Firm-specific, country-specific and region-specific competitive advantages: the case of emerging economy MNEs - Thailand

Increasing levels of regional economic integration have created a new source of international competitiveness for MNEs from an emerging economy, Thailand, in the context of ASEAN economic integration. Building on the theoretical framework of firm-specific advantages (FSAs) and country-specific advantages (CSAs) grounded in internalization theory, we introduce region-specific advantages (RSAs) and advance a novel regional dual-double-diamond model to analyse regional competitiveness. Using both primary and secondary data we find that most Thai firms derive their international competitiveness from CSAs rather than FSAs, and will benefit from ASEAN RSAs. Our study significantly advances the literature on international competitiveness of emerging-economy MNEs

A perspective on multinational enterprise’s national identity dilemma

This conceptual paper identifies gaps and contributes to the literature on ‘identity’ dilemmas faced by multinational enterprises operating in a globalised world. Various characteristics and business strategies of multinational enterprises are delineated and analysed through the lens of social identity theory and international business concepts such as market and institutional logic. Our analysis, based on multiple cases, and derived from a variety of industries and countries, associates the identity dilemma to informed business strategy. Our findings suggest that while multinational enterprises face identity dilemmas that they sometimes use to their advantage, it also poses several challenges. Through our conceptualisation, we derive five distinct propositions to shape future research directions

When is a Publishing Business Truly ‘Global’? An Analysis of a Routledge Case Study with Reference to Ohmae’s Theory of Globalization

This study first reviews the writing of the management theorist Kenichi Ohmae, before assessing the potential application of his theory of global commercial maturation to the strategies adopted by the academic publishing company, Routledge, and its precursor imprints between 1960 and 2013. Based on the analysis of interviews carried out between 2011 and 2013 and supporting document analysis, the paper concludes that, with some caveats, the stages of globalization identified by Ohmae are of considerable explanatory value for students and analysts of global publishing as well as offering strategic insights to managers of academic publishing houses

How do MNC R&D laboratory roles affect employee international assignments?

Research and development (R&D) employees are important human resources for multinational corporations (MNCs) as they are the driving force behind the advancement of innovative ideas and products. International assignments of these employees can be a unique way to upgrade their expertise; allowing them to effectively recombine their unique human resources to progress existing knowledge and advance new ones. This study aims to investigate the effect of the roles of R&D laboratories in which these employees work on the international assignments they undertake. We categorise R&D laboratory roles into those of the support laboratory, the locally integrated laboratory and the internationally interdependent laboratory. Based on the theory of resource recombinations, we hypothesise that R&D employees in support laboratories are not likely to assume international assignments, whereas those in locally integrated and internationally interdependent laboratories are likely to assume international assignments. The empirical evidence, which draws from research conducted on 559 professionals in 66 MNC subsidiaries based in Greece, provides support to our hypotheses. The resource recombinations theory that extends the resource based view can effectively illuminate the international assignment field. Also, research may provide more emphasis on the close work context of R&D scientists rather than analyse their demographic characteristics, the latter being the focus of scholarly practice hitherto

What lies between market and hierarchy? Insights from internalization theory and global value chain theory

In this paper, we suggest that internalization theory might be extended by incorporating complementary insights from GVC theory. More specifically, we argue that internalization theory can explain why lead firms might wish to externalize selected activities, but that it is largely silent on the mechanisms by which those lead firms might exercise control over the resultant externalized relationships with their GVC partners. We advance an explanation linking the choice of control mechanism to two factors: power asymmetries between the lead firms and their GVC partners, and the degree of codifiability of the information to be exchanged in the relationship

The economic geography of the meso-global spaces: integrating multinationals and clusters at the local-global level

This is an author's accepted manuscript of an article published in: “European Planning Studies"; Volume 21, Issue 7, 2013; copyright Taylor & Francis; available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2013.733853[EN] The local global phenomenon literature is fragmented between the fields of international business and economic geography (EG). In the case of the latter, the literature, produced within the global production networks (GPNs) and global value chain frameworks, does not address the central role of firms, especially multinationals which co-locate and connect territories along GPNs. This paper develops a cross-field conceptual integration in order to enrich the EG perspective, using qualitative research methodology to test the framework. The results have important implications for scholars and policymakers.We are very thankful to the “Ministry of Economics” funding ECO2010:17318 and “Generalitat Valenciana” for its support in visiting the London School of Economics and Political Science (BEST 2011 grants)Hervás Oliver, JL.; Boix Domenech, R. (2012). The economic geography of the meso-global spaces: integrating multinationals and clusters at the local-global level. European Planning Studies. 21(7):1064-1080. https://doi.org/10.1080/09654313.2013.733853S1064108021

Multinationality and performance literature: a critical review and future research agenda

The literature on the relationship between the degree of multinationality (M) and performance (P) in the context of multinational enterprises (MNEs) has attracted a large volume of research in the past 50 years. Yet, the theoretical foundations and the empirical conclusions concerning the nature of M–P relationship vary greatly, thus call for a critical review and assessment. We examine 135 articles in 39 leading scholarly journals and classic books published during the period 1960–2015. We use an inductive approach and a qualitative content analysis methodology for our comprehensive and critical review of the literature. We incorporate international business, finance, and accounting perspectives in our analysis. We review the conceptualization and measurement of M, P, the findings on M–P relationships, methodologies, and geographic focus. We identify six key inconsistencies in the existing research, which cause ambiguity in the relevant findings. We make eight recommendations for future research to address these inconsistencies. Thus, our study contributes to the central debate in this research field

The geographically variegated connections of the Jakarta metropolitan area as produced by manufacturing firms

Connectivity in urban networks is often deemed to be an important feature of economically vibrant cities. Under conditions of contemporary globalization, the importance and geographies of these connections are increasingly variegated. Accordingly, various attempts have been made to analyse the external relations of cities and metropolitan regions, often through the lens of multilocational firms. Our purpose in this paper is to address the to‐date limited empirical knowledge about whether firms originating from different regions (i.e., firms with different headquarter [HQ] locations) create different patterns of inter‐urban relations. Drawing on the interlocking network model and using the Jakarta metropolitan area (JMA) as a case study, this paper explores how manufacturing firms with HQs either inside (further differentiating between the JMA and other cities) or outside (further differentiating between East Asian and non‐East Asian countries) Indonesia produce different patterns of external relations. Our findings indicate that each category of firms generates unique configurations of interurban relations for the JMA at the global and national scales. We argue that these variegated networks patterns not only reflect different locational strategies of firms, but also Indonesia's evolving policy orientations which have complex relations with evolving patterns of economic globalization