Showing papers by "Shaker A. Zahra published in 2022"

Toward an action-based view of dynamic capabilities for international business

Abstract: A growing body of research highlights the importance and development of dynamic capabilities as well as the contingencies that can affect such development. However, existing research pays limited attention to the demands of competition in today’s dynamic, volatile, and ambiguous international markets. The international business (IB) realities and contexts require companies to develop and effectively deploy dynamic capabilities to achieve evolutionary fitness, adapt, and successfully exploit opportunities (and neutralize threats) stemming from technological, social, geopolitical, institutional, and economic changes and interdependencies among various layers of embeddedness. Consequently, in this article, we discuss dynamic capabilities that tailor to the specifics of IB contexts, underscore their conceptual properties relevant for the IB realities, and articulate the processes involved in their building and leveraging by established and young MNEs. We further clarify the entrepreneurial foundations and actions essential for development and effective deployment of dynamic capabilities for IB. Finally, we offer our suggestions on how future IB research should explore these issues so as to make dynamic capabilities thinking actionable.

Corporate entrepreneurship: a systematic literature review and future research agenda

Abstract: Abstract This article analyzes the state of the art of the research on corporate entrepreneurship, develops a conceptual framework that connects its antecedents and consequences, and offers an agenda for future research. We review 310 papers published in entrepreneurship and management journals, providing an assessment of the current state of research and, subsequently, we suggest research avenues in three different areas: corporate entrepreneurship antecedents, dimensions and consequences. Even though a significant part of the overall corporate entrepreneurship literature has appeared in the last decade, most literature reviews were published earlier. These reviews typically cover a single dimension of the corporate entrepreneurship phenomenon and, therefore, do not provide a global perspective on the existing literature. In addition, corporate entrepreneurship has been studied from different fields and there are different approaches and definitions to it. This limits our understanding of accumulated knowledge in this area and hampers the development of further research. Our review addresses these shortcomings, providing a roadmap for future research.

Institutional Change and International Entrepreneurship after the War in Ukraine

Abstract: Recently, the US and its allies have mobilized long-standing international institutions to sanction Russia and repel its war in Ukraine. This mobilization is likely to change the world order, with long-term effects on the birth, survival and growth of international new ventures. However, these effects will vary across different regions of the world.

The effect of MNEs’ technology startup acquisitions on small open economies’ entrepreneurial ecosystems

Abstract: The strength and innovativeness of small open economies (SOECs) have long attracted multinational enterprises’ (MNEs’) entry. However, in their quest for new knowledge and technological capabilities, MNEs have been active in acquiring the technology-based startups in these countries. While some of these acquisitions are beneficial to the development and growth of SOECs’ entrepreneurial ecosystems, others can have serious long-term negative effects that have not been sufficiently recognized in the literature. We discuss the policy implications of MNEs’ acquisitions of technology-based startups, especially for SOECs’ entrepreneurial ecosystems.

Family CEO successor and firm performance: The moderating role of sustainable HRM practices and corporate philanthropy

Abstract: We develop and test a multi-stakeholder perspective of intrafamily CEO succession by exploring how family CEO successors affect post-succession firm performance under conditions of sustainable human resource management (sustainable HRM) practices toward employees and top managers, as well as corporate philanthropic activities in the broader community. Using a sample of 414 CEO successions in family firms listed on China's stock exchanges during 2008–2016, we find an insurance-like effect of both sustainable HRM and corporate philanthropy in enhancing firm performance of family CEO successors. Our results also show that firms with family CEO successors will outperform those with nonfamily counterparts under conditions of high employee compensation, low top management team (TMT) compensation, and long TMT tenure. Our findings suggest that sustainable HRM and corporate philanthropy complement rather than substitute in strengthening family leadership during CEO succession.

Trusting Without a Safety Net: The Peril of Trust in Base of the Pyramid Economies

Abstract: In high-transaction-cost environments, such as the world's poorest base-of-the-pyramid economies (BOP), trust helps entrepreneurs form partnerships while conserving resources related to monitoring, contracting, and other transaction costs. However, trust can also expose entrepreneurs to their partners' opportunism. In developed economies, effective and consistent legal systems can protect against such opportunism. But what happens when formal institutions are ineffective and inconsistent, as is common in BOP economies, and how does trust influence entrepreneurs' performance subsequent to forming partnerships? We answer these questions, drawing on a sample of 338 entrepreneurs in the Kingdom of Eswatini (formerly known as Swaziland). We find that entrepreneurs' trust has a negative effect on business operating performance, indicating that, given the legal systems in the BOP context, trusting entrepreneurs bear more fully the brunt of opportunism. However, this negative effect can be mitigated when entrepreneurs register their businesses with the government and pay taxes. We also find that, for entrepreneurs who earn income from other businesses, the negative effect of trust on performance is stronger. We found no moderating effect related to entrepreneurs' education.

Crowdfunding Sustainable Projects: Cross-country Heterogeneity in Environmental Support Systems

Abstract: Past research has shown that ventures focused on addressing environmental sustainability face considerable difficulties in attracting funds from “traditional” sources of finance (i.e., external equity investors, banks), while crowdfunding could ease resource attraction for such ventures. Nevertheless, although crowdfunding is a global phenomenon—with both projects and backers located across the globe in countries with fundamentally different environmental support systems—our understanding of how this heterogeneity influences fundraising success remains limited. To examine this issue, we invoke an institutional logic perspective and study 290,126 Kickstarter campaigns located in 139 countries. Our findings are broadly in line with our hypotheses: in crowdfunding, where a community logic often prevails, fundraising success is greater for environmental sustainability projects, particularly when these projects are located in countries with weaker environmental support systems. Moreover, these projects are also more likely to tap funding from backers located in countries with stronger environmental support systems. We discuss the theoretical implications of these findings, which challenge commonly-held assumptions on institutions and cross-border money flows in entrepreneurial finance developed from examining traditional investors who generally hold a market logic.