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Journal ArticleDOI

Perspectives on multinational enterprises in emerging economies

01 Jul 2004-Journal of International Business Studies (Springer London)-Vol. 35, Iss: 4, pp 259-276
TL;DR: In this article, the authors aim to motivate more international business scholars to engage in research on positive and negative spillovers from foreign direct investment (FDI) in emerging economy societies by taking the individual firms as starting point to enhance understanding of the interaction between MNEs and the local environment.
Abstract: Multinational enterprises (MNEs) play a pivotal role in the development of many emerging economies. In consequence, they became the focus of scholarly research by economists and policy analysts. In contrast, international business scholars have been comparatively uninterested in analysing this role of MNEs. Yet they could make important contributions to these debates. First, studies taking the individual firms as starting point would enhance understanding of the interaction between MNEs and the local environment. Second, theories and research methodologies developed in international business research could provide new insights into the dynamics of MNEs in emerging economies. The objective of this paper is to motivate more international business scholars to engage in research on positive and negative spillovers from foreign direct investment (FDI) in emerging economy societies. To advance this research agenda, scholars need to analyse the specific activities and capabilities of the firms involved, and the impact of FDI on the broader social and environmental context. For management, this agenda raises the ethical question: To what extent ought businesses to care about their local stakeholders?
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that an institution-based view of international business strategy has emerged and is positioned as one leg that helps sustain the "strategy tripod" (the other two legs consisting of the industry- and resource-based views).
Abstract: Leveraging the recent research interest in emerging economies, this Perspective paper argues that an institution-based view of international business (IB) strategy has emerged. It is positioned as one leg that helps sustain the “strategy tripod” (the other two legs consisting of the industry- and resource-based views). We then review four diverse areas of substantive research: (1) antidumping as entry barriers; (2) competing in and out of India; (3) growing the firm in China; and (4) governing the corporation in emerging economies. Overall, we argue that an institution-based view of IB strategy, in combination with industry- and resource-based views, will not only help sustain a strategy tripod, but also shed significant light on the most fundamental questions confronting IB, such as “What drives firm strategy and performance in IB?”

2,675 citations


Cites background or result from "Perspectives on multinational enter..."

  • ...Insightful as the industry- and resource-based views are, they can be criticized for largely ignoring the formal and informal institutional underpinning that provides the context of competition among industries and firms studied with these lenses (Kogut, 2003)....

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  • ...London and Hart (2004), Meyer (2004), and Ramamurti (2004) all focus on emerging economies, but they have not leveraged this new research to explicitly suggest the emergence of any particular new theoretical perspective....

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  • ...…rise of emerging economies in the global economy, more and more scholars are becoming interested in these countries (Hitt, Ahlstrom, Dacin, Levitas, & Svobodina, 2004; Hitt, Dacin, Levitas, Arregle, & Borza, 2000; Lyles & Salk, 1996; Meyer, 2004; Newman, 2000; Peng & Heath, 1996; Ramamurti, 2004)....

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  • ...One visible piece of evidence of the upsurge of IB strategy research interest in emerging economies is a series of recent high-profile Perspective papers in the pages of this journal: London and Hart (2004), Meyer (2004), Ramamurti (2004), and Ricart et al. (2004)....

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  • ...This Perspective paper directly builds on several previous Perspective papers: Leung, Bhagat, Buchan, Erez, and Gibson (2005), London and Hart (2004), Meyer (2004), Ramamurti (2004), Redding (2005), Ricart et al. (2004), and Teegen, Doh, and Vachani (2004)....

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Posted Content
TL;DR: A review and introduction to the Special Issue on Strategy Research in Emerging Economies as mentioned in this paper considers the nature of theoretical contributions thus far on strategy in emerging economies and classify the research through four strategic options: (1) firms from developed economies entering emerging economies; (2) domestic firms competing within emerging economies, (3), firms from emerging economies entering other emerging economies.
Abstract: This review and introduction to the Special Issue on 'Strategy Research in Emerging Economies' considers the nature of theoretical contributions thus far on strategy in emerging economies. We classify the research through four strategic options: (1) firms from developed economies entering emerging economies; (2) domestic firms competing within emerging economies; (3) firms from emerging economies entering other emerging economies; and (4) firms from emerging economies entering developed economies. Among the four perspectives examined (institutional theory, transaction cost theory, resource-based theory, and agency theory), the most dominant seems to be institutional theory. Most existing studies that make a contribution blend institutional theory with one of the other three perspectives, including seven out of the eight papers included in this Special Issue. We suggest a future research agenda based around the four strategies and four theoretical perspectives. Given the relative emphasis of research so far on the first and second strategic options, we believe that there is growing scope for research that addresses the third and fourth.

1,670 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A review and introduction to the Special Issue on Strategy Research in Emerging Economies as mentioned in this paper considers the nature of theoretical contributions thus far on strategy in emerging economies and classify the research through four strategic options: (1) firms from developed economies entering emerging economies; (2) domestic firms competing within emerging economies, (3), firms from emerging economies entering other emerging economies.
Abstract: This review and introduction to the Special Issue on ‘Strategy Research in Emerging Economies’ considers the nature of theoretical contributions thus far on strategy in emerging economies. We classify the research through four strategic options: (1) firms from developed economies entering emerging economies; (2) domestic firms competing within emerging economies; (3) firms from emerging economies entering other emerging economies; and (4) firms from emerging economies entering developed economies. Among the four perspectives examined (institutional theory, transaction cost theory, resource-based theory, and agency theory), the most dominant seems to be institutional theory. Most existing studies that make a contribution blend institutional theory with one of the other three perspectives, including seven out of the eight papers included in this Special Issue. We suggest a future research agenda based around the four strategies and four theoretical perspectives. Given the relative emphasis of research so far on the first and second strategic options, we believe that there is growing scope for research that addresses the third and fourth.

1,540 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In the first stage of industrialization, pollution in the environmental Kuznets curve world grows rapidly because people are more interested in jobs and income than clean air and water, communities are too poor to pay for abatement, and environmental regulation is correspondingly weak as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: T he environmental Kuznets curve posits an inverted-U relationship between pollution and economic development. Kuznets's name was apparently attached to the curve by Grossman and Krueger (1993), who noted its resemblance to Kuznets's inverted-U relationship between income inequality and development. In the first stage of industrialization, pollution in the environmental Kuznets curve world grows rapidly because people are more interested in jobs and income than clean air and water, communities are too poor to pay for abatement, and environmental regulation is correspondingly weak. The balance shifts as income rises. Leading industrial sectors become cleaner, people value the environment more highly, and regulatory institutions become more effective. Along the curve, pollution levels off in the middle-income range and then falls toward pre-industrial levels in wealthy societies. The environmental Kuznets curve model has elicited conflicting reactions from researchers and policymakers. Applied econometricians have generally accepted the basic tenets of the model and focused on measuring its parameters. Their regressions, typically fitted to cross-sectional observations across countries or regions, suggest that air and water pollution increase with development until per capita income reaches a range of $5000 to $8000. When income rises beyond that level, pollution starts to decline, as shown in the "conventional EKC" line in Figure 1. In developing countries, some policymakers have interpreted such results as conveying a message about priorities: Grow first, then clean up. Numerous critics have challenged the conventional environmental Kuznets curve, both as a representation of what actually happens in the development process and as a policy prescription. Some pessimistic critics argue that crosssectional evidence for the environmental Kuznets curve is nothing more than a

1,455 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the co-evolution of MNE activities and institutions external and internal to the firm, and highlight the scope for firm-level creativity and institutional entrepreneurship that may lead to coevolution with the environment.
Abstract: This paper examines the co-evolution of MNE activities and institutions external and internal to the firm. We develop a theoretical framework for this analysis that draws on the more recent writings of Douglass North on institutions as a response to complex forms of uncertainty associated with the rise in global economic interconnectedness, and of Richard Nelson on the co-evolution of technology and institutions. We link historical changes in the character of MNE activities to changes in the institutional environment, and highlight the scope for firm-level creativity and institutional entrepreneurship that may lead to co-evolution with the environment. We argue that the main drivers for institutional entrepreneurship are now found in the increasing autonomy of MNE subsidiaries. Thus MNE agency derives from more decentralized forms of experimentation in international corporate networks, which competence-creating nodes of new initiatives can co-evolve with local institutions. Unlike most other streams of related literature, our approach connects patterns of institutional change in wider business systems with more micro processes of variety generation and experimentation within and across individual firms. This form of co-evolutionary analysis is increasingly important to understanding the interrelationships between MNE activities and public policy.

795 citations


Cites background from "Perspectives on multinational enter..."

  • ...Consequently, in emerging markets, MNEs might be welcomed in part because they introduce institutional elements that are missing in the local environment (Hoskisson, Eden, Lau, & Wright, 2000; Meyer, 2004; Peng, Wang, & Jiang, 2008)....

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References
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the ability of a firm to recognize the value of new, external information, assimilate it, and apply it to commercial ends is critical to its innovative capabilities.
Abstract: In this paper, we argue that the ability of a firm to recognize the value of new, external information, assimilate it, and apply it to commercial ends is critical to its innovative capabilities. We label this capability a firm's absorptive capacity and suggest that it is largely a function of the firm's level of prior related knowledge. The discussion focuses first on the cognitive basis for an individual's absorptive capacity including, in particular, prior related knowledge and diversity of background. We then characterize the factors that influence absorptive capacity at the organizational level, how an organization's absorptive capacity differs from that of its individual members, and the role of diversity of expertise within an organization. We argue that the development of absorptive capacity, and, in turn, innovative performance are history- or path-dependent and argue how lack of investment in an area of expertise early on may foreclose the future development of a technical capability in that area. We formulate a model of firm investment in research and development (R&D), in which R&D contributes to a firm's absorptive capacity, and test predictions relating a firm's investment in R&D to the knowledge underlying technical change within an industry. Discussion focuses on the implications of absorptive capacity for the analysis of other related innovative activities, including basic research, the adoption and diffusion of innovations, and decisions to participate in cooperative R&D ventures. **

31,623 citations


"Perspectives on multinational enter..." refers background in this paper

  • ...This argument has been theoretically developed with reference to the concept of absorptive capacity - that is, the firm's ability to recognise valuable new knowledge, integrate it into the firm, and use it productively (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990; Zahra and George, 2002)....

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  • ...It encompasses not only human capital (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990) but also structural characteristics of the organisation abilities to value, assimilate and commercialise new knowledge (Lane and Lubatkin, 1998)....

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  • ...capital (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990) but also structural characteristics of the organisation abilities to value, assimilate and commercialise new knowledge (Lane and Lubatkin, 1998)....

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Book
01 Jan 2008
TL;DR: The Japanese companies, masters of manufacturing, have also been leaders in the creation, management, and use of knowledge-especially the tacit and often subjective insights, intuitions, and ideas of employees as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Japanese companies, masters of manufacturing, have also been leaders in the creation, management, and use of knowledge-especially the tacit and often subjective insights, intuitions, and ideas of employees.

16,886 citations

01 Jan 1996
TL;DR: The primary contribution of the paper is in exploring the coordination mechanisms through which firms integrate the specialist knowledge of their members, which has implications for the basis of organizational capability, the principles of organization design, and the determinants of the horizontal and vertical boundaries of the firm.
Abstract: Given assumptions about the characteristics of knowledge and the knowledge requirements of production, the firm is conceptualized as an institution for integrating knowledge. The primary contribution of the paper is in exploring the coordination mechanisms through which firms integrate the specialist knowledge of their members. In contrast to earlier literature, knowledge is viewed as residing within the individual, and the primary role of the organization is knowledge application rather than knowledge creation. The resulting theory has implications for the basis of organizational capability, the principles of organization design (in particular, the analysis of hierarchy and the distribution of decision-making authority), and the determinants of the horizontal and vertical boundaries of the firm. More generally, the knowledge-based approach sheds new light upon current organizational innovations and trends and has far-reaching implications for management practice.

12,839 citations


"Perspectives on multinational enter..." refers background in this paper

  • ...Despite a large and growing literature on knowledge management in MNEs (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995; Grant, 1996; Despres and Chauvel, 2000), few studies systematically analyse the transfer of knowledge from MNEs to their affiliates in emerging economies....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explore the coordination mechanisms through which firms integrate the specialist knowledge of their members, which has implications for the basis of organizational capability, the principles of organization design, and the determinants of the horizontal and vertical boundaries of the firm.
Abstract: Given assumptions about the characteristics of knowledge and the knowledge requirements of production, the firm is conceptualized as an institution for integrating knowledge. The primary contribution of the paper is in exploring the coordination mechanisms through which firms integrate the specialist knowledge of their members. In contrast to earlier literature, knowledge is viewed as residing within the individual, and the primary role of the organization is knowledge application rather than knowledge creation. The resulting theory has implications for the basis of organizational capability, the principles of organization design (in particular, the analysis of hierarchy and the distribution of decision-making authority), and the determinants of the horizontal and vertical boundaries of the firm. More generally, the knowledge-based approach sheds new light upon current organizational innovations and trends and has far-reaching implications for management practice.

11,779 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors identify key dimensions of absorptive capacity and offer a reconceptualization of this construct, and distinguish between a firm's potential and realized capacity, and then advance a model outlining the conditions when the firm's realized capacities can differentially influence the creation and sustenance of its competitive advantage.
Abstract: Researchers have used the absorptive capacity construct to explain various organizational phenomena. In this article we review the literature to identify key dimensions of absorptive capacity and offer a reconceptualization of this construct. Building upon the dynamic capabilities view of the firm, we distinguish between a firm's potential and realized capacity. We then advance a model outlining the conditions when the firm's potential and realized capacities can differentially influence the creation and sustenance of its competitive advantage.

8,648 citations


"Perspectives on multinational enter..." refers background in this paper

  • ...This argument has been theoretically developed with reference to the concept of absorptive capacity - that is, the firm's ability to recognise valuable new knowledge, integrate it into the firm, and use it productively (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990; Zahra and George, 2002)....

    [...]