling In-Wheel Switched Reluctance Motor (IW SRM) is proposed for EV applications. And the negative vibration and noise effect of IW SRM on vehicle is investigated according to the unbalanced residual lateral force. Then corresponding control methods are proposed, modified and compared. The proposed combined vibration feed back control of current chopping with PWM can effectively reduce the SRM residual force and ensure the required vehicle speed, though some small low frequency force response is induced

Foreign sequential entry mode choice: A structural inertia perspective and evidence from Chinese firms

© 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to use the theoretical perspective of structural inertia as a unique lens to study foreign sequential entry mode choices of multinational firms. Design/methodology/approach: It adopts quantitative analysis of a sample of 121 Chinese publicly listed firms with 564 foreign entry incidents in the 2001-2012 period to test the hypotheses. Findings: The empirical results show that multinational firms have a tendency to adopt the same mode in the subsequent entry as the number of prior entry mode choice of a given type (joint venture (JV) in this study) increases. The results support the theoretical prediction that organizations repeat their past activities due to structural inertia. Moreover, such an inertia effect in foreign sequential entry mode choices becomes stronger for older multinational firms, larger multinational firms and state-owned multinational firms. Research limitations/implications: Consistent with existing research, this study focuses on the entry mode choice between JV and wholly owned subsidiaries. However, it is better to examine the relationship identified in the study for different types of entry mode choices to assess result generalizability. Practical implications: It reminds managers of multinational firms that they should be cautious to the influence of structural inertia that can be a barrier to strategic flexibility when they make entry mode choices. Originality/value: The main contribution of this study resides in introducing structural inertia perspective to help understand the determinants of foreign sequential entry mode choices of multinational firms

Retrofit of Existing Residential Building: a Case Study

There are about 42 billion square meters of existing buildings in China. The energy efficiency of existing buildings directly relates to the energy consumption of the building sector. The retrofit of existing residential building began in the 1990s in Heilongjiang. The Sino-Canada demonstration project and Sino-France demonstration project of retrofitting existing residential buildings were carried out in 1997 and 2004, respectively. The retrofit method and energy conservation potential of the envelope and heating system of northern existing buildings are analyzed in this paper, combining the experiences of retrofitting existing residential buildings in Heilongjiang. The software was compiled to aid the design of the envelope retrofit in Heilongjiang and to analyze the working situation in existing residential building heating systems. The imbalance of the indoor temperature and the quantity of heating loss from opening the window in different retrofit projects are presented. The emphasis on energy efficiency retrofit of the envelope of existing residential buildings should be placed on the wall in northern region. It is possible to reduce about 50 percent of energy consumption of buildings by insulating the wall. The external insulation is suitable for retrofitting existing buildings, and the moisture transfer should be considered at the same time. To insure actual reduction in energy consumption, the heating system should be retrofitted when the envelope is insulated

Structure embedding for knowledge base completion and analytics

© 2017 IEEE. To explore the latent information of Human Knowledge, the analysis for Knowledge Bases (KBs) (e.g. WordNet, Freebase) is essential. Some previous KB element embedding frameworks are used for KBs structure analysis and completion. These embedding frameworks use low-dimensional vector space representation for large scale of entities and relations in KB. Based on that, the vector space representation of entities and relations which are not contained by KB can be measured. The embedding idea is reasonable, while the current embedding methods have some issues to get proper embeddings for KB elements. The embedding methods use entity-relation-entity triplet, contained by most of current KB, as training data to output the embedding representation of entities and relations. To measure the truth of one triplet (The knowledge represented by triplet is true or false), some current embedding methods such as Structured Embedding (SE) project entity vectors into subspace, the meaning of such subspace is not clear for knowledge reasoning. Some other embedding methods such as TransE use simple linear vector transform to represent relation (such as vector add or minus), which can't deal with the multiple relations match or multiple entities match problem. For example, there are multiple relations between two entities, or there are multiple entities have same relation with one entity. Insipred by previous KB element structured embedding methods, we propose a new method, Bipartite Graph Network Structured Embedding (BGNSE). BGNSE combines the current KB embedding methods with bipartite graph network model, which is widely used in many fields including image data compression, collaborative filtering. BGNSE embeds each entity-relation-entity KB triplet into a bipartite graph network structure model, represents each entity by one bipartite graph layer, represents relation by link weights matrix of bipartite graph network. Based on bipartite graph model, our proposed method has following advantages. BGNSE model uses one matrix for each relation, the relation transform between two entities can be done directly by forward and backward propagation of bipartite graph network, no need for subspace projection. Because of using bipartite graph network, the relation transforms between entities are nonlinear (network layer propagation), the multiple relations match or multiple entities match problems can be dealt. The learnt entity and relation embeddings can be used for problems such as knowledge base completions