Mode Combinations and International Operations: Theoretical Issues and an Empirical Investigation

An enduring characteristic of extant literature on foreign operation modes is its discrete choice approach, where companies are assumed to choose one among a small number of distinctive alternatives. • In this paper, detailed information about the operations of six Norwegian companies in three key markets (China, UK and USA) is used as the basis for an exploration of the extent to which, and how and why, companies combine clearly different foreign operation modes. We examine their use of foreign operation mode combinations within given value activities as well as within given countries. • The study reveals that companies tend to combine modes of operation; thereby producing unique foreign operation mode “packages” for given activities and/or countries, and that the packages are liable to be modified over time – providing a potentially important optional path for international expansion. • The data show considerable variation across cases; ranging from extensive use of mode combinations to a singular focus on a specific mode of operation. The study contributes to a refinement of our understanding of the path of internationalisation, and throws up a number of awkward theoretical questions about the process

The internet and foreign market expansion by firms

The Internet holds the potential of reducing the uncertainty associated with doing business in foreign markets. Thus, marketing scholars have underscored the potential of the Internet to reduce substantially the search costs of companies and consumers. In addition, the Internet provides opportunities for almost costless distribution of information goods. Overall, the Intenet provides the capacity to significantly increase the efficiency of market transactions

A theoretical perspective

Internalisation theory informs us about why and when multinational enterprises (MNEs) internalise foreign operations, but has less to say about how the internalisation should be prepared and exercised when foreign market operations initially are carried out by local, outside agents. Drawing on insights from managerially-oriented literature, this paper explores the role of management in situations where the market transaction costs of using outside agents are negligible at market entry, but grow over time. A key question pertaining to this situation is: what management instruments may ensure persistent concurrence between changing pressure for internalisation in a foreign market and the effectuated internalisation of an MNE in that market? Management instruments and strategies that potentially support ‘staged internalisation’ include appropriation of the local outside agent’s financial assets (including equity) as well as non-financial assets in relation to user rights, customer relations, and value added activities

Insights for International Strategic Management

Companies’ choice of foreign operation modes (FOM) has been a core subject of international business studies basically from its beginning (Hymer, 1960 [1976]; Root, 1964). A halfcentury of research has brought us a set of established perspectives on companies’ foreign operation mode choices; the most important being the economics based approaches of internalisation and transaction cost theories (Anderson and Gatignon, 1986; Buckley and Casson, 1976; Hennart, 1982), evolutionary and resource based approaches (Andersen, 1997; Kogut and Zander, 1993; Madhok, 1997), institutional approaches (Kostova and Zaheer, 1999; Meyer and Peng, 2005), and process models based on learning and decision behaviour theories (Johanson and Vahlne, 1977, 2009)...

Exploring structural and electronic effects in three isomers of tris{bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl}borane: Towards the combined electrochemical-frustrated Lewis pair activation of H2

Three structural isomers of tris{bis(trifluoromethyl)phenyl}borane have been studied as the acidic com- ponent of frustrated Lewis pairs. While the 3,5-substituted isomer is already known to heterolytically cleave H2 to generate a bridging-hydride; ortho-substituents in the 2,4- and 2,5-isomers quench such reactivity through electron donation into the vacant boron pz orbital and steric blocking of the boron centre; as shown by electrochemical, structural and computational studies. Electrochemical studies of the corresponding borohydrides identify that the two-electron oxidation of terminal-hydrides occurs at more positive potentials than observed for [HB(C6F5)3]−, while the bridging-hydride oxidizes at a higher poten- tial still, comparable to that of free H2

An Electrochemical Study of Frustrated Lewis Pairs: A Metal-free Route to Hydrogen Oxidation

[Image: see text] Frustrated Lewis pairs have found many applications in the heterolytic activation of H(2) and subsequent hydrogenation of small molecules through delivery of the resulting proton and hydride equivalents. Herein, we describe how H(2) can be preactivated using classical frustrated Lewis pair chemistry and combined with in situ nonaqueous electrochemical oxidation of the resulting borohydride. Our approach allows hydrogen to be cleanly converted into two protons and two electrons in situ, and reduces the potential (the required energetic driving force) for nonaqueous H(2) oxidation by 610 mV (117.7 kJ mol(–1)). This significant energy reduction opens routes to the development of nonaqueous hydrogen energy technology