1,720,985 research outputs found
Learning a New Business by Managing Resources and Interfaces. From Dealer to Auto Maker - The Case of DR MOTOR
No full textOrganizational Innovation, Technological Innovation, and Export Performance: The Effects of Innovation Radicalness and Extensiveness
Full text linkThis study focuses on the relevance of different types of innovation for firms’ export performance. Despite ample research on the innovation–performance relationship, previous studies have mainly focused on technological innovations, leaving the effects of organizational innovations relatively unexplored. Hypotheses on the relationship between organizational and technological innovations and firm export performance are tested by structural equation modelling using data from 218 Swedish export ventures. The results indicate that organizational innovation enhances export performance both directly and indirectly by sustaining technological innovation. Moreover, by fine-graining our analysis of the mediating role of technological innovation, according to its radicalness and extensiveness, for organizational innovation, we show how the latter enhances both the radicalness and extensiveness of technological innovation although, notably, only extensiveness is actually beneficial for export performance. This study helps alleviate the scarcity of research examining the links among different types of innovation in relation to export performance and contributes to international business and marketing literature by generating new evidence regarding the mechanisms through which organizational and technological innovations may improve export performance
Knowledge sourcing from advanced markets subsidiaries: Political embeddedness and reverse knowledge transfer barriers in emerging-market multinationals
No full textThis article focuses on emerging-market multinationals and their intent to source knowledge from advanced countries. A single in-depth case study of a Chinese state-owned multinational is used to shed light on the relationship between political embeddedness and the potential to reverse knowledge transfer from advanced market subsidiaries. Specifically, we argue that a strong home-country political embeddedness enhances specific organizational barriers to reverse knowledge transfer, which undermines the strategic intent of knowledge-seeking internationalization, common to much Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) by emerging-market multinationals in recent years. This article contributes to research on knowledge sourcing within the context of south-north FDI by highlighting specific effects of political embeddedness at organizational level, which are critical for the possibilities to reverse knowledge transfer; our study is also relevant to international business, as new empirical insights related to the international organization and management of state-owned multinationals are discussed
Headquarters' Influence on Knowledge Transfer Performance
No full textThis paper investigates headquarters' value-adding role in knowledge transfer. Transfer performance is considered in terms of both efficiency and effectiveness, and a model that includes headquarters' distribution of decision-making rights, resource allocation, and direct intervention is tested on 141 innovation transfer projects. The findings indicate that headquarters have both positive and negative influences on the efficiency and effectiveness of transfer processes. There is thus a need to consider the inherent trade-offs in the choices made in promoting knowledge transfer. © 2010 Gabler Verlag
Reverse innovation transfer in Chinese MNCs: The role of political ties and headquarters
No full textInnovation augmentation via internationalization is motivated by headquarters entrepreneurial role in Chinese multinationals. Drawing on the parenting theory, this paper investigates the effects of headquarters' political ties and the degree of internationalization on headquarters competence contribution to subsidiary and the extent of reverse innovation transfer. Based on a survey of 177 subsidiaries in 99 Chinese multinationals via two questionnaires, the empirical results show that, while the degree of internationalization enhances both the headquarters' entrepreneurial role in providing competence to subsidiary, and subsidiary reverse innovation transfer efforts, the strength of headquarters' political ties in the home country has detrimental effects on the degree of internationalization and on headquarters' competence contribution to subsidiaries, which eventually hinders reverse innovation transfer practices. This means that, although internationalization may unlock benefits for Chinese multinationals, their political ties may hinder their fulfillment. This study contributes to parenting theory and to research on firms' internationalization, particularly in the context of emerging-market multinationals
Manufacturing reshoring explained: An interpretative framework of ten years of research
No full textThe aim of this paper is to analyze and classify research that has been conducted on
manufacturing reshoring, i.e., the decision to bring back to the home country production
activities earlier offshored, independently of the governance mode (insourcing vs. outsourcing).
Literature reviews proposed until now usually paid almost exclusive attention to motivations
driving this phenomenon. This paper offers a broader and more comprehensive examination of
the extant knowledge of manufactiring reshoring and identifies the main unresolved issues and
knowledge gaps, which future research should investigate. Moreover, the purpose of the paper
is to provide avenues for future research and highlight the distinct value of studying
manufacturing reshoring either per se or in combination with other constructs of the
international business tradition. A set of 49 carefully selected articles on manufacturing
reshoring published in international journals or books indexed on Scopus in the last 10 years is
systematically analyzed based on the “5 Ws and 1H” (Who-What-Where-When-Why and How)
set of questions. Our work shows a certain convergence among authors regarding what
reshoring is, what its key features and motivations are. In contrast, other related aspects, such as
the decision making and implementation processes, are comparatively less understood
Demand and willingness for knowledge transfer in springboard subsidiaries of Chinese multinationals
No full textIt is often assumed that Chinese multinationals invest overseas to obtain knowledge. Acknowledging political ties as an important aspect of Chinese multinationals, we investigate the respective interests of headquarters and subsidiaries to support knowledge transfer from host countries to China. Based on data from 177 headquarters-subsidiary relationships, our findings indicate that political ties of Chinese headquarters increase the organizational distance between headquarters and subsidiaries. This distance has a positive impact on headquarters’ demand for subsidiary knowledge transfer, but a negative effect on the subsidiaries’ willingness to actually transfer knowledge. This suggests that Chinese multinationals with strong political ties have to spend efforts in aligning the motives of headquarters and subsidiaries concerning knowledge transfer practices. This study contributes to the research on Chinese multinationals, cross-border knowledge acquisition, and the springboard perspective by shedding light on post-internationalization managerial challenges related to a knowledge-seeking strategy
The role of supplier relationships in the development of new business ventures
No full textNew business ventures have rather limited resources, generally suffer from liabilities of smallness and newness and rely on external business relationships, typically with suppliers, for developing and acquiring necessary resources. Yet, to date, research on how new ventures develop initial relationships with suppliers and how these affect the nascent business has been limited. Taking the business network perspective and relating it to studies of supply chain and supplier involvement in product development, our study contributes to the rather limited body of knowledge on new ventures' supplier relationships. Empirically, we draw on a longitudinal, in-depth single-case study of the first two years of operation of a start-up. Our study shows that the development of the key initial supplier relationships starts from open-ended expectations of mutual future relational benefits and involves a stepwise ‘inter-definition’ of solutions in interaction between the parties. We observe that interdependences arise between the new venture and its key suppliers and these enable but also limit, the development paths of both partners. We argue that the key initial supplier relationships extend a new venture's resource and capability base and are an integral part of a new venture's business model
Assembling resources when forming a new business
No full textEvery business builds on a specific set of resources. New businesses in particular have to assemble external resources that are mostly new to them. This resource assembly requires developing business relationships with other actors that control and can provide the needed resources. Adopting a resource interaction perspective, this paper examines a case of a new business venture in the automobile industry. The case study shows that when forming a new business the actors possess only partial knowledge of how to assemble the resources. Consequently, the actors must engage in extensive adaptation and interaction with others to enact workable resource interfaces and combinations. This necessity makes the new business formation process nonlinear and onerous. Further, the case demonstrates that new business formation is a collective process involving not only the emergence of a formal business organization but also reorganizing the applicable resource market. Since third parties involved in developing the necessary resource combinations can be considered part of the new business venture, setting the boundaries of the new venture becomes arbitrary. The arbitrary nature of such boundary setting has implications in entrepreneurship studies with regard to the unit of analysis and the concept of opportunity.</p
Value Creation at the Subsidiary Level: Testing the MNC Headquarters Parenting Advantage Logic
No full textThe purpose of this study is to test the assumptions of the headquarters parenting advantage in multinational firms within the context of subsidiary innovation processes. Specifically, we explore the relationship between the selective involvement of headquarters in both innovation development and transfer processes and their related performance in a data set of 85 innovation projects analysed with structural equation modelling. The findings provide only limited support to the parenting advantage logic as they show that although the headquarters are able to select subsidiary-level strategic innovation processes, their involvement is hampering the performance of these processes. Consequently, we offer new extensions to the reasoning behind the parenting advantage logic by introducing four complementary theoretical explanations for the potentially harmful effects of headquarters' involvement in subsidiary innovation-related activities
- …
