COVID-19 and the Changing Perception of Strategic Industries : Implications for International Business

The COVID-19 pandemic has been referred to as one of the most significant health related crises in recent memory, which has also had significant economic and societal implications. Scholars suggest that defining strategic industries is rather difficult due to the fluidity of the criteria, which can be used to define them, as it tends to change. During the twentieth century, the most significant crises, having taken place globally, were World War I and World War II, as well as multiple influenza pandemics, of which the Spanish flu being the most severe one. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a renewed focus on strategic sectors, which can have far reaching implications for international business. Despite all restrictive policies, discussed above, it is a well-known fact based on the outcomes of prior crises that in order to limit the negative outcomes of the pandemic, international cooperation and collaborations are fundamental among private sector firm, including multinational companies, global institutions and policy makers.©2021 Routledge. This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Routledge in Covid-19 and International Business: Change of Era on December 29, 2020 available online: http://www.routledge.com/Covid-19-and-International-Business-Change-of-Era/Marinov-Marinova/p/book/9780367623241fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Influences of COVID-19 on the changing perception of strategic industries globally : Implications for International Business

Postprin

Brand management in mergers and acquisitions: emerging market multinationals venturing into advanced economies

Purpose: This paper focuses on emerging market firms that internationalize into advanced economies by means of acquisitions. This paper aims to describe and discuss brand management in post-acquisition integration from a multi-level perspective and identify how brand management strategy can be constructed. The paper takes into account the influences of country image, corporate brand and brand portfolio to obtain a granular view in managing brand after such acquisitions. Design/Methodology/Approach: A multiple case study approach is adopted. By using case studies and storytelling qualitative research methods, our empirical setting consists of Chinese firms’ acquisitions in Germany. Findings: We identified three mechanisms for brand management in post-acquisition integration of emerging market firms, namely transferring, dynamically redeploying and categorizing that underpin the interconnection and combined influence of country image on the national level, corporate brand on the organizational level and brand portfolio on the product level. Practical implications: Brand has been viewed as a strategic asset in Chinese cross-border acquisitions. Brand management is a dynamic process that involves learning and interaction between the acquirer and target. Our research offers a practical guideline for both acquirers and targets in managing brand amid emerging market firms’ acquisition in advanced economies. Originality/Value: Our findings shed important light on brand management strategy in Chinese overseas acquisitions in particular, and emerging market firms venturing into advanced economies in general. The interlinking of country, company and product levels presents new ideas to brand literature, and the setting with Chinese firms acquiring German companies constitutes an important contribution to understand how firms from emerging economies may pursue branding strategies different to present knowledge from advanced economy firms

Sustainability and organizational behavior: a micro-foundational perspective

Organizational behavior is a well-established academic field comprising a comprehensive and wide range of extant literature. In contrast, sustainability and micro-foundational literature constitute significant but nevertheless more relatively recent emergent bodies of work with each having developed particular predilections in the manner in which they are cast and discussed. There is scope, therefore, to bring to bear a range of organizational behavioral insights in conjunction with these areas thereby creating a fusion which surfaces the drivers and antecedents that operate and play out in the dynamic between these domains. The mechanism employed to do this is through the development of a special issue of papers, drawing on a range of methodological approaches and sectorial perspectives. This is important and has the aim of generating fresh insights and challenging conventional ways of viewing the behavioral dimensions of sustainability and especially through a micro-foundational lens. The analyses in the special issue underlines and demonstrates the value of engaging a range of national contexts, sectorial settings and historical and contemporaneous perspectives which shed novel light on the confluences of sustainability, organizational behavior and micro-foundations. The Special Issue also suggests future directions that subsequent research may take in these arenas

Guest editorial: Mindfulness and relational systems in organizations: enabling content, context and process

©2024 Emerald Publishing Limited. This manuscript version is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution–NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY–NC 4.0) license, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Perceived corruption, business process digitization, and SMEs’ degree of internationalization in sub-Saharan Africa

This paper contributes to international business literature by investigating the relationship between perceived corruption and the degree of internationalization (DoI) through business process digitization (BPD). Moreover, the paper examines the moderating effect of firm age on the correlation between perceived corruption and BPD. Using data collected from two sub-Saharan African countries—Ghana and Nigeria, the findings show that perceived corruption is positively correlated to BPD and this correlation is stronger among younger firms. Besides, the findings reveal that BPD is positively correlated to DoI. Moreover, the results of our analysis also indicate that BPD mediates the correlation between perceived corruption and DoI. The limitations of the study and the implications of its findings for researchers and practitioners are discussed.</p

International open innovation and international market success : an empirical study of emerging market small and medium-sized enterprises

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Servitized SMEs’ performance and the influences of sustainable procurement, packaging, and distribution:The mediating role of eco-innovation

The current paper is one of the pioneering studies to specifically analyze the role of both inbound and outbound sustainable supply chain practices (SSCP) of servitized SMEs in a relatively high-risk emerging economy context of Pakistan. Building on Porter's Value Chain Model, this study analyzes the influence of sustainable servitization on multiple performance indicators (including environmental, economic, social, and operational) of servitized SMEs. We further investigate the role of eco-innovation as a mediator. The study employs a time-lagged research design, based on primary data collected from 280 managers of servitized SMEs. We found that sustainable practices positively impact servitized SMEs’ performance, except for sustainable procurement's influence on operational performance. Finally, eco-innovation was found to partially mediate the analyzed inter-relationships.</p

Coupling Artificial Intelligence Capability and Strategic Agility for Enhanced Product and Service Creativity

Creativity is key for organizations’ ability to remain relevant in today's disruptive world. In this paper, we identify new ways in which organizations can use artificial intelligence (AI) more effectively for creativity. Drawing on the resource‐based view as a background mechanism, we developed and empirically tested a new integrative model. We collected the research data via a large survey of managers distributed to 600 organizations in China. Our findings show that coupling AI capability with strategic agility can directly support creativity. It also mediates the effects of ambidexterity, customer orientation and competitor orientation on organizations’ creativity and performance when developing new products and services. In addition, our findings show that coupling AI capability and strategic agility can significantly improve firms’ new product creativity and new service development performance when there is a high level of government institutional support. Our findings provide theoretical and practical implications for academics and practitioners interested in managing AI for organizational creativity