The Variation in Indian Inward FDI Patterns

• This study examines the variation in Indian inward FDI patterns, considering the impact of economic development and geographic location on the variation from both FDI home and host country perspectives.
• Employing a panel dataset at the aggregate country-level, the study is conducted using the generalised least squares (GLS) model.
• The findings suggest that Indian FDI patterns vary over time in line with Indian economic and structural transformations. The patterns also differ between the home country groups in line with their economic development and geographic location relative to India. The desirable patterns of Indian inward FDI are determined not only the development levels of both host and home countries but also the host country’s factor endowment pattern.
• It is important for the Indian government to formulate selective targeting FDI policies to maximise economic impact of inward FDI by attracting more desirable efficiency-seeking FDI for higher economic growth.

     

Is the Strategic Asset Seeking Investment Proclivity of Chinese MNEs Different to that of Developed Market MNEs? A Comparative Analysis of Location Choice and Orientation

Do emerging market MNEs acquire strategic assets in psychically distant developed markets to augment the firm-specific advantages they lack? This question is central to current conceptual discussion of their FDI strategies. To date, however, empirical testing has focused on emerging market MNE FDI location choices in isolation to indirectly infer facts about strategic asset seeking orientation. There are two weaknesses with this approach. First, comparative analysis with developed market MNEs is limited. Second, the focus on geographical location choices does not account for important direct, firm-level evidence on the strategic assets found in foreign subsidiaries. To address these gaps, we first undertake a comparative location choice study of Chinese MNE and developed market MNE FDI in the US. Second, we test corresponding firm-level US subsidiary data using logit modelling to explore whether there are differences between Chinese and developed market MNEs. Our results indicate similarities, rather than differences, in the strategic asset seeking behavior of Chinese and developed market MNEs. This calls into question whether theoretical extension is necessary to explain the behavior of emerging market MNEs as well as the value of indirect, location choice approaches to the analysis of strategic asset seeking FDI.     

FDI Structure, Investment Specificity, and Multinationality Value under Host Market Uncertainty

• To address mixed results regarding the value of multinationality, we take into account some important but less explored contingent factors related to country and subsidiary asset specificity.
• From our analyses using a panel dataset of Korean FDI, we find that subsidiaries’ local commitment in terms of FDI depth and local sales are negatively associated with multinationality value, whereas their intra-firm trade links to other affiliates are positively associated with the value.
• We conclude from our findings that in addition to dispersed operations across countries, other country- and subsidiary-specific factors moderate the effect of FDI breadth on multinationality value.
• We believe our study contributes to the literature by its fine-grained analysis of the environmental and organizational conditions wherein MNCs’ multinationality generates value.

     

Factors affecting perceptions of the choice between acquisition and greenfield entry: The case of Western FDI in an emerging market

Abstract and Key Results

Home Region Focus and Technical Efficiency of Multinational Enterprise

• The transaction costs economics (TCE) perspective on regionalization suggests that multinational enterprises (MNEs) would experience advantages from regionalization and, hence, greater technical efficiency from a high home region focus (HRF). We extend this TCE perspective by proposing that whether a regional (i.e., higher HRF) or global (i.e., lower HRF) strategy leads to greater technical efficiency depends on the degree of regional integration (i.e., economic and policy) of the MNEs?? home regions.
• This is the first study in the regional/global strategies literature to analyze the effects of HRF and regional integration (economic and policy) on firms?? technical efficiency performance. We suggest that advantages from regionalization arise when firms align their HRF strategy with the degree of regional integration; disadvantages from regionalization can arise when the two are misaligned.
• Our empirical analysis on a sample of 645 manufacturing Triad MNEs during 2000?C2006 provides overall support for our conceptual framework.

     

Understanding Organizational Practice Adoption at the Thai Subsidiary Corporation

• This study examines how, to what extent, and with what effect the indigenous cultural concept of kreng jai influences the Thai subsidiary assimilation of organizational practices transferred and mandated by its European-headquartered parent.
• Adopting qualitative methodological procedures we combined data sourced from interviews, observation and company information to explore empirically the continuing role and relevance of kreng jai on the adoption and use of three strategic organizational practices: E-communication, performance appraisal and empowerment.
• Our findings showed that the unique feelings and attitudes which characterize kreng jai variously complemented, reinforced, elaborated and contradicted the behaviors predicted by the traditional comparative etic dimensions of culture when applied to the Thai workplace environment.
• MNEs seeking to develop their operations in Asia can therefore benefit from an appropriately nuanced understanding of the influence of unique indigenous cultural norms and values to help manage effectively the often competing institutional pressures to which their subsidiaries are exposed. Failure to address adequately the subtle but pervasive facets of indigenous management constructs such as kreng jai may hold hidden but potentially critical dangers for the MNE developing its business across cultural borders.

     

Reconsidering the concentration of US MNE activity: Is it global,regional or national?

Abstract and Key Results

Procedural Justice, Not Absorptive Capacity, Matters in Multinational Enterprise ICT Transfers

• This paper empirically tests the effectiveness of information and communications technology (ICT) knowledge transfer and adoption in the multinational enterprise (MNE) as an issue of critical importance to contemporary MNE functioning. In contrast to mainstream thinking on absorptive capacity, but in line with prevailing international business theory, our research supports the proposition that perceptions of procedural justice, rather than absorptive capacity, determine effectiveness, especially in cases of high tacit knowledge transfers.
• Data was collected from senior ICT representatives in 86 Canadian subsidiaries of foreign owned MNEs. Each of these subsidiaries recently experienced a significant ICT transfer imposed by the parent organization.
• Support was found for the main propositions: Procedural justice significantly predicted successful ICT transfer and adoption, while absorptive capacity was not significant. These findings are consistent even when knowledge tacitness was high.
• The perceived success of the ICT transfer as well as its adoption varied widely across these firms. The potential reasons for this divergence in effectiveness are manifold, but our findings suggest that in situations of substantial knowledge tacitness, a higher level of procedural justice, rather than a higher level of absorptive capacity, is critical to effective transfer and adoption.

     

Foreign Direct Investment vs. Foreign Portfolio Investment

• We examine the effect of a country??s governance environment on the foreign investment it attracts. We classify countries based on the dominant mode of governance into three types: (1) rule-based (strong public rule of law), (2) relation-based (weak rule of law and strong informal networks), and (3) family-based (absence of both public rules and informal networks).
• We then examine how different governance types affect foreign investment patterns among 45 countries. Our main argument is that the choice of investment??direct or portfolio??is influenced by the type of property protection associated with different governance modes.
• We find that rule-based countries attract the lowest amount of FDI relative to the total amount of foreign investment, and they have the largest stock market size relative to their economies.
• Our study contributes to the foreign investment literature by bringing the governance environment into the equation and more successfully explaining why some countries have relatively large foreign direct investment ratios and relatively small foreign portfolio investment ratios.

     

Preparation of Zr50Al15−x Ni10Cu25Y x amorphous powders by mechanical alloying and thermodynamic calculation

Amorphous Zr ₅₀ Al _15?x Ni ₁₀ Cu ₂₅ Y _x powders were fabricated by mechanical alloying at a low rotation speed from commercial pure element powders. The beneficial effect of Al partially substituted by Y in Zr ₅₀ Al ₁₅ Ni ₁₀ Cu ₂₅ on glass-forming ability was investigated. The as-milled powders were characterized by X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. The results show that partial substitution of Al by Y can improve the glass-forming ability of Zr ₅₀ Al ₁₅ Ni ₁₀ Cu ₂₅ alloy. Thermodynamic calculation of equivalent free energy shows that Zr ₅₀ Al _13·8 Ni ₁₀ Cu ₂₅ Y _1·2 alloy has the highest glass-forming ability, which is in good agreement with the report of orthogonal experiments.     

A new crystal structure for (BEDT-TTF)2SbF6 and some of its physical properties

A new crystal structure forbis (ethylenedithio)tetrathiafulvalene [(BEDT-TTF) ₂ SbF₆] was determined by single crystal X-ray diffraction. The crystal structure was refined in theP - 1 space group at room temperature. Crystal data for new structure are as follows: triclinic, a = 8.670 (2) Å,b = 8 664 (2) Å,c = 16.842 (5) Å,α = 89°.29 (2),β = 90°.71 (3),γ = 92°.67 (1),V = 1263.64 Å ³,Z = 2,D _x = 2.136 g cm ^-3, (Mo-Kα),λ = 0.7107 Å,R = 0.057 for a total of 5517 independent reflections. The donors form a trimerized column, and the band structure calculated by the tightbinding approximation shows band insulator properties. The temperature dependent of the d.c. resistivity shows a semiconducting behaviour with room temperature resistivity along the c-axis; ρ ₂₉₀ K = 5.6 ohm cm.     

Renormalized electron velocities in Mg,Zn, and Cd

The k vectors and the electron velocities V _k ⁰ for the third band lens in magnesium, zinc, and cadmium are calculated using a simple two orthogonalized plane wave model. The calculated k vectors are in good agreement with the results of the experiments that measure the Fermi surface calipers. We have also calculated the renormalized electron velocity V _k = V _k ⁰/(1 + λ _k ) where the mass renormalization λ _k is obtained by comparing the calculated band masses, for various electron orbits, with the measured cyclotron masses. These velocities are compared with the velocities obtained from the recent magnetic surface states data.     

Smart control of nonlinear vibrations of doubly curved functionally graded laminated composite shells under a thermal environment using 1–3 piezoelectric composites

This paper addresses the active control of geometrically nonlinear vibrations of doubly curved functionally graded (FG) laminated composite shells integrated with a patch of active constrained layer damping (ACLD) treatment under the thermal environment. Vertically/obliquely reinforced 1-3 piezoelectric composite (PZC) and active fiber composite (AFC) are used as the materials of the constraining layer of the ACLD treatment. Each layer of the substrate FG laminated composite shell is made of fiber-reinforced composite material in which the fibers are longitudinally aligned in the plane parallel to the top or bottom surface of the layer and the layer is assumed to be graded in the thickness direction by way of varying the fiber orientation angle across its thickness according to a power law. The novelty of the present work is that, unlike the traditional laminated composite shells, the FG laminated composite shells are constructed in such a way that the continuous variation of material properties and stresses across the thickness of the shell is achieved. The Golla-Hughes-McTavish (GHM) method has been implemented to model the constrained viscoelastic layer of the ACLD treatment in time domain. Based on the first-order shear deformation theory (FSDT), a finite element (FE) model has been developed to model the open-loop and closed-loop nonlinear dynamics of the overall FG laminated composite shell under a thermal environment. Both symmetric and asymmetric FG laminated composite doubly curved shells are considered for presenting the numerical results. The analysis suggests that the ACLD patch significantly improves the damping characteristics of the doubly curved FG laminated composite shells for suppressing their geometrically nonlinear transient vibrations. It is found that the performance of the ACLD patch with its constraining layer being made of the AFC material is significantly higher than that of the ACLD patch with vertically/obliquely reinforced 1-3 PZC constraining layer. The effects of variation of piezoelectric fiber orientation in both the obliquely reinforced 1-3 PZC and the AFC constraining layers on the control authority of the ACLD patch have also been investigated.     

The Impact of Psychic Distance on Chinese Outward Foreign Direct Investments

• The aim of this paper is to investigate the value of the well-known construct of psychic distance, developed to explain the internationalization path of firms from developed countries, for the internationalization of Chinese firms.
• Our research question is: Does psychic distance and its individual stimuli (differences in language, religion, culture, economic development, political systems, education, and geographic distance) explain Chinese investments abroad?
• We test hypotheses on the relation between psychic distance and its stimuli and Chinese outward direct investments with OLS regression analyses.
• We find that Chinese OFDI indeed is influenced by an aggregate construct of psychic distance and by certain psychic distance stimuli, but not by all; in particular, similarities or differences with regard to language and culture, the level of industrialization and the level of democracy relate to Chinese firms’ internationalization.
• Our findings suggest that psychic distance and its stimuli cannot be ignored as explanatory factors for Chinese outward FDI but that the explanatory value of these constructs depends on the context of the phenomenon under study.
• We conclude that it is important to understand how the home country context influences managerial perceptions and thereby patterns of international expansion from different regions.

     

Born-Globals and Culturally Proximate Markets

• In this paper we focus on the differences between born-globals and older firms. We compare whether cultural proximity is important for born-globals and older firms and whether international or technological knowledge drives their internationalisation. In addition, we compare whether born-globals and older firms are proactive or reactive in their choice of culturally proximate markets.
• Our research suggests that born-globals tend to internationalise rapidly into markets ready to adopt their technology. This is driven by the need to establish a revenue stream (cash flow) as quickly as possible. These born-globals usually seek larger advanced economies, which are often culturally similar (proximate) and offer economies of scale; reducing risk for inexperienced firms. Indeed, born-global firms are more willing than older firms to move from culturally proximate to culturally non-proximate markets very quickly.
• Utilising an abductive approach based on case studies, our findings show that born-globals use their technological knowledge and networks and are proactive when they enter culturally non-proximate markets. Born-globals must assess a new market for its ability to provide a revenue stream very soon after entry. If the culturally proximate market does not offer this, then they will leverage technological knowledge and networks to move rapidly into nearby non-proximate markets where they perceive better opportunities for building a customer base or new funding alternatives to sustain the firm in their early foreign market forays.
• Our research significantly extends theory in highlighting that born-globals rely more on technological experience and display proactive behaviour more than older firms which can draw on previous international experience.

     

Institutional Distance and Foreign Subsidiary Performance in Emerging Markets: Moderating Effects of Ownership Strategy and Host-Country Experience

Institutional distance has been known to be an important driver of Multinational Enterprises’ strategies and performance in host countries. Based on a large panel dataset of 10,562 firms operating in 17 emerging markets and spanning 80 home countries, we re-examine the relationship described by Gaur and Lu (J Manage 33(1):84–110, 2007) between regulatory institutional distance and subsidiary performance. We extend this research by (1) examining this relationship in the context of emerging markets, (2) examining the moderating effects of ownership strategy and host-country experience within the context of emerging markets and (3) accounting for a greater variety of institutions by including a large number of home and host countries. We find that institutional distance negatively affects subsidiary performance in emerging markets. Our findings also show that the negative effects of institutional distance on subsidiary performance are lesser for subsidiaries with partial ownership (than for subsidiaries with full ownership) and for subsidiaries with greater host-country experience. We discuss our findings with respect to Gaur and Lu’s model, which explores the relationships between these variables in a general context.