Trust, control, interactionand performancein IJVs: A taxonomy of German-Chinese Joint Ventures

Control and trust are recurring themes in the analysis of the management of International Joint Ventures (IJVs). Both issues (and their antecedents) have been analysed in isolation and in their relation with performance, though hardly any study exists which analyses them simultaneously in their interdependence. More importantly however, there are few, if any, studies that have empirically tested the existence and nature of the mechanisms that are assumed to link control and trust to performance. It is the purpose of this paper to empirically investigate these mechanisms in view of the interaction processes taking place between the JV partners. Analysing the interaction processes in the context of control, trust and performance is expected to provide a better understanding of the relationship between control, trust and performance. To this aim a concept of inter-firm interaction in IJVs is proposed. The empirical basis for this study consists of data gathered through a questionnaire survey among German and Chinese General Managers of German-Chinese Joint Ventures (GCJVs) in the People?s Republic of China carried out in 2000/01. Using Cluster-Analysis two JV types are derived, which allow for some first yet tentative inferences to be made regarding the complex interplay between control, trust, performance, and interaction in GCJVs. --Joint Venture,China,empirical study,trust,control

Explaining foreign firms' approaches to corporate political activity in emerging economies: the effects of resource criticality, product diversification, inter-subsidiary integration, and business ties

Despite the increasing scope for transactional approaches to corporate political activity (CPA) in emerging markets and rising concerns about the use of relational approaches, foreign firms in emerging economies appear to be reluctant to adopt transactional approaches to CPA. Using Resource Dependence theory we argue that criticality of resources, product diversification, integration with other foreign subsidiaries, and business ties may explain why foreign firms adopt a transactional or a relational approach to CPA. We test our hypotheses using a sample of 105 subsidiaries of foreign firms in India. We find that unrelated diversification and close integration with other subsidiaries of their parent firm makes subsidiaries more likely to adopt a transactional approach, whereas local resource criticality and ties to local businesses makes subsidiaries less likely to use a transactional approach to CPA. Our findings enhance our understanding of the factors that determine foreign firms’ choice of approaches to CPA in emerging economies

Prospects for radical emissions reduction through behaviour and lifestyle change

Over the past two decades, scholars and practitioners across the social sciences, in policy and beyond have proposed, trialled and developed a wide range of theoretical and practical approaches designed to bring about changes in behaviours and lifestyles that contribute to climate change. With the exception of the establishment of a small number of iconic behaviours such as recycling, it has however proved extremely difficult to bring about meaningful transformations in personal greenhouse gas emissions at either the individual or societal level, with multiple reviews now pointing to the limited efficacy of current approaches. We argue that the majority of approaches designed to achieve mitigation have been constrained by the need to operate within prevailing social scientific, economic and political orthodoxies which have precluded the possibility of non-marginal change. In this paper we ask what a truly radical approach to reducing personal emissions would look like from social science perspectives which challenge the unstated assumptions severely limiting action to date, and which explore new alternatives for change. We emphasise the difficulties likely to impede the instituting of genuinely radical societal change regarding climate change mitigation, whilst proposing ways that the ground could be prepared for such a transformation to take place

Alpha scattering and capture reactions in the A = 7 system at low energies

Differential cross sections for $^3$He-$\alpha$ scattering were measured in the energy range up to 3 MeV. These data together with other available experimental results for $^3$He $+ \alpha$ and $^3$H $+ \alpha$ scattering were analyzed in the framework of the optical model using double-folded potentials. The optical potentials obtained were used to calculate the astrophysical S-factors of the capture reactions $^3$He$(\alpha,\gamma)^7$Be and $^3$H$(\alpha,\gamma)^7$Li, and the branching ratios for the transitions into the two final $^7$Be and $^7$Li bound states, respectively. For $^3$He$(\alpha,\gamma)^7$Be excellent agreement between calculated and experimental data is obtained. For $^3$H$(\alpha,\gamma)^7$Li a $S(0)$ value has been found which is a factor of about 1.5 larger than the adopted value. For both capture reactions a similar branching ratio of $R = \sigma(\gamma_1)/\sigma(\gamma_0) \approx 0.43$ has been obtained.Comment: submitted to Phys.Rev.C, 34 pages, figures available from one of the authors, LaTeX with RevTeX, IK-TUW-Preprint 930540

O(alpha^3 ln alpha) corrections to muonium and positronium hyperfine splitting

We compute O(alpha^3 ln alpha) relative corrections to the ground state hyperfine splitting of a QED two body bound state with different masses of constituents. The general result is then applied to muonium and positronium. In particular, a new value of the muon to electron mass ratio is derived from the muonium ground state hyperfine splitting.Comment: 4 pages, revte

Resummation of the Divergent Perturbation Series for a Hydrogen Atom in an Electric Field

We consider the resummation of the perturbation series describing the energy displacement of a hydrogenic bound state in an electric field (known as the Stark effect or the LoSurdo-Stark effect), which constitutes a divergent formal power series in the electric field strength. The perturbation series exhibits a rich singularity structure in the Borel plane. Resummation methods are presented which appear to lead to consistent results even in problematic cases where isolated singularities or branch cuts are present on the positive and negative real axis in the Borel plane. Two resummation prescriptions are compared: (i) a variant of the Borel-Pade resummation method, with an additional improvement due to utilization of the leading renormalon poles (for a comprehensive discussion of renormalons see [M. Beneke, Phys. Rep. vol. 317, p. 1 (1999)]), and (ii) a contour-improved combination of the Borel method with an analytic continuation by conformal mapping, and Pade approximations in the conformal variable. The singularity structure in the case of the LoSurdo-Stark effect in the complex Borel plane is shown to be similar to (divergent) perturbative expansions in quantum chromodynamics.Comment: 14 pages, RevTeX, 3 tables, 1 figure; numerical accuracy of results enhanced; one section and one appendix added and some minor changes and additions; to appear in phys. rev.

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