National Income Inequality, Society, and Multinational Enterprises

This chapter calls for understanding the perspective of multinational enterprises (MNEs) on international differences in income inequality. The authors set a research agenda on how national differences in income inequality influence MNE expansion strategies. Applying a transaction cost framework, both negative and positive economic outcomes of income inequality, from the MNE\u27s perspective, are identified. Low levels of income inequality may deter foreign investment, as MNEs prefer countries where they incur lower levels of transaction costs arising from interactions with various market and non-market actors. However, the positive effect of income inequality on location attractiveness will likely diminish at higher levels of inequality when benefits are increasingly offset by additional monitoring, bargaining and security costs owing to instability and conflict. The chapter further explores the implications for level of MNE equity applied in the choice of entry mode under different levels of income inequality

National Income Inequality and International Business Expansion

We examine the extent to which host country income inequality influences multinational enterprises’ (MNE) expansion strategy for foreign production investment, depending on their specific strategic objectives. Applying a transaction cost framework, we predict that national income inequality has an inverted U-shaped relationship with foreign production investment. As inequality increases, MNEs accrue lower transaction costs arising from interactions with various local actors, leading to higher probability of investment. As income inequality increases further, its effect on location attractiveness will become negative, as its attraction effect is increasingly offset by additional monitoring, bargaining, and security costs owing to the more fractious nature of high inequality societies. In addition, we suggest that the impact of income inequality is contingent on investment objectives: The inverted U-shaped relationship is stronger for efficiency-seeking investment but weaker for market-seeking and competence-enhancing investments. We find substantial support for our hypotheses through an analysis of 27 years (1986-2012) of data on Japanese MNEs’ overseas production entries

The Importance of CSR Strategic Fit and the Times of Economic Hardship

Previous research investigating the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate financial performance (CFP) revealed the importance of industry specificity. Drawing on strategic stakeholder theory, we argue that the strategic fit between CSR activities and value chain activities contributes to the industry-specific effects in the CSR-CFP relationship. Given the multidimensional nature of CSR, some CSR activities will be more impactful for certain industries than others, because industries differ in value chain activities and salient stakeholders. Specifically, we propose and test a set of hypotheses for two industries positioned on the different ends of the industry spectrum based on their ecological footprint – healthcare and resource extraction. We further examine the industry specificity of the CSR-CFP relationship by exploring external economic conditions (the 2008-2009 recession) as a boundary condition. Our study contributes to the extant literature by demonstrating the role of strategic fit between CSR and value chain activities in explaining the influence of CSR on CFP. Additional testing of this mechanism in the times of economic hardship adds a unique aspect to our theoretical and empirical contributions

Is foreign investment for outperformers or underperformers? Evidence from Japanese machinery firms

Drawing on performance feedback theory, this study examines the relationship between corporate performance and subsequent foreign investment decisions. It is argued that a firm's performance relative to its aspiration levels influences its propensity to engage in foreign investment as well as its choice of investment location. We propose that an improvement in performance relative to aspiration levels of performance reduces the propensity for international investment and that the deterrent impact of country distance on foreign entry is contingent on relative performance. Consistent with the theory, an analysis of investments in foreign manufacturing facilities made by 206 Japanese machinery firms between 1986 and 2002 shows that foreign investment propensity is overall negatively related to prior firm performance relative to aspiration levels. The likelihood of foreign investment decreases when firm performance exceeds historical and social aspirations. The probability of foreign entry does not significantly increase as performance falls below aspirations, however is still greater than when performance exceeds aspirations. In addition, outperforming and underperforming firms were more likely to enter host countries with larger geographic and institutional distances from Japan, implying extended search efforts and/or greater risk-taking behavior

Organizational performance feedback effects and international expansion

Drawing on performance feedback theory to develop the Uppsala internationalization model, we argue that organizational performance relative to managerial aspirations influences firms’ foreign expansion propensity as well as the type of country location. Our statistical analysis of foreign entries by Japanese machinery firms between 1976 and 2002 finds that firms performing closer to aspirations were more likely to enter foreign countries than those that under- or out-performed. Underperforming firms were also more likely to enter countries with greater cultural and geographic proximity to those in which they had already invested. Our findings contribute to international business research by identifying organizational performance conditions under which firms tend to adopt an incremental approach to foreign expansion, or else a comparatively radical one of selecting more distant or unfamiliar countries

Managing Responsibly in Tough Economic Times: Strategic and Tactical CSR During the 2008-2009 Global Recession

In constrained economic times, organizations can either withdraw their socially responsible activities or maintain - even expand - them to meet heightened stakeholder needs. The 2008-2009 global recession offers a natural experiment through which to understand corporate social responsibility (CSR) in a tight economy. In this paper, we suggest that tactical, rather than strategic, forms of CSR will more likely be withdrawn. Tactical CSR comprises transactional activi

Parent Firm Corporate Social Responsibility and Overseas Subsidiary Performance: A Signaling Perspective

This study examines how the performance impact of parent firm CSR on overseas subsidiaries may vary according to the task, the institutional, and the informational aspects of the signaling environment facing host country stakeholders. We argue that subsidiary primary activity, host country media freedom, and localized information concerning the parent firm influence host country stakeholders’ informational needs and the patterns of information dissemination and acquisition, thereby moderating the performance-enhancing effect of parent firm CSR. Our analysis of Japanese overseas investments from 2002-2014 largely supports our hypotheses and illustrates the significance of environmental contingencies in cross-border CSR signaling

The impact of vicarious experience on foreign location strategy

MNEs can learn from the foreign investment experiences of other firms when evaluating their own foreign entry strategies. We argue that other firms' experiences reduce investment barriers arising from formal and informal institutional environments in host countries that are dissimilar from an MNE's home country, thereby encouraging new entry. Our empirical analysis of foreign entries by Japanese public manufacturing firms over more than a thirty-year period indicates that the prior experiences of other firms in a host country mitigate the negative effect of formal and informal institutional distance on entry decisions: as other firms' experiences in a host country increase, a firm is less deterred by greater institutional distance from entering the country. We also find that the distance-mitigating effect of other firms' experiences in different industries is less significant when a larger body of same-industry firm experience exists in a country, implying a substitution effect between different types of vicarious experience

National income inequality, society, and multinational enterprises

This chapter calls for understanding the perspective of multinational enterprises (MNEs) on international differences in income inequality. The authors set a research agenda on how national differences in income inequality influence MNE expansion strategies. Applying a transaction cost framework, both negative and positive economic outcomes of income inequality, from the MNE's perspective, are identified. Low levels of income inequality may deter foreign investment, as MNEs prefer countries where they incur lower levels of transaction costs arising from interactions with various market and non-market actors. However, the positive effect of income inequality on location attractiveness will likely diminish at higher levels of inequality when benefits are increasingly offset by additional monitoring, bargaining and security costs owing to instability and conflict. The chapter further explores the implications for level of MNE equity applied in the choice of entry mode under different levels of income inequality