Search results

The purpose of this paper is to generate an observable relationship between five control mechanisms used by parent firms to direct international joint ventures (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.

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.

The paper determines different impacts upon performance measures through the use of either personnel or policy measures. 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.

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.

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.

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.

This paper sets out to identify and categorize existing academic literature using the CSA/FSA matrix as it relates to environmentally responsible management in an international business context. It further identifies current trends and potential future research avenues.

This paper undertook an examination of the literature as it pertains to international business activities of multinational enterprises (MNE) and environmentally responsible management (ERM) practices. In keeping with the focus of this review, only articles that discussed ERM in an international or multinational setting were considered, meaning that research focused on practices in only one country was not included.

Some general themes were found in the literature regarding ERM activity and development in an international business context. One overriding theme is the relationship between the strategies, organization, goals and values of MNEs on the one hand versus the conditions and natures of host countries on the other. The CSA/FSA matrix uncovered a significant lack in FSA based research suggesting a focus for future research.

The paper provides a thorough review of existing literature and supplements future research by categorizing major areas of focus and methodologies. This review generates significant building blocks for future research avenues and paths to be discovered through the use of the CSA/FSA matrix and the interaction between the factors.

This chapter explores the origins of the theme of competitive advantage in 19th and early 20th century economics. This theme, which forms the core of modern Strategic Management, was a battleground for debates about the value of abstract theory versus observations about real-life events. Intellectual genealogies, citations, and other sources show the central roles played by the University of Vienna and Harvard University. These two institutions strongly influenced the theory of monopolistic competition as well as all three modern views of competitive advantage – the industrial as expressed by Porter, the resource-based as expressed by Penrose, and the evolutionary as expressed by Schumpeter.

Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

1982 US intra‐industry trade (IIT) for 308 four‐digit manufacturing products is related to industry characteristics in a cross‐section regression study of the sources of two‐way trade. Results indicate the empirical relevance of models which present IIT as the result of international external economies in the production of differentiated producers goods. IIT as a means of satisfying consumers′ tastes for variety does not seem to be important, but oligopoly models of two‐way trade in consumer goods are supported owing to the association with concentration ratios. In contrast to recent studies which concluded that scale economies inhibit IIT in manufactured products, an examination of four different proxies for internal economies reveals that neither IIT nor inter‐industry trade based on comparative advantage is influenced significantly by scale effects, whether measured by size of establishment or by the productivity advantages of large plants.

The formation of international joint ventures (IJVs) is one of the prevalent approaches for Western companies to conduct business in China. Yet, doing business in China is difficult for many firms, partially because of the institutional voids that are created by weak formal institutions. The paper aims to focus on the role of guanxi (an informal institution and a company capability that fills such institutional void) in the formation and management of IJVs.

A systematic literature review on the role of guanxi in IJV formation and management is conducted based on papers published in top international business journals between 2005 and 2020 – in total, 47 papers are included in the review.

The findings of the study are presented in four themes, namely, the role of guanxi as social capital in IJV formation, the role of trust in guanxi-based IJVs, the role of control mechanisms in balancing high reliance on trust in guanxi-based IJVs and the role of guanxi in managing inconsistencies in the regulatory environment. The analysis also reveals that guanxi has a positive effect on the development of IJVs if control between the parent firms is well balanced; otherwise, guanxi can trigger opportunism and leads to failures.

The study unravels how guanxi leads to successful outcomes in IJV formation and management, which assist managers who operate IJVs with their decision-making.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous paper has critically analysed the literature on IJVs using a guanxi perspective at micro (personal), meso (business) and (macro) governmental levels. This approach allows for providing more nuanced view of the role of guanxi in the formation and management of IJVs and aligns more closely with managerial decision-making.

With the rise of alternate discovery services, such as Google Scholar, in conjunction with the increase in open access content, researchers have the option to bypass academic libraries when they search for and retrieve scholarly information. This state of affairs implies that academic libraries exist in competition with these alternate services and with the patrons who use them, and as a result, may be disintermediated from the scholarly information seeking and retrieval process. Drawing from decision and game theory, bounded rationality, information seeking theory, citation theory, and social computing theory, this study investigates how academic librarians are responding as competitors to changing scholarly information seeking and collecting practices. Bibliographic data was collected in 2010 from a systematic random sample of references on CiteULike.org and analyzed with three years of bibliometric data collected from Google Scholar. Findings suggest that although scholars may choose to bypass libraries when they seek scholarly information, academic libraries continue to provide a majority of scholarly documentation needs through open access and institutional repositories. Overall, the results indicate that academic librarians are playing the scholarly communication game competitively.

Adam Smith's dictum that the division of labour is limited by the extent of the market is invoked as an explanation of observed intra‐industry trade. The strongest results from empirical studies of intra‐industry trade (relating it to level of development, time, falling trade barriers, and a manufacturing dummy) are all consistent with this view. Moreover, it makes it unnecessary to argue whether such trade reflects an aggregation problem, or to rely on new theories of international trade based on product differentiation and scale economies (neither of which have performed well in econometric work in this area).

In order to succeed in an action under the Equal Pay Act 1970, should the woman and the man be employed by the same employer on like work at the same time or would the woman still be covered by the Act if she were employed on like work in succession to the man? This is the question which had to be solved in Macarthys Ltd v. Smith. Unfortunately it was not. Their Lordships interpreted the relevant section in different ways and since Article 119 of the Treaty of Rome was also subject to different interpretations, the case has been referred to the European Court of Justice.

1950, the centenary year of public libraries, now with us, must be a year of intense interest to all who read THE LIBRARY WORLD. Preparations have been made by the Library Association on very generous lines for its celebration. We have our Royal Charter, and now we have the privilege of the Consort of the Heir to the Throne as our President. What is more, H.M. the King has become our Patron. Who shall think meanly of librarians and their work hereafter? No longer, too, shall librarians think meanly of themselves. The writer of this month's Letters on Our Affairs, with some of which we may not entirely agree, is surely right in his assertion that the profession “is arriving.”