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This study aims to improve the stability and obstacle surmounting ability of the traditional wall-climbing robot on the surface of the ship, a wheel-track composite magnetic adsorption wall-climbing robot is proposed in this paper.

The robot adopts a front and rear obstacle-crossing mechanism to achieve a smooth crossover. The robot is composed of two passive obstacle-crossing mechanisms and a frame, which is composed of two obstacle-crossing magnetic wheels and a set of tracks. The obstacle-crossing is realized by the telescopic expansion of the obstacle-crossing mechanism. Three static failure models are established to determine the minimum adsorption force for the robot to achieve stable motion. The Halbach array is used to construct the track magnetic circuit, and the influence of gap, contact area and magnet thickness on the adsorption force is analyzed by parameter simulation.

The prototype was designed and manufactured by the authors for static failure and obstacle crossing tests. The prototype test results show that the robot can cross the obstacle of 10 mm height under the condition of 20 kg load.

A new structure of wall-climbing robot is proposed and verified. According to the test results, the wall-climbing robot can stably climb over the obstacle of 10 mm height under the condition of 20 kg load, which provides a new idea for future robot design.

This paper aims to analyse the characteristics of Chinese multinational corporations in other emerging economies using evidence from Latin America (LA) vis-à-vis the features found in previous studies of Chinese companies operating in developed countries.

It does this by studying the fit of theoretical frameworks recently developed for Chinese firms, the support from the government and the strength of their capabilities in relation to those of local competitors. The analysis is based on case studies with data collected from a theoretical sample of Chinese companies operating in LA.

The results show that these companies seem to be following a pattern similar to that described by Mathews’s (2006) Linkage–Leverage–Learning, that the support from the government does not seem to play an important role in their internationalisation process, that they appear to have developed a set of capabilities strong enough to compete in the host market (in particular how to combine their strengths with those of local partners) and that they are engaged in a positive cycle of development that helps them to overcome some of the challenges and barriers of operating in Latin American emerging markets by complementing/leveraging their strengths with those of local firms.

The findings indicate that Chinese companies are following patterns in their internationalisation to Latin American emerging markets that seems to be a combination of conventional theories (including previous studies on emerging markets-based firms) with idiosyncratic elements.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, China’s outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) is growing steadily and Chinese multinationals (MNCs) are playing an increasingly important role in the global economy. Thus, the number of papers focusing on China’s OFDI and Chinese MNCs has been increasing during the last years. The aim of this chapter is to carry out a review of the empirical papers dealing with Chinese MNCs published between 2002 and 2012 in high-impact international business and management journals.

This chapter reviews 43 empirical papers focusing on Chinese MNCs that were published in nine major scholarly journals between 2002 and 2012.

We report individual and institutional contributions, the theories and methods used, the research topics, and the main findings. We also discuss implications for future research.

Some previous literature reviews have dealt with research on China’s OFDI and Chinese MNCs. Nevertheless, none of the earlier reviews dealt specifically with empirical papers; neither did they provide an analysis of both individual and institutional contributions.

This study aims to investigate how natural resource-seeking as a type of strategic intent influences foreign direct investment (FDI) location choice. Grounded in the strategic intent approach and institution theory, the authors developed an interactive conceptual framework by integrating natural resource-seeking intent (NRI) with regulatory institutional factors.

The authors developed an interactive conceptual framework by integrating NRI at a firm level with regulatory factors of governmental support, political risk and economic freedom at country level. Using empirical data from a sample of 137 Chinese outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) projects in 19 Asian countries, statistical analysis was conducted using a conditional logistic regression technique.

Empirical findings from our study suggest that NRI has a strong influence on OFDI location choice of the Chinese firms. More importantly, the results demonstrate that influence of NRI on location choice is contingent on the regulatory forces both in the home and host countries settings. NRI is more likely to influence FDI location choice when government support from the home country is stronger and/or when political risk in a host country FDI is higher.

This is an empirical-based original study, and it contributes to the literature in several ways. First, the study enriches the strategic intent approach by demonstrating the contingency conditions from regulatory factors, especially home government support on a firm’s pursuit of NRI. Second, the study provides an explanation for the behaviour pattern of Chinese OFDI regarding their response to political risk in a host country. Third, the study demonstrates the influence of “institutional embededness” on the firm’s strategic intent. Managerial and policy implications are also discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the trends, patterns and the impact of cultural and home country macroeconomic influences on Chinese cross-border mergers and acquisitions (CBM&A) as foreign entry strategy for the period of 1998-2011.

Using three regression models, namely, ordinary least squares, the random effects and fixed effects to examine the impact of home country macroeconomic and cultural factors on CBM&A outflows as an entry mode of Chinese firms. The authors check the robustness of the results using system GMM.

The findings suggest that CBM&A as a preferred mode of market entry provides a means for obtaining strategic resources to develop competitive advantages for the Chinese emerging market firms. The regression results indicate that home country macroeconomic and cultural variables, including gross domestic product (GDP), liquidity, interest rates, inflation, acquisitions in resource seeking sectors and cultural distance play an important role in explaining the trends of CBM&A outflows by the Chinese firms.

The results imply that government support to emerging market multinational enterprises (EMEs) to acquire strategic assets and economic policies in the home country play an important role in shaping international expansion behaviour of EMEs through CBM&A. The study demonstrates that outward investments of EMEs are partly a function of the level of economic policies and government support at home. The limitation is that most of the Chinese CBM&A transactions took place in Asia/Pacific locations. Future studies appear warranted if new data become available.

The study demonstrates how the institutions, strategic asset seeking with government support and economic policies in the home country play important role in shaping international expansion behaviour of emerging market enterprises through CBM&A thereby contributing to the political economy literature and institutional theory. More importantly, the study shows that the level of economic policies and development such as GDP, money supply, interest rates, inflation of the home country are important for EME growth in the international market.

The growth and significance of emerging economies’ multinationals (EEMs) in the global economy have transformed the business landscape. This study constructs a conceptual framework that displays and links the prerequisites of the formation, composition and development stages of dynamic capabilities (DCs) that lead to competitive advantages in EEMs.

This study follows the preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis (PRISMA) guidelines (excluding meta-analysis) to present a systematic review of 111 empirical and conceptual academic articles published in the past 24 years in the A+, A and B tier categories in scientific journal indexes.

The findings illustrate the DCs of EEMs in terms of four components: prerequisites for formation, composition, development process and outcomes. Among these, the compositions of DCs contain four types: management capabilities of available and desired resources, agile organizational capabilities, fast-learning modes and predictive capabilities. The authors also explain the developmental stages of DCs in EEMs, which is seen as a continuous process of anticipating change, consisting of high sensitivity to opportunities, advanced knowledge absorption, resource optimization and adjustment. Additional analysis also reveals the challenges in researching and measuring DCs.

This study provides a highly synthesized multi-dimensional framework of EEMs’ DCs, which fills the research gap and contributes to the enrichment of extant theories. The results can guide most EEMs, particularly those in the manufacturing, IT and service industries, in cultivating entrepreneurship and creating a more efficient operational team to achieve competitiveness.

The purpose of this paper is to offer a critical perspective on China's official outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) data, commonly used in most research on the internationalization of Chinese companies. Owing to the deficiencies of China's statistical system, official OFDI data leave us with only a limited understanding of the pattern of Chinese OFDI in general and cross‐border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in particular.

Based on a theoretical discussion of the internationalization of companies, some propositions about the development pattern of Chinese M&As are derived. This study uses the Dealogic database, which covers Chinese cross‐border M&As during the period from January 1999 to May 2007 in order to analyse the development trend, geographical destination, sectoral distribution, and equity participation of Chinese cross‐border M&As.

First, the growth of China's OFDI has not been as fast as expected, while the development of cross‐border M&As has been very impressive. Second, although official OFDI statistics reveal that Asia remains the most important investment destination, our M&A data analysis shows that the developed countries in the West have attracted most Chinese cross‐border M&A investments. Third, in contrast to the official OFDI statistics, our findings reveal a heavy concentration of M&As in mining and manufacturing. Finally, our cross‐border M&A data suggest that Chinese companies predominantly seek high‐level equity participation in the acquired target companies abroad.

This paper fills a gap in the study of the development pattern of Chinese cross‐border M&A investments and offers a complementary view and a better understanding of the internationalization of Chinese companies.

Using bibliometric techniques, the author analyzes a dataset of 276 articles on cross-border mergers and acquisitions (CBMAs) published in 13 management and international business journals. The author assesses the scientific impact and visualizes the intellectual landscape of research on CBMAs by analyzing publication and citation data and interconnections between publications. First, the author assesses annual publication trends and identifies highly cited articles and productive journals in the dataset that have significantly contributed to our understanding of CBMAs. Second, the author identifies main themes in recent research on CBMAs by focusing on frequently used keywords in publications. Third, the author identifies clusters of related research and explores their interrelationships to outline emerging trends, new perspectives, and directions for future research on CBMAs. Overall, this chapter contributes to the understanding of CBMAs by documenting the progress made to date and providing important insights for future research.

The first purpose of this paper is to propose a scalable video coding scheme providing flexibility in video transmission, especially under wireless environment. The second purpose is to analyze the problem of lengthening the key frame interval in distributed video coding (DVC), and propose an approach to improve the rate‐distortion (RD) performance of DVC for long group‐of‐frames (GOF) size.

In the proposed scheme, a base layer is first obtained from an H.264 coder. When a DVC coder is then used to code the enhancement layer, information in processing the base layer is extracted and analyzed to make multiple side‐information available and reduce error accumulation for DVC coding, thus further improving the performance of the DVC coder.

By dividing video into base and enhancement layers, the combined video coding architecture enables a flexible video transmission. In addition, several methods are used to improve the RD performance in DVC coding. Simulation shows that the proposed scheme outperforms non‐scalable DVC for long GOF size.

Prediction from the decoding loop in base layer encoder largely reduces enhancement layer spatial redundancy. Multiple side‐information provides better estimation for DVC reconstruction. Long prediction loop is more reliable because error accumulation is effectively compensated.

This paper aims to examine the global competitiveness of an emerging market multinational (EMM) from China through the case of a major European acquisition, in Italy, in the heavy construction industry. Country- and firm-specific factors are considered. Horizontal integration in this oligopolistic industry changes the industry dynamics, with significant implications for its players.

The paper follows case study methodology and triangulates data through a literature review, an examination of available company data and interviews of key personnel. Firm- and country-specific factors, both advantages and disadvantages, including the business environment in the construction industry, globally and regionally, are analyzed.

The paper identifies several key success factors at the firm level, including the integration of research and development, marketing and sales; the development of extensive communication and trust among the managers of both companies; the exploitation of the Chinese market as a source of demand; and the shifting of selected production lines to the Chinese market.

The traditional models of country-specific advantages/disadvantages and firm-specific advantages/disadvantages are augmented by examining the host market and industry task environments. Host country-specific factors for successful integration include favorable local conditions, both in terms of endowments and institutions, and an industrial cluster with supporting firms and services.

Following the case study, managers can refer to the key success factors to emulate “best practices”. The paper concludes with a heuristic developed by the Chairman of Zoomlinon, Chunxin Zhan, underlining five principles for a successful EEM acquisition: understanding, sharing, responsibility, compliance and coordination.

This paper develops a deep case study analysis and provides useful theoretical and practical implications with reference to Chinese acquisition in the Western markets.