Business Commons^™

General Manager Succession In Multinational Enterprise Subsidiaries, Liang (Arthur) Li

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation, based on interviews with over 40 managers and longitudinal data from over 1,900 foreign subsidiaries, develops new insights regarding subsidiary general manager (GM) changes in multinational enterprises (MNEs).

Essay 1 addresses whether GM successions accelerate or decelerate the momentum for further GM change, and improve or disrupt subsidiary performance. I show that MNE managers learn from prior GM change in order to appoint a right candidate, thus improving subsidiary performance and decelerating the momentum for further succession. But the reduced marginal costs of making succession decisions increasingly render GM change more likely. The accumulated shocks ultimately translate into …

Foreign Direct Investment In Global Cities And Co-Ethnic Clusters: Characteristics, Performance, And Survival, Dwarka Chakravarty

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation examines the characteristics, profitability, and survival of multinational enterprise (MNE) foreign direct investment (FDI) in North American “global” cities (GCs), such as Los Angeles, New York, and Toronto. Across GCs and their metropolitan areas (Metros), MNEs often co-locate with their home country and co-industry peers in “co-ethnic” and “co-ethnic, co-industry” (CECI) clusters. Despite their substantial influence on the world economy GCs are relatively underexplored as location units of analysis in International Business (IB) research. Accordingly, I address three research questions. First, how do subsidiary and MNE characteristics differ between GCs, Metros, and other locations? Second, how does subsidiary …

Contemporary Perspectives On The Internationalization Of Firms, Maximilian Stallkamp

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation contributes new insights to research on the internationalization of firms. Whereas prior research has focused mostly on the country as the main locational unit of analysis, I examine internationalization from both subnational and (supranational) regional perspectives. Moreover, I investigate the impact of digitalization on internationalization, by studying how ‘digital’ firms expand internationally.

Essay 1 examines how the initial subnational location choices of multinational enterprises (MNEs) in a host country (China) affect their subsequent investments in the same country. I argue that subnational locations with dense agglomerations of MNEs from the same home country can provide firms with co-ethnic …

Before Exit: Three Essays On Business Exit In Politically And Economically Adverse Environments, Ramzi Fathallah

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation re-conceptualizes the exit phenomenon in management research by focusing on what precedes exit in times of political and economic turbulence, when firms and entrepreneurs are forced to contemplate unwanted exit as they face multiple threats in their home country. The three essays of this thesis collectively highlight the inadequacy of theories that conceptualize exit as a sudden and complete cessation of activity by showing that exit is an adaptive process that unfolds over time, and across parts of given entities.

The first essay contributes to the literature on entrepreneurial exit by exploring how entrepreneurs proactively respond to political …

Institutional Voids, Investment Purposes, And Foreign Subsidiaries Of Multinational Enterprises, Yamlaksira S. Getachew

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation is motivated by two sets of research questions: (a) Whether, how, and when host-country market and institutional conditions have implications for the performance of foreign subsidiaries? And (b) Whether, how, and when investment purposes/motives for which foreign subsidiaries are established relate to the extent to which the subsidiaries/their parents overcome the hazards of or capitalize on the opportunities from operating in locations of high institutional voids?

The first essay examines how the decision to enter African markets relates to the exit probability of MNE subsidiaries. Using a longitudinal, paired-sample design of Japanese foreign subsidiaries operating in …

Responses To Subpar Performance In Foreign Subsidiaries, Vanessa C. Hasse

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Many multinational enterprises (MNEs) experience subpar performance in some of their foreign subsidiaries. Despite the clear importance to practitioners, there are surprisingly few comprehensive studies on the appropriate responses to be taken when such a situation occurs. Studies addressing the subpar performance phenomenon have been fragmented across research domains, causing there to be a lack of theory-driven studies within an international context to provide insights. Thus, the research questions guiding this thesis are: When a foreign subsidiary experiences (repeated) subpar performance, what determines which specific type of response is chosen (if any at all)? Which type of response (if any) …

"My Friends, They Are People To Rely On": The Social Foundation Of Business In Ghana, Patrick D. Shulist

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The management and entrepreneurship literatures increasingly engage in poverty alleviation research in the developing world. However, there is a marked tendency to overlook how the Western World, from where most theory comes, differs from the developing world. Such a fallacy has potential deleterious effects on the research itself, but more importantly on the practical applications of that research.

With this in mind, my dissertation uses an inductive qualitative methodology to explore the nature of self-employment in the developing world as it is; that is, not coloured by theoretical priors. In doing this, I lay the groundwork for understanding the …

Mne Ownership, Subsidiary Performance, And Economic Liberalization, Min Zhang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

A foreign subsidiary’s performance depends on its ability to manage the institutional context of its resource decisions. In response to the evolving institutional contexts facilitated by economic liberalization, MNEs have dramatically increased their ownership levels in their FDIs in some emerging economies. Nevertheless, the international business field has yet to sufficiently understand the consequent performance of those FDIs with increasingly higher MNE ownership levels. To address this gap, this dissertation is guided by three research questions. First, how does economic liberalization influence an MNE’s ownership choice in an emerging economy? Second, how does economic liberalization change the relationship between an …

Engaging With The Future: A Historical Investigation Of Greenpeace, Yves Plourde

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation concentrates on the case of organizations that engage with the future with the intent to shape it. Engaging with the future implies identifying and pursuing opportunities aligned with one’s vision for the future and that have the potential to enact the environment. My specific focus is on the properties that can make the organization more effective at pursuing its objectives, to understand why these properties are important and how they can enhance an organization’s ability to engage with the future. The study builds on the extreme case of Greenpeace International, an organization that dedicates its actions to the …

Essays On The Relationship Between Host Market Corruption And Multinational Enterprise Strategy, Michael A. Sartor

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation is guided by three research questions. First, how does host market corruption impact the equity-based market entry strategies implemented by multinational enterprises (MNEs) with respect to their foreign subsidiary investments? Second, does host market corruption increase the likelihood of market exit? Third, can MNEs implement strategies which reduce the likelihood of market exit under conditions of more pervasive host market corruption?

In the first essay, I synthesize insights from institutional theory and integrative social contracts theory to dis-aggregate the concept of government corruption into two dimensions (grand and petty). My theory pertaining to informal …

Transnational Corporate Regulation Through Sustainability Reporting: A Case Study Of The Canadian Extractive Sector, Navraj S. Pannu

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Despite the benefits transnational corporations (TNCs) offer, they remain largely unregulated entities, enabling environmental, social, and human rights violations to be overlooked. Canadian extractive sector TNCs operating internationally are frequently cited as major perpetrators of such violations. Literature on new governance and self-regulation as well as global corporate social responsibility (CSR) increasingly offers disclosure and reporting as a solution for TNC regulation. This study examines disclosure in international CSR frameworks, and the reflexive law and new governance theories explaining the role of such disclosure and reporting. Mirroring international CSR initiatives, Canadian jurisdictions are increasingly recommending disclosure for its extractive sector …

International Returnees And The Capturing Of Foreign Knowledge By Emerging Market Firms, Michael Joseph Dominic Roberts

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

As emerging markets grow and provide new economic opportunities, firms in these countries have an opportunity to benefit from the international knowledge their diaspora can bring when they return home. This thesis aims to contribute to the international assignee and knowledge transfer literature by examining the processes by which international returnees help firms in emerging markets capture and utilize the knowledge they have gained overseas. International returnees are people who have completed post-graduate studies overseas, and then returned to work in their home country. This dissertation is grounded in institutional theory at a micro-foundational level. It integrates research from the …

Employment Of Returnees And The Performance Of Multinational Subsidairies In China, Huanglin Wang

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Returnees, those who went overseas for higher education and then returned to their home countries, represent a unique group of employees for multinational enterprises (MNEs). However, they have been ignored in the MNE staffing literature which has developed a staffing typology based on nationality, specifically parent country nationals (PCNs), host country nationals (HCNs), and third country nationals (TCNs). We propose that cultural understanding is a more appropriate criterion than nationality in categorizing staff in MNEs and compare returnees with the existing categorizations of MNE staff. Returnees may be closer to the ‘balanced individuals’ that MNEs need compared with either expatriates …