Information technology and marketing performance within international market-entry alliances: a review and an integrated conceptual framework

The purpose of our paper is to engage in a comprehensive review of the research on Information Technology (IT)-mediated international market-entry alliances.This paper provides a theory-informed conceptual framework of IT-enabled cross-border interfirm relationships and performance outcomes. It integrates perspectives of Resource-based View (RBV) and Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) to argue that the establishment of interfirm IT capabilities enhances the marketing performance of the foreign partner in the host location by improving interfirm relationship governance. Furthermore, IT-related risks and contextual restrictions are identified as important moderators. Conceptualisations of IT capabilities, IT-enhanced interfirm governance, and IT-led marketing performance improvement are suggested. Drawing on RBV and TCE, IT resources, related human resources, and IT integration between partner firms in combination enhances the ability of firms to manage the relationship more effectively through shared control, interfirm coordination, cross-firm formalisation, and hybrid centralisation. These benefits then bring about better upstream and downstream marketing performance in the host location. Additionally, IT capabilities help to mitigate possible contextual limitations and risks. The paper offers a number of theory- and literature- informed research propositions which can be empirically tested in future studies.Top managers of firms currently in or planning to enter international alliances for market entry should carefully consider effective development of interfirm IT capabilities in terms of readiness of hardware and software, human resources, and organisational resources. Our paper provides an integrated framework and propositions which contribute to limited understanding and appreciation of IT value in international market-entry alliances

Initial-boundary value problem for 2D temperature-dependent tropical climate model

It is well known that the tropical climate model is an important model to describe the interaction of large scale flow fields and precipitation in the tropical atmosphere. In this paper, we address the issue of global well-posedness for 2D temperature-dependent tropical climate model in a smooth bounded domain. Through classical energy estimates and De Giorgi-Nash-Moser iteration method, we obtain the global existence and uniqueness of strong solution in classical energy spaces. Compared with Cauchy problem, we establish more delicate a priori estimates with exponential decay rates. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first result concerning the global well-posedness for the initial-boundary value problem in 2D tropical climate model.Comment: 20 page

International relations in international business research:A review and research agenda

The increasing dynamism of the international business (IB) environment has drawn greater scholarly attention to the implications of international politics for MNEs’ cross-border activities. However, a systematic overview of International Relations (IR) research which has been applied in IB studies is absent. To analyse this void, we propose a conceptual framework of the broader international context to delineate the research boundaries of the emerging IR in IB research domain and offer a critically synthesized review of the studies that have drawn on IRscholarship to explain MNEs’ behaviour. We conduct bibliometric and content analyses to understand the state of knowledge of IR in IB research and examine the main approaches to study the impact of IR factors on MNEs’ location choices, entry strategies, legitimacy and post-entry performance. By illuminating knowledge frontier issues, we derive important directions for deepening the integration of IR scholarship to advance IB research

An exploratory study of the upper middle-class consumer attitudes towards counterfeiting in China

Although counterfeiting has been discussed in the literature, research focusing on the newly-emerged upper-middle class from emerging economies remains scarce. The aim of this exploratory study is to uncover the new upper-middle class consumers’ attitudes towards counterfeiting in China. Qualitative research method was adopted to provide richer and deep information on the research questions. Through semi-structured in-depth interviews with members of the Chinese upper-middle class in Beijing, this study reveals that upper-middle class consumers present a distinctive view in counterfeiting in that they believe counterfeiting not only causes grave welfare related consequences and loss of trust in the legal system, but also seriously interferes with the order of the market

International relations in international business research:A review and research agenda

The increasing dynamism of the international business (IB) environment has drawn greater scholarly attention to the implications of international politics for MNEs’ cross-border activities. However, a systematic overview of International Relations (IR) research which has been applied in IB studies is absent. To analyse this void, we propose a conceptual framework of the broader international context to delineate the research boundaries of the emerging IR in IB research domain and offer a critically synthesized review of the studies that have drawn on IRscholarship to explain MNEs’ behaviour. We conduct bibliometric and content analyses to understand the state of knowledge of IR in IB research and examine the main approaches to study the impact of IR factors on MNEs’ location choices, entry strategies, legitimacy and post-entry performance. By illuminating knowledge frontier issues, we derive important directions for deepening the integration of IR scholarship to advance IB research

The internationalization of innovation towards the South:A historical case study of a global pharmaceutical corporation in China (1993–2017)

Intensified competition means that multinational enterprises (MNEs) are increasingly concerned with locating innovation activities in the most appropriate locations. This had led to emerging economies in the South becoming an important destination of R&D-related foreign direct investment (FDI), departing from their traditional role as low-cost production sites. Thus far, however, our understanding of this transformation process is limited. The purpose of this article is therefore to explore the process by which foreign MNEs’ low-value-adding operations in the South are transformed into high-value- adding R&D operations. Drawing on the current literature, we construct a framework of evolution consisting of four major waves of R&D internationalization and corresponding R&D objectives. To better understand how these waves have evolved over time, we focus on the South and trace the process of change using a single historical case study: AstraZeneca in China between 1993 and 2017. We find evidence of idiosyncratic location-bound conditions offering both opportunities and resources. The gradual development of these favourable conditions, along with AstraZeneca’s deepening local knowledge, triggered a transformation process in their operations in China. Our study thus offers important historical insights, which present a platform for future research providing more nuanced theoretical explanations of the four waves of R&D internationalization