Export intensity of foreign subsidiaries of multinational enterprises: the role of trade finance availability

We examine the relationship between the role of trade finance availability and the export intensity of foreign subsidiaries of multinational enterprises (MNEs). In developing our hypotheses, we draw upon insights derived from “new” internalisation theory (international business literature) and international trade finance (international economics literature). We empirically test these hypotheses using survey data compiled from subsidiary managers in six ASEAN countries, supplemented with host-country level data. We conceptualise, empirically test, and establish that the subsidiary-level capability in combining and utilising internal and external debts is an important subsidiary-specific advantage to support export intensity. We find that subsidiaries employ intra-firm loans from MNE internal capital markets and, to some extent, bank loans from external financial institutions to boost their export intensity. Subsidiaries may have concerns about foreign exchange risks, but the use of appropriate foreign exchange risk management is positively associated with export intensity. We discuss the implications of our findings for theory and practice

Local responsiveness strategy of foreign subsidiaries of Chinese multinationals: the impacts of relational-assets, market-seeking FDI, and host country institutional environments

We build upon the theoretical framework of firm-specific advantages (FSAs) and country-specific advantages (CSAs) to examine the determinants of the local responsiveness strategy of foreign subsidiaries of Chinese multinational enterprises (MNEs). Specifically, we focus on relational assets (R-assets is seen as a unique type of Chinese MNEs’ FSA), the market-seeking foreign direct investment (FDI) and host country institutional environments as drivers of the local responsiveness strategy. We empirically test our hypotheses using a survey data of the foreign subsidiaries of Chinese firms together with other secondary data sources. We find that both Chinese MNEs' R-assets and the market-seeking oriented FDI are positively related to subsidiaries' local responsiveness strategy in accommodating local customer needs, government policies, market conditions, and competitive intensity. Moreover, the impact of R-assets in motivating the local responsiveness strategy is stronger in a host country with a weak and underdeveloped institutional environment. While the evidence confirms the existence of the R-assets in influencing subsidiary level strategy, it also casts doubt on such relations-based firm resources in advanced host countries with highly developed institutions

A novel approach to security enhancement of chaotic DSSS systems

In this paper, we propose a novel approach to the enhancement of physical layer security for chaotic direct-sequence spread-spectrum (DSSS) communication systems. The main idea behind our proposal is to vary the symbol period according to the behavior of the chaotic spreading sequence. As a result, the symbol period and the spreading sequence vary chaotically at the same time. This simultaneous variation aims at protecting DSSS-based communication systems from the blind estimation attacks in the detection of the symbol period. Discrete-time models for spreading and despreading schemes are presented and analyzed. Multiple access performance of the proposed technique in the presence of additional white Gaussian noise (AWGN) is determined by computer simulations. The increase in security at the physical layer is also evaluated by numerical results. Obtained results show that our proposed technique can protect the system against attacks based on the detection of the symbol period, even if the intruder has full information on the used chaotic sequence.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Subsidiary strategy of emerging market multinationals: a home country institutional perspective

We examine the effects of home country institutional factors, namely, home country government support, domestic institutional weaknesses, and state ownership on the subsidiary-level strategy of global integration (I) and local responsiveness (R) of emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs). We draw upon the home country institution-based view and the I/R framework to develop our theoretical model. We empirically test our hypotheses using an original new survey data collected from Chinese multinational subsidiary managers supplemented with parent-level and country-level data. We find that home country government support and domestic institutional weaknesses have significant and negative effects on global integration strategy of Chinese multinational subsidiaries. On the other hand, domestic institutional weaknesses push foreign subsidiaries to pursue local responsiveness strategy. Nevertheless, those with greater degree of state ownership in their parent firms are neither willing to disintegrate from their parent firms nor motivated to pursue local responsiveness strategy in order to deal with home country institutional deficiencies and develop new sources of competitiveness in foreign markets. Our findings have advanced the literature on subsidiary strategy in the context of EMNEs, and provide important implications for subsidiary managers and policy makers

Practical use of reactor anti-neutrinos for nuclear safeguard in Vietnam

One of the most abundant man-made sources of low energy (few~MeVs) neutrinos, reactor neutrino, is not only useful for studying neutrino properties, but it is also used in practical applications. In this study, we investigate the practical use of reactor neutrino detectors for nuclear safeguard in Vietnam, specifically at the Dalat Nuclear Reactor, a future research facility, and presumably commercial reactors with 500~kW, 10~MW, and 1000~MW thermal powers, respectively. We compute the rate of observed inverted beta decay events, as well as the statistical significance of extracting isotope composition under the practical assumptions of detector mass, detection efficiency, and background level. We find that a 1-ton detector mass can allow us to detect the reactor's on-off transition state from a few hours to a few days, depending on the standoff distance and reactor thermal power. We investigate how background and energy resolution affect the precision of the extracted weapon-usable ${}^{239}\text{Pu}$ isotope. We conclude that in order to distinguish the 10\% variation of the ${}^{239}\text{Pu}$ in the 10~MW thermal power reactor, a 1-ton detector placed 50~m away must achieve 1\% background level. Increasing the statistics by using a 10x larger detector or placing it $\sqrt{10}$ times closer to the reactor alleviates the requirement of the background level to 10\%

Intellectual structure of international new venture research: a bibliometric analysis and suggestions for a future research agenda

We examine the intellectual structure of the international new venture (INV) literature using bibliometric citation and co-citation analysis. We aim to identify the most influential papers/authors, publication outlets, and key research topics. We focus on the top 100 most-cited papers in this field published between 1994 and 2015. In the post-hoc reading, we supplement our main bibliometric techniques with the qualitative content analysis method to shed light on a number of theoretical and empirical issues. We find that the literature has grown significantly in the past two decades. However, the main factors that hinder the field are the diversity of applicable theoretical perspectives and the inconsistencies between theoretical concepts and measurements of variables in empirics. We outline a detailed future research agenda to address these inconsistencies and recommend using new lenses from international business to examine the INV phenomenon

Stringent constraint on CPT violation with the synergy of T2K-II, NOν\nuA extension, and JUNO

Neutrino oscillation experiments have measured precisely the mass-squared differences of three neutrino mass eigenstates, and three leptonic mixing angles by utilizing both neutrino and anti-neutrino oscillations. The possible CPT violation may manifest itself in the difference of neutrino and anti-neutrino oscillation parameters, making these experiments promising tools for testing CPT invariance. We investigate empirically the sensitivity of the CPT test via the difference in mass-squared splittings ($\Delta m^2_{31} - \Delta \overline{m}^2_{31}$) and in leptonic mixing angles ($\sin^2\theta_{23} - \sin^2\overline{\theta}_{23}$) with the synergy of T2K-II, NO$\nu$A extension, and JUNO experiments. If the CPT symmetry is found to be conserved, the joint analysis of the three experiments will be able to establish limits of $|\Delta m^2_{31} - \Delta \overline{m}^2_{31}|$ < $5.3\times 10^{-3} \text{eV}^2$ and $|\sin^2\theta_{23} - \sin^2\overline{\theta}_{23}|$ < $0.10$ at 3$\sigma$ C. L. on the possible CPT violation. We find that with ($\Delta m^2_{31} - \Delta \overline{m}^2_{31}$), the dependence of the statistical significance on the relevant parameters to exclude the CPT conservation is marginal, and that, if the difference in the best-fit values of $\Delta m^2_{31}$ and $\Delta \overline{m}^2_{31}$ measured by MINOS(+) and NO$\nu$A persists as the true, the combined analysis will rule out the CPT conservation at 4$\sigma$ C. L.. With the ($\sin^2\theta_{23} - \sin^2\overline{\theta}_{23}$), the statistical significance to exclude CPT invariance depends strongly on the true value of $\theta_{23}(\overline{\theta}_{23})$. In case of maximal mixing of $\theta_{23}$, the CPT conservation will be excluded at 3$\sigma$ C. L. or more if the difference in the best-fit values of $\theta_{23}$ and $\overline{\theta}_{23}$ remains as the true.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figure