K.C. Fung, Hsiang-Chih Hwang, Jesús Seade and Rocky Tung
In this paper, the authors aim to examine trade in parts and components of Mexico, Chile and Brazil, focusing in particular on trade of television parts (SITC 7711) and…
Abstract
Purpose
In this paper, the authors aim to examine trade in parts and components of Mexico, Chile and Brazil, focusing in particular on trade of television parts (SITC 7711) and semiconductors (SITC 7763) with China and South Korea. They also study the impact of foreign direct investment (FDI) on supply chain activities.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use sub-categories of trade data to look at export and import of parts and components involving China, South Korea, Mexico, Brazil and Chile. They also use two-stage regressions to examine the impact of FDI on supply chain trade.
Findings
The authors found preliminary evidence that there may be early signs of an emerging Trans-Pacific production network between these three Latin American economies and the China-based and South Korea-based East Asian supply chains. The authors argue that this budding network will improve economic welfare. To deepen the Trans-Pacific supply chain, it would be desirable for China and South Korea to consider joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). In addition, FDI enhances trade in components.
Practical implications
To deepen the Trans-Pacific supply chain, it would be desirable for China and South Korea to consider joining the TPP. In addition, it would be beneficial for these Latin American economies to encourage more direct investment in infrastructure and in manufacturing facilities from Asia.
Originality/value
This paper is one of the earliest research papers examining the Trans-Pacific supply chain, linking China, South Korea with Mexico, Brazil and Chile. The authors also study the impact of FDI on supply chain activities.
Details
Keywords
In view of the emphasis in cross-cultural research on negative factors such as cultural misfit, cultural distance, and the liability of foreignness, the purpose of this paper is…
Abstract
Purpose
In view of the emphasis in cross-cultural research on negative factors such as cultural misfit, cultural distance, and the liability of foreignness, the purpose of this paper is to offer one explanation for why this is the case and highlight the advantages of giving at least equal emphasis to research on positive factors. Three propositions are offered to guide future cross-cultural research.
Design/methodology/approach
Summaries of empirical studies on the inherent inclinations of human systems toward the negative, as well as inclinations toward the positive, produce explanations for each of these biases and their implications for cross-cultural scholarship.
Findings
By prioritizing positive factors instead of negative factors, individuals and organizations perform at much higher levels than when the reverse is the case. Virtuous practices, in particular, are associated with positively deviant performance. Inasmuch as virtuousness is universally valued, its emphasis can address some of the liabilities of difference inherent in cross-cultural contexts.
Originality/value
The three propositions offered in the paper explain why negative biases exist, how positive biases provide an advantage to individuals and organizations, and highlight future directions for cross-cultural research. Social scientists have been challenged to help enable 51 percent of the world’s population to flourish by mid-century, and prioritizing positive cross-cultural phenomena is one prescription for achieving that objective.
Details
Keywords
Chun Guo, Emily T. Porschitz and José Alves
Drawing on career and self‐initiated expatriation/repatriation literatures, this paper aims to examine the career experiences of Chinese self‐initiated repatriates after their…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on career and self‐initiated expatriation/repatriation literatures, this paper aims to examine the career experiences of Chinese self‐initiated repatriates after their return to China.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted an exploratory, qualitative study involving in‐depth interviews with 20 Chinese individuals who returned to China after spending at least three years living, studying and/or working in a range of “host” countries.
Findings
This study shows that the career agency of Chinese returnees reflects both independent and interdependent factors. It provides specific empirical support for Tams and Arthur's argument that career agency is impacted by both individual and contextual factors.
Research limitations/implications
The findings indicate the central role played by individual proactivity and contextual influences during self‐initiated repatriation. The small sample size allows for rich data, but limits the generalizability of the findings.
Practical implications
Managerial practices that address the unique career values and expectations of self‐initiated repatriates can facilitate the application of skills and knowledge acquired abroad to the local context. Policy makers should provide more institutional support to encourage and facilitate the return of overseas Chinese.
Originality/value
This study is among only a small number to explore the experiences of self‐initiated repatriates in developing countries. Recent research has addressed the importance of recognizing and identifying the boundaries that constrain and enable global careers. This study identifies a number of such boundaries and also adds to the understanding of the challenges and difficulties of repatriation.
Details
Keywords
Diana J. Wong-MingJi, Eric H. Kessler, Shaista E. Khilji and Shanthi Gopalakrishnan
The purpose of this paper is to explore leadership styles and patterns in India, Indonesia, Pakistan, and the USA in order to contribute to a greater understanding of global…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore leadership styles and patterns in India, Indonesia, Pakistan, and the USA in order to contribute to a greater understanding of global leadership.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses cultural mythologies as a lens (Kessler and Wong-MingJi, 2009a) to extract the most favored leadership traits within selected countries. In doing so, the paper explores historical trajectories and core values of each country to identify their distinctive characteristics. Additionally, leadership styles of well-known business leaders in each culture are examined to develop a comparative discussion of global leadership patterns and styles.
Findings
The paper finds that leaders may share same characteristics across countries, however, their behavioral expressions tend to unfold differently within each context. The paper argues that without context, meanings embedded in cultural mythologies and behaviors often become lost. The paper concludes that a comparative analysis of selected countries reveals a more complex and rich array of cultural meanings, thus offering support to a contextual view of leadership.
Research limitations/implications
Examination of cultural mythologies on leadership makes important theoretical contributions by illustrating that cultural mythologies indeed shape the values, behaviors, and attitudes of global leaders, and provide three important functions that are identified as: cultural bridging, meaning making, and contextual nuancing.
Practical implications
Understanding comparative leadership patterns is critical in international business. The paper offers cultural mythologies as a tool for leaders who seek to cross-cultural boundaries in developing long term and high-quality productive international business relationships.
Originality/value
The value of the study lies in developing a comparative analysis of leadership patterns in three Southeast Asian countries and the USA with the help of cultural mythologies. The paper urges that scholars to move beyond quantification of cultural dimensions to a more contextualized understanding of leadership.
Details
Keywords
This study aims to investigate the role of socio‐economic institutions on immigrant effect (IE). The IE is to be empirically tested in two multi‐ethnic societies of the USA and…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the role of socio‐economic institutions on immigrant effect (IE). The IE is to be empirically tested in two multi‐ethnic societies of the USA and Canada; comparing it in a melting pot and a multicultural approach. This effect is also separately to be examined in several provinces and states, each with its own social setting, in both countries.
Design/methodology/approach
The study examines data mainly collected from the census, immigration, and trade/export data in both countries, for the six‐year period of 2000‐2005. The paper compiles data in a panel data format on immigrant groups and trade with the country of origin of 27 (US) and 29 (Canada) immigrant groups.
Findings
The analysis implies findings almost the opposite of what was expected; immigrant effect exists in a melting pot and is not significant in a multicultural society.
Research limitations/implications
The study is limited to two societies, and still needs to be tested in other multicultural and melting pot countries across the globe.
Practical/ implications
While immigrants to Canada identify themselves more strongly with their new home than immigrants to the USA, Canada in general is not fully utilizing their potential in boosting foreign trade with the countries of origin of these immigrants. The paper also addresses some practical implications of the study for managers interested in better exploiting the benefits of immigrant effect.
Originality/value
Immigrant effect and its values in two very large immigrant recipient countries with very dissimilar social and institutional settings are systematically investigated. Based on the results of this investigation a number of implications for practitioners and policy makers is suggested.
Details
Keywords
Amalia Triantafillidou and George Siomkos
The aim of the present study is to investigate the impact of the different aspects of consumption experience on various post-consumption variables (i.e. satisfaction, nostalgia…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of the present study is to investigate the impact of the different aspects of consumption experience on various post-consumption variables (i.e. satisfaction, nostalgia intensity, word-of-mouth (WOM) communication and behavioural intentions).
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative study using a self-administered questionnaire was conducted. The sample comprised of 645 respondents and the snowball sampling technique was used. Consumption experience was measured using a seven-dimensional scale (dimensions: hedonic, flow, escapism, socialisation, personal challenge, learning and communitas).
Findings
Not all experience dimensions affect consumers equally in the post-consumption stage. Hedonism was an important experiential dimension affecting positively most of the post-consumption variables. Other boosters of consumers’ nostalgia, WOM communication and behavioural intentions were the feelings of escapism, knowledge and communitas. On the contrary, flow and personal challenge were negative predictors of consumers’ evaluations.
Practical implications
Marketers should co-create the experience with consumers by carefully managing their experiential offering. Companies should focus on designing pleasurable, social, educational and fantasy experiences while minimizing the feelings of immersion and risk that arise from intense activities.
Originality/value
A holistic conceptual model on the consequences of the different consumption experience dimensions is tested. Until now, most of the relevant studies on experiences have treated experience as a higher order construct without taking into consideration the different effects of the various experience dimensions. Hence, the present study contributes to research by identifying the most pertinent experience dimensions on post-consumption evaluations, behaviour and intentions of consumers.
Details
Keywords
Daniel R. Clark and Jeffrey G. Covin
The literature on international entrepreneurship offers two competing views on why new ventures internationalize: (a) the nature of the opportunity pulls them international or (b…
Abstract
The literature on international entrepreneurship offers two competing views on why new ventures internationalize: (a) the nature of the opportunity pulls them international or (b) the founder pushes the firm international. While these two internationalization drivers are not independent, they do represent unique causal mechanisms. Previously, the tools available to understand the entrepreneur’s disposition toward internationalization were limited. The present study uses the theoretical foundation of the international entrepreneurial orientation construct and from it develops and tests an attitudinally-based individual-level measure of disposition toward internationalization. To ensure the validity and reliability of the new measure, termed International Entrepreneurial Orientation Disposition, studies were conducted to: develop new scale items, examine their psychometric properties and construct validity, and demonstrate criterion validity. A strong measurement model is developed using structural equation modeling (CFI = 0.93, RMSEA = 0.07), and the measure is shown to be useful as a predictor of perceived international venture attractiveness.
Details
Keywords
Charles M. Vance and Yongsun Paik
Attempts to verify anecdotal and field evidence of an unfounded expatriate assignment selection bias against American females. Surveyed the perceptions of US, German and Mexican…
Abstract
Attempts to verify anecdotal and field evidence of an unfounded expatriate assignment selection bias against American females. Surveyed the perceptions of US, German and Mexican managers across six areas for assessing the business success viability of female American expatriates. Shows that American managers were less positive than their counterparts who knew the foreign marketplace better. States that the gender of the manager played a significant role in the US sample, where female managers gave amore favourable assessment.
Details
Keywords
Joshua V. White, Sanjay Chaudhary and Vishal K. Gupta
The concept of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) attracts considerable attention in the organizational literature. Focusing on issues related to measurement of EO and using a…
Abstract
The concept of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) attracts considerable attention in the organizational literature. Focusing on issues related to measurement of EO and using a three-pronged framework to organize the growing diversity of EO measures, the authors conduct a systematic literature review on how EO is captured and assessed in the empirical literature. Specifically, the authors classify 551 empirical works according to the approach to measurement (i.e., managerial perceptions, content analysis, and resource allocations) which allows the authors to document and critically analyze prevalent measurement practices within the literature. Based on the synthesis, the authors identify key measurement-related tensions that may inhibit cumulative knowledge development in the area of EO, such as ad hoc modification of seminal scales and lack of theoretical clarity with respect to measurement. Additionally, the authors find that research into the antecedents of EO as well as causality and temporality of the phenomenon is underdeveloped, which the authors attribute to scarce use of mixed methods. The authors conclude chapter by discussing the challenges involved in measuring EO and offering possible recommendations for future inquiry.