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This paper aims to propose practical recommendations in accordance with the strategic roles played by research and development (R&D) in multinational companies (MNCs).

This study applies a qualitative method to investigate the talent management (TM) practices implemented in MNCs’ R&D units.

The findings identify four R&D strategies and four sectors of TM practices. Furthermore, there exists an alignment between R&D strategies and TM practices.

This paper has several limitations. This qualitative research is exploratory, and larger samples or quantitative methods are needed to ensure the wider applicability of the findings. When possible, longitudinal studies yield superior results in revealing the evolving strategic roles of R&D subsidiaries and their TM practices. The authors used China as the research context, and similar studies in other emerging countries with active R&D activities are required to further validate or complement the findings in this study.

This study has some practical implications for companies with regard to aligning their TM practices with R&D strategies.

R&D units play an increasingly significant role in MNCs and TM is a key issue. However, there is a lack of TM research focusing on R&D employees by taking strategies into account.

1. Understand how the corporate lifecycle could trigger a necessity of making a tough decision to develop new business ventures based on the corporate lifecycle theory; and how changes in the external environment could hasten such a decision.

2. Analyze how a company can leverage its internal organizational structure to share and utilize cross-departmental resources and capabilities to support new venture businesses according to the synergy effect perspective.

3. Undertake a resource-based view analysis to evaluate the external and internal resources needed for corporate new venture development.

4. Identify the best course of action for the decision-maker by comparing, contrasting, applying and evaluating the two different models of corporate new venture development in the e-commerce business: the centralized organizational model and the decentralized organizational model and evaluate the pros and cons associated with each mode in the context of Dahan’s external and internal environments.

Since its inception in 2003, Dahan’s traditional business in SMS (Short Message Services) and data had gained thousands of customers across China and won top rankings in the industry. Despite its achievements, Dahan encountered difficulties when it entered the new e-commerce market, as the domain knowledge about the new business was very different from the domain knowledge in its traditional business. Furthermore, the emerging B2B e-commerce industry was very different from the traditional business in that the former mainly targeted corporate clients and the latter targeted individual customers in the B2C industry. This case examined the critical decisions that Xiaofen Huang, the CEO of Dahan E-Commerce Corporation and Co-Founder of Dahan Tricom Group, had to make and external, especially Internal, resources the Dahan Group needed in developing its new venture.

Specifically, this case explored how Huang would go through the mental process to make the best possible decision to help the company not only to survive, but also thrive in the rapidly-changing and competitive digital environment: it urgently needed to finalize an organizational incubation model to support the further development of its e-commerce and future new venture activities with two options to choose from: the centralized organizational model or the decentralized organizational model. A key challenge facing Huang was to decide which option was best suited to motivate salespeople in different departments to help one another, especially in the new B2B e-commerce business and to grow that new business.

In the case, Dahan’s growth aspirations and its motivation to transform its traditional business into a new e-commerce business were discussed. Second, when external challenges were examined, how Dahan explored the B2B e-commerce business using a trial-and-error learning process was explained. Third, when internal challenges were examined, how Dahan incubated its new B2B e-commerce business and its practices for leveraging and sharing resources/capabilities, as well as cross-departmental and cross-divisional collaboration through a resource-based lens, were illustrated. Last, the most critical learning in the case presented an immediate decision-making dilemma on which organizational incubation models to choose from for further new business development, where students learn to analyze both external and internal factors and consider Dahan’s available resource and founder’s aspiration, available strategic options to derive a best possible decision to suit the stage of the company’s lifecycle and founders’ vision.

This case was designed for use in undergraduate courses on corporate innovation, new venture development, corporate innovation, corporate entrepreneurship, e-commerce and growth.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 11: Strategy.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on the differential impact of government promotional measures and government ownership on two internationalization variables: location and speed of internationalization of emerging market multinationals (EMNEs). Central to the authors’ study is the mediating role of strategic intents to internationalize. In particular, we study how government impacts the resource-seeking, market-seeking and technology-seeking motives to internationalize.

The empirical setting for the paper is Chinese companies that have internationalized via an equity based entry mode. The authors employ 672 firm responses collected by the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada and the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.

The empirical results demonstrate that different home government measures have differential impact on internationalization outcomes. Government promotional measures (such as direct incentives and bilateral agreements to support internationalization) have only an indirect effect on international location and speed through the effect they have on the strategic motives to internationalize; while government ownership in the company has a direct impact on international location.

The study highlights that home governments are shaping EMNEs strategic intent. Home government can influence EMNEs internationalization choices by providing resource flows through financial resources and state ownership or through asset-accumulation mechanisms via promotional measures.

Policy makers in emerging markets need to develop policies focused on the specific motivations that firms have when internationalizing. EMNEs are suggested to take advantage of government policies more intentionally.

The theoretical contribution centers on identifying important mediating mechanisms pointing to the interplay between government policies and international location and speed of firms. The authors contribute to the growing stream of research on internationalization of emerging market firms by building a sound theoretical model and examining empirically the role of home government in the internationalization of EMNEs.

The purpose of this paper is to argue that financial development, measured by private credit in the economy, affects exports in an inverted U-shaped manner. The authors use the new trade theory model and empirical data to analyze whether the financial system is the reason of global imbalance.

This paper builds a simple production model to connect financial development with a country’s export or outward foreign direct investment (ODI) decision. Using a panel data covering 108 countries for the period 1990-2011, the authors find strong evidence to show that when a country is at a lower financial development level, further advancements of its financial system will boost exports.

First, an inverted U-shaped relationship between exports, imports and financial development is found in the study of 108 countries over the period 1990-2011; second, ODI provides a substitute effect to exports for financially advanced countries. These findings have provided an alternative explanation to international trade imbalances and contribute constructively to the discussion regarding whether exports and financial development are positively related or not.

As a result, the findings shed some light on the issue of global current account imbalances between developing and developed countries from a new perspective.

This research aims to assess variations of motivations when studying international location decisions. In particular, this study aims to assess the influence of diverse motivations – seeking technology, seeking brand assets, seeking markets, seeking resources and escaping institutional constraints – as determinants of the international location choice of emerging market multinational enterprises (EM MNEs) entering least developed, emerging, and developed countries.

The authors develop a set of hypotheses based on the ownership–location–internalization framework and complement it with an institutional perspective. The conceptual model posits that the different internationalization motivations (seeking technology, seeking brand assets, seeking markets, seeking resources and escaping institutional constraints) will impact the location choice of EM MNEs in developed economies, emerging markets or least developed countries. This study uses the 2013 survey data collected by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada. The final sample of analysis of this research includes 693 observations.

After controlling for several variables, two-stage Heckman regressions show there is a variation of motivations when EM MNEs enter least developed countries, emerging markets and developed economies. EM MNEs are motivated to enter least developed countries to seek markets and resources. Conversely, those firms enter developed countries in their search for technological assets and to escape institutional constraints at home. While the present study findings show a clear difference in the motivations that lead to location choice in least developed vs developed countries, the results are not as clear for location in other emerging countries.

The paper offers empirical support for the importance of motivations as crucial determinants of location choice.

This paper provides a detailed quantitative study on the internationalization location choice of EM MNEs based on their motivations. Though theoretical models underscore the importance of motivations, we know very little about how, in practice, motivations drive location choice. This study contributes to the international location choice literature a deeper understanding of how diverse motivations drive choices of expansion into developed economies, emerging markets or least developed countries.

Although there have been many discussions on the status and development of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), theory on how they survive is minimal. Little is known about how OEMs survive and upgrade to other business models, such as original design manufacturers (ODMs) and original brand manufacturers (OBMs), in emerging economies. The purpose of this paper is to extend the theory on the survival path of OEMs from the perspective of emerging countries by examining how OEMs survive cost pressures and upgrade to ODMs or OBMs.

Using a multi-case study method, this study analyzes the survival path employed by OEMs by examining eight firms in the Chinese toy industry.

This study shows that OEMs remain weak in the global toy industry chain due to labor costs. While some OEMs move to low-cost regions, others turn to OBM management, after transitioning through an ODM model, by investing in research and development and marketing.

This study explores the survival paths of OEM enterprises, showing that OEMs can first upgrade to ODMs and then to OBMs, or they can directly upgrade to OBMs. Shifting from OEM to ODM is an important step in the transition process, although the contract that OEMs have with their foreign partners does not change significantly.

This study aims to build a research model from the perspectives of knowledge hiding and idea implementation to examine what factors influence idea implementation and the cross-level moderating role of team territory climate.

Data were collected from universities, 52 (R&D) teams in China via a two-wave survey. The final sample contained 209 team members and their immediate supervisors. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to test hypotheses.

The results indicated that individuals’ knowledge-hiding behavior had a significantly negative impact on idea implementation and creative process engagement, which played a mediating role. Team territorial climate played a cross-level moderating role between knowledge hiding and idea implementation. If team territorial climate was at a high level, then the negative connection between knowledge hiding and idea implementation would be weaker.

Under the perspective of territorial behavior in Chinese cultural, it can help to distinguish territorial behavior and be preventive at individual and team levels. This study not only enables managers to clearly understand the precipitating factors of idea implementation but also provides constructive strategies for alleviating the negative effects of knowledge territoriality on creative process engagement and idea implementation.

This study constructs a cross-level model to explore the relationship among knowledge hiding, creative process engagement and idea implementation at individual and team levels in the context of Chinese R&D enterprises. Additionally, the study analyzes the influence of territoriality on idea implementation under boundary conditions.

Considering the importance of China as a global economic power and the emphasis placed on human resources in a knowledge economy, the findings of no less than 30 articles on diversity management in that country seem inadequate given the growing importance of diversity in the workplace. Analysis of those articles reveals that most of the research focuses on firms located on the eastern coast. Moreover, while cataloging the types of industry and ownership covered provides a broad overview, specific industries and ownership types require further examination.

Searches were conducted in both English and Chinese databases using the keyword search phrase of “diversity management and China”. The criteria for including an article were as follows: 1) an emphasis on diversity management within the business environment; 2) a focus on applications of diversity management within the People’s Republic of China, thus excluding Taiwan; and 3) a research-based or conceptual orientation. The search was further limited by using the “abstract” as a limiter under the assumption that if the concepts were important, the author(s) would have used that terminology in the abstract.

Gender emerged as a major concern along with residential status; racial and ethnic differences, on the other hand, cultural and/or other influences on diversity management received limited attention. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were used by the various authors, but exploratory methods such as grounded theory saw minimal use. With the little research done on diversity management in China, it is difficult to assess whether or Chinese firms are fully using its available workforce. China must embrace diversity management practices with a view to achieving competitive advantages as well as equality and harmony in the workplace.

This is one of the first published reviews of articles from both Chinese and English databases that delves into the issue of diversity management in China.

Irregularly shaped architectural designs with surfaces curved in multiple directions, known as free-form designs, have gained significant public interest in recent decades. However, it is challenging to convert complex designs into real structures. This paper aims to realize free-form construction by developing a novel workflow in which additively manufactured thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) molds are used.

The workflow is developed through mechanical tests on additively manufactured TPU specimens, determination of TPU mold design criteria and exploration of mold preparation methods. Two concrete elements with free-form geometries are fabricated using the proposed workflow.

TPU is a thermoplastic elastomer that is strong and inexpensive, making it an ideal mold material for casting complex concrete structures. An innovative workflow is developed in which TPU molds are used, appropriate release agents are selected for different concrete casting conditions and a mold subdivision method is proposed to facilitate the demolding process. Furthermore, the integrity of TPU molds can be maintained by following the proposed workflow, enabling repetitive use of molds. The fabrication of the two free-form structures shows that complex concrete members with high dimensional accuracy and excellent surface quality can be manufactured using the proposed method.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first systematic study on using additively manufactured TPU molds for concrete casting of complex structures. The new techniques developed in this research can be applied to large-scale architectural, engineering and construction projects.