Business Commons^™

The Decline Of Global Market Leaders, Xiaowen Tian, John Slocum

Xiaowen Tian

Integrating capability-based and institution-based views in a multilevel framework, we argue that managerial capability to acquire loans to finance business expansion has an inverted U-shaped relationship with global market leadership. The negative effect on global market leadership of excessive loan-acquiring capability is amplified under business-friendly market institutions that ease access to credit. Managerial capability to utilize resources productively positively moderates the relationship between loan-acquiring capability and global market leadership. The role of resource-utilizing capability is attenuated under business-friendly market institutions that facilitate overinvestment. The study helps explain recent decline of global market leaders in advanced market economies.

What Determines Mnc Subsidiary Performance? Evidence From China, Xiaowen Tian, John Slocum

Xiaowen Tian

The paper challenges the view that MNC dictates a subsidiary’s business strategy and operations in accordance with the integration-responsiveness (IR) framework. The paper integrates the IR framework with contingency theory to argue that a subsidiary needs discretion to craft its own effective business strategy in light of the environmental exigencies facing the subsidiary in the host country. It may do so at variance with the MNC’s strategy. Evidence from China supports that subsidiary managers should take strategic initiatives in response to specific host country environment.

The Retention Of Chinese Managers: The Chinese Puzzle Box, Xiaowen Tian, Michael Harvey, John Slocum

Xiaowen Tian

Extract:

Chinese Puzzle Box: a box that can only be opened through some obscure or complicated series of manipulations. Some puzzle boxes may require only a simple squeeze in the right spot, whereas others may require the subtle movement of several small parts, to open the box.

Once entering an emerging market like China, foreign multinational enterprises (hereafter MNEs) are confronted with fierce competition almost in every key functional area, including marketing, production and supply chains, finance, human resources and information technology. Yet there is one area where many Western managers do not anticipate facing keen competition and that …