Emerald | critical perspectives on international business | Table of Contents

The Impact of Foreign Parent Control Mechanisms upon Measurements of Performance in IJVs in South Korea

Fri, 19 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0100

Abstract

Purpose - This paper strives to generate an observable relationship between five control mechanisms used by parent firms to direct IJVs with three distinct performance measurements. By observing relationships with different performance measures it serves to enhance the debate on IJV creation and control functions.Design/methodology/approach - This paper looks at IJVs and analyzes the application of control mechanisms through a survey of IJVs in South Korea. Then a further review of the different performance measurements is provided to expound upon the increasing reasons of IJV creation. Findings - The paper determines different impacts upon performance measures through the use of either personnel or policy measure. Parents use of personnel shows a direct relationship with satisfaction levels of IJV performance, while policy measures show significant relationships to both financial and growth measurements. The paper finds that through the use of multiple performance measurements there is a greater understanding of the implications of control of different aspects of an IJV.Research limitations/implications - The paper is concentrated solely on IJVs in South Korea and further, measurements based on perception are consistently subject to accuracy concerns in statistical analysis.Practical implications - IJVs are set up with different goals. Utilizing control mechanisms that enhance the performance goal of a parent can provide support during the creation and negotiation process. Originality/value - The value provided by this paper is the critical analysis of control mechanisms on more than one performance measurement and a quantifiable statistical analysis that shows significant impact of certain mechanisms.

Managerial attention and antecedents of knowledge source exploitation in MNCs

literatinetwork@emeraldinsight.com (Nishant Kumar, Robert Demir) — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0100

Abstract

Purpose - This paper addresses the limitations of prior views regarding knowledge source exploitation by proposing a phenomenological approach to managerial attention and the antecedents of exploiting knowledge sources within the MNC network.Design/methodology/approach - A phenomenological approach to attention is taken to explain the antecedents of managerial attention in knowledge source exploitation behavior. This approach provides an alternative way of conceiving of knowledge source remoteness and familiarity, on the one hand, and exclusion and inclusion on the other.Findings - Drawing on a phenomenological approach to attention the merits and limits of prior studies of attention and knowledge seeking/exchange behavior are addressed and three modes of managerial attention are proposed – relative attention, mimetic attention, implicit attention – to explain the antecedents of managerial attention to MNC knowledge sources.Originality/value - This approach to knowledge source exploitation and attention provides a rich conceptualization of taken-for-granted assumptions in extant literature on managerial attention and knowledge seeking behavior. The framework offered here builds on a conceptually rigid foundation of attention that overcomes dualisms such as mind-body, subject-object, and thinking-acting that are often embedded in other mainstream approaches to managerial attention.

Business Regulation, Inward Foreign Direct Investment, and Economic Growth in the New European Union Member States

literatinetwork@emeraldinsight.com (Matthew Allen, Maria L. Aldred) — Fri, 19 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0100

Abstract

Purpose - This paper assesses the extent to which institutional convergence has taken place in the new European Union member states. It does so by contrasting arguments that are inspired by transaction-cost economics within the mainstream international-business literature and contentions within the comparative-capitalisms perspective. A corollary of arguments within the former is that those countries that have less transparent ways of doing business will post poorer economic growth records than those with more predictable and less costly regulations. By contrast, contentions within the comparative capitalisms literature lead to expectations that a broader set of institutional factors will shape economic growth.Design/methodology/approach - The paper adopts a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis approach to examine the necessary and sufficient causal conditions for economic growth in the region.Findings - There is a great deal of institutional diversity within the new EU member states in Central and Eastern Europe. There are no clusters of countries around a specific variety of capitalism or an economic model that has above-average economic growth rates and that is characterized by institutions that lower the costs of market transacting. This, in turn, suggests that convergence pressures are not as great as the mainstream international-business literature has argued. Research limitations/implications - Future research could complement this study by adopting a cross-country, comparative micro- or firm-level approach to examine the ways in which different institutional factors both individually and collectively shape the growth of businesses and, consequently, economies.Originality/value - Mainstream international business tends to focus on regulation and market-supporting institutions to explain growth in developing economies. This research has shown that a broader view of institutions needs to be adopted, as some countries have been able to post strong economic growth figures despite institutional environments that do not lower the costs of market-based contracting.