Top Management Characteristics of Foreign MNC Affiliates and Affiliate Performance in Japan : Knowledge-Based and Upper Echelon Perspectives

Drawing from the knowledge-based view of MNCs and the upper echelon perspective, we examine the relationship between top management characteristics of MNC affiliates and affiliate performance. Using a sample of 643 foreign MNC affiliates operating in Japan, we found that when the length of an affiliate operation was shorter, the affiliate performed better under the expatriate managing director rather than the Japanese manager. We also found that when the size of an affiliate was larger and the length of operation was shorter, the affiliate performed better under the larger rather than smaller proportion of expatriates in top management teams. Implications for research and practice of top management staffing of MNC foreign affiliates are discussed.

Acquisition Behavior of Emerging Versus Developed Market Multinationals

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how emerging and developed market multinationals (EMMs and DMMs) differ in their acquisition behavior (vis-à-vis the choice of partial versus full acquisitions) when entering a developed market economy, Japan. We hypothesize that EMMs prefer partial acquisitions, whereas DMMs prefer full acquisitions due to what we call the country-of-origin effect. Additionally, we hypothesize that this country-of-origin effect is more pronounced for smaller firms. The results, based upon 224 strategic cross-border acquisitions in Japan, support these two hypotheses. This study contributes to the literature on EMMs

Behold the 'Behemoth'. The privatization of Japan Post Bank

This paper analyzes the privatization process of the Japanese Post Bank (JPB), the largest bank in the world. We report some evidence in favour of the "political view" of SOB's and argue that, before privatization, postal savings banks served as vehicles for politicians to reallocate funds in exchange for private rents. We ask why politicians in Japan decided to privatize the postal savings system, predict how the privatization will proceed and study the expected results of the privatization process. We argue that there will be no level playing field in bank competition after the start of the privatization process and discuss possible out-comes of JPB privatization on financial stability in Japan.Public banking, Japan, Privatization, Postal savings banks

Policy Reactions to the Financial Crisis in Japan: Lessons from the 1990s

We describe the propagation of the recent financial crisis to Japan and compare current monetary policy reactions by the Bank of Japan (BoJ) with actions taken during the 1990s and with current policy reactions by other major central banks. First, we review the recent literature on the origins and propagation mechanisms of financial crises. Then, we ask how the financial crisis was transmitted to Japan and describe the policy responses by BoJ. We proceed and ask what lessons have been learned by other central banks from the financial crisis of the 1990s.Financial crisis, Quantitative/qualitative easing, Exit strategy, Japan

Cultural openness, interpersonal justice, and job satisfaction among Millennials and seniors: evidence from Japanese target employees following M&A

This study compares the perceptions of Millennials with those of senior employees in a cross border acquisition. Literature on Millennials argues that since they are open-minded, it can be assumed they would enjoy greater job satisfaction after their firm is acquired by another company. We investigated how employees perceived interpersonal justice and its influence on job satisfaction, and to what extent employees’ culturally open mindedness mediated this relationship. The results showed that employees, regardless of age, enjoyed greater job satisfaction after an acquisition when they perceived that they were being treated fairly by the new management. This study also showed that senior employees, not the Millennials of the target firm were more culturally open-minded. However, culturally open minded seniors were the less job satisfied. Implications for human resource practices are discussed

Emerging Market versus Western Expatriates in Japan during the Covid-19 Pandemic

In this paper, the term “EMex” is coined to refer to emerging market expatriates who had to adjust to working and living in Japan during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Social Identity Theory is applied together with the Grounded Theory to develop a more nuanced picture of how EMex coped with the adjustment process. We found that EMex were confronted with various challenges, some of which were somewhat similar, while others were quite different compared to those experienced by the Western expatriates. All the interviewees in this study spent most of their assignment duration in Japan at their home office. Occasionally, when EMex were allowed to go to their office, they were assigned to special projects with international teams, and so they did not have any contact with non-English speaking local (Japanese) managers. Like Western expatriates, they also missed in-person meetings with their workmates at the office; in spite of their IT literacy, they also faced challenges conducting online meetings from their home office. EMex were not given housing allowance, and this added to the difficulty in adjusting to living in Japan compared to Western expatriates. Moreover, their motivations and perspectives of the future differed from those of Western managers, who had a more secure future with their company. Also EMex faced out-group categorization issues by host-country nationals (HCNs) even if some of them planned to extend their stay in Japan after their assignment ended

Sources of Global Heterogeneity in Retail Spending

Economies worldwide vary greatly in terms of how much their consumers spend on various types of retail activities. The purpose of this paper is to examine how the regulatory characteristics as well as the natures and strategies of businesses are related to retail spending. We employed random effect time series cross sectional (TSCS) models linear in parameters for forty-eight economies using annual data for the 1999-2008 period. The results provided strong support that economic freedom, foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow and concentration of retail stores in an economy positively affect retail spending. We also found that tax and social security contributions as a proportion of the GDP is positively related to per capita grocery retail spending. A lack of data for a large number of economies, especially less developed ones potentially provides a limitation of this paper.Retail spending, FDI, Economic freedom, Time series cross sectional (TSCS) models

Identification to oneself and to the others: Employees' perceptions after a merger

This study sheds light on how employees identify with organizational change after a cross-border acquisition. Specifically, we tested how target and bidder employees identify against each other. We extend previous findings from the literature that both acquiring and target organizations continue to identify stronger with themselves than with the opposing side. However, self-identification for target employees shrinks down in contrast to bidder employees which remains rather stable. Also, bidder employees identify lower to targets than target employees to the bidder firm. We find that a higher self-identification leads to a higher identification towards the other group. Furthermore, there is some evidence that motivational cultural intelligence of employees and a higher contact intensity to the other side moderate the relationship to the other groups´ identification. Also, highly self-identified employees which are culturally more intelligent and with a higher contact intensity to the other group identify higher to the other group. Implications and future research directions are discussed

Performance Outcome of Leadership Succession at Foreign Subsidiaries in Japan. Does Nationality Matter?

Leadership succession has been an important topic for research and management practice because of its effect on firm performance. This study integrates leadership succession and expatriate staffing literatures by investigating performance outcomes of leadership succession at foreign subsidiaries in Japan. We distinguished four types of CEO successors: expatriate followers (expatriate succeeds another expatriate), localizers (local manager succeeds an expatriate), local followers (local manager succeeds another local manager), and ambassadors (expatriate succeeds a local manager). Our theory and evidence from 2,113 firm-year observations, including 521 successions, suggests that successor types have direct and moderating effects with contextual firm-level factors on subsidiary performance. We extend agency theory by showing that both local and foreign subsidiary CEOs pursue their own, unique interests affecting firm performance in different ways.

Chinese Cross-Border Acquisition Strategies in Japan – Changing from a Resource-Driven to a Market-Driven Approach

The aim of this research is the investigation of strategic behavior of Chinese investors in Japan when making cross-border acquisitions in recent times. While previous literature on acquisitions tended to show that Chinese acquirers were merely resource-driven, i.e. their main purpose was to acquire products, brands, and knowledge to be transferred back to the (Chinese) home market, our study suggests that the behavior of many Chinese firms has changed lately. In a pivotal study with 39 Chinese bidders taking over Japanese targets, we find that their strategy has become increasingly market-driven instead. As far as industry-wise acquisitions are concerned, Chinese firms are taking over Japanese hotels and recreation facilities in recent years for the purpose of providing services to Chinese tourists