In light of the reconfiguring of global value chains, we highlight the pivotal role of dynamic capabilities grounded in technological advancement routines. By introducing the concept of a time-ordered sequence of actions (i.e. path) under the uncertainty context, we address a gap in previous research, which primarily focused on individual actions without considering how they interact and evolve over time, and guide firms to balance efficiency-oriented risk management capabilities and institutional-oriented capabilities. Empirically, we employ a regression analysis on a comprehensive sample of 3640 Chinese listed firms, revealing an inverted U-shaped relationship between firm technological path heterogeneity and profitability. Moreover, the findings demonstrate that characteristics of technology and internationalization of firms significantly moderate the impact of technological path heterogeneity. By building the technological path, we generate new insights about the dynamic technological actions and contribute theoretical insights and empirical evidence to enhance our comprehension of firm profitability.
As digitalization and geopolitical tensions strain the contractual governance of global inter-organizational networks, we turn to the microlevel of small group interactions to articulate social mechanisms that foster relational governance of inter-organizational networks. We draw from a theoretically improbable example of shared governance of a decentralized, global network of schools to identify six social mechanisms – spiritual practice, small group socialization, mutual consultation, local mobilization of resources, friendly competition and purposeful mobility – that facilitate both orchestration functions and network-level value creation. We then propose a causal social mechanism model that explains how the microlevel social mechanisms aggregate to deliver shared governance of inter-organizational networks; the model also describes how the microlevel social mechanisms transform shared identity into the collective will, collective action and collective capability required to sustain and expand a global inter-organizational network. We contribute to IB research on microfoundations microlevel social mechanisms that interact and aggregate to deliver relational shared governance of global inter-organizational networks. We contribute to inter-organizational network theory an example and a causal model that together overcome theoretical objections to shared governance on a global scale. We contribute to the under-researched area of religion in IB social mechanisms that translate the power of faith-based identity, shared digital identity and perhaps even purpose into network performance across global boundaries and distances. Finally, we describe the microlevel social mechanisms and causal model in enough detail that leaders can deploy them to improve relational governance in their inter-organizational networks.
We examine the drivers of firms' nature-positive strategies. Integrating institutional theory with natural resource dependence theory, we argue that institutional and natural resource pressures motivate firms to adopt sustainability-focused governance practices and stakeholder engagement, which, in turn, enable nature-positive strategies. We further theorize that home country climate adaptive capacity strengthens the effectiveness of these governance and engagement efforts. Using cross-national evidence, we find that home country climate adaptive capacity positively moderates the relationships between sustainability-focused governance practices and nature-positive strategies, as well as between sustainability-focused stakeholder engagement and nature-positive strategies. We also find systematic cross-market differences: the moderating effect of climate adaptive capacity on the relationship between sustainability-focused governance practices and nature-positive strategies is stronger for firms in emerging markets. Overall, our study clarifies how institutional and ecological contexts shape the effectiveness of sustainability-focused governance practices and stakeholder engagement and offers testable predictions regarding cross-national variation in nature-positive strategies.
This study examines how geopolitical policy shifts reshape international business networks in an era of geopolitical decoupling. We conceptualize a new, geopolitical form of liability of origin (LOR) as a critical challenge confronting firms in their internationalization processes. Building on this premise, we develop a theoretical framework that links the macro-level geopolitical environment (e.g., decoupling policies) to firm-level network interactions and the resulting heterogeneous exposures to geopolitical liability of origin (LOR). These firm-level dynamics, in turn, generate system-level network effects that either sustain or moderate geopolitical decoupling.Underlying the moderating effect is a feedback mechanism through which imbalanced and misaligned policies become attenuated, as geopolitical decoupling generates escalating costs for global business networks, including third-party actors that function as critical bridges between rival-country networks. Drawing on Business Network Theory and Structural Hole Theory, we offer new insights into the network strategies that firms can adopt, such as reconfiguring their ties, adjusting the depth and frequency of interactions, and deploying flag-of-convenience signals, to mitigate geopolitical LOR, with particular attention to the semiconductor industry. We further develop a set of propositions that form the study's core theoretical contributions, integrating business network perspectives with a detailed analysis of global semiconductor dynamics.
How should factors behind the location decision for foreign direct investment (FDI) change in periods of global polarization from periods of global integration? Conventional location choice factors that center on cost-benefit analyses downplay the significant location-specific and global dependence risks of investing in a host country during global polarization. We present six mini case studies focusing on low-income countries in the Indian subcontinent region. Drawing from our observations, we expand on location choice theory and hegemonic and resource dependence theories to capture how territorial and economic dependency can limit an MNE's continued access to the host trading resources. While location-specific risks stem from a host country's physical location, natural access points, and geographic proximity to major geopolitical actors, global dependence risks indicate challenges in maintaining support from host institutions amid heightened global contestations. Both types of risk reflect upon a low-income country's ability to preserve a stable trading environment of FDI resilience in the face of rising global political pressure. Greater FDI resilience can also offer potential opportunities during these times of polarization. Our study contributes to the growing literature on FDI location choice during global polarization by highlighting how global politics has been reshaping low-income countries' FDI resilience, compelling MNEs to explicitly accommodate this factor in their FDI location framework.
How cross-national differences matter for ownership strategies in cross-border acquisitions is a longstanding topic in international business scholarship, but the role of human rights has received far less systematic attention in this stream. We examine how human rights distance between host and home countries relates to emerging market multinational enterprises' (EMNEs) acquired ownership levels and how host-country experience conditions this relationship. We introduce human rights distance as a directional non-market dimension of cross-national distance and clarify the context-specific role of host-country experience. We integrate an institution-based view with the springboard perspective as explanatory lenses to discuss EMNEs' early international expansion. We test our hypotheses using a unique dataset of cross-border acquisitions from emerging markets between 1995 and 2011. We find that greater human rights distance is associated with higher acquired ownership levels in EMNEs' targets, and that host-country experience weakens this association. Our findings suggest that greater human rights distance can create both governance demands and legitimacy-related opportunities for EMNEs.
Is entering a nascent foreign platform market second after a global pioneer a disadvantage or a strategic opportunity? While prior research suggests that pioneering firms in foreign markets accrue first-mover advantages, burgeoning studies point to an increasingly short-lived benefit. This paper adds to the extant discourse on second-mover advantage by exploring how foreign second-mover digital platform ventures establish legitimacy in an underdeveloped context where a global pioneer has already gained legitimacy and shaped local expectations. Data for our enquiry, including 53 interviews with managers and drivers and publicly available sources, comes from a qualitative case study of a second-mover ridesharing platform in Ghana. Our analysis of the data reveals three legitimation pathways adopted by the second-mover digital platform firm to secure legitimacy advantages from stakeholders—pragmatic, sociopolitical, and moral paths. We find that these pathways are co-enacted through continuous relational and adaptive engagement with relevant stakeholders. We propose a relational–adaptive framework that contributes to the ongoing discourse at the intersection of digital platform internationalisation, legitimacy, and foreign second mover strategies in underdeveloped market contexts.
Although R&D-active firms are highly attractive targets for foreign acquirers, the impact of cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) on their innovation output remains largely unclear. While the dominant knowledge-based view predicts innovation-enhancing effects through knowledge transfer and recombination, empirical evidence is mixed and increasingly points to neutral or negative innovation outcomes following foreign acquisitions. To address this theoretical impasse, this study introduces Resource Dependence Theory (RDT) as an alternative lens to examine the effect of cross-border M&As on target firms' innovation output. We argue that foreign acquisitions create power asymmetries that constrain target firms' strategic autonomy and reduce their innovation outputs. We further propose that R&D cooperation mitigates these negative effects by providing alternative resource channels and strengthening the targets' bargaining power. To test these arguments, we draw on a longitudinal dataset of R&D-active firms in Belgium over the period 2000–2021. Combining official survey data on R&D activities and R&D cooperation with secondary information on cross-border M&A involvement and patent applications, we apply staggered difference-in-differences and difference-in-difference-in-differences models to identify these effects. The results show that cross-border M&As lead to a decline in patenting activity among R&D-active target firms, particularly five to nine years after acquisition. We find no evidence that R&D cooperation moderates this relationship. However, R&D cooperation has a direct positive effect on target firms' innovation output, providing them with an alternative way to generate innovation output and to compensate for the adverse effects of cross-border M&As.
While the existing International Business (IB) research primarily focuses on the risk-taking behavior of multinational enterprises (MNEs) as a whole, this study shifts attention toward subsidiary-level risk-taking behavior. Building on the Behavioral Theory of the Firm (BTOF), it accepts that firm risk stems from performance feedback, as organizations compare their performance with a reference point. Thus, this study proposes a novel reference point for an MNE subsidiary, i.e., a country-level reference point, suggesting that deviations below or above this target represent important performance-feedback signals associated with subsidiary risk-taking behavior. Furthermore, it examines the moderating effect of subsidiary age, explaining why this association becomes more pronounced in older subsidiaries compared with younger subsidiaries. An analysis of a large sample of foreign subsidiaries located in Germany, Italy, France, and Spain supports the hypotheses. This study enriches the literature on subsidiary risk-taking behavior and extends the BTOF by introducing a novel reference point within the subsidiary context. Promising new perspectives for scholars and practitioners are offered and discussed.
Multicultural individuals are a key resource for internationalizing businesses, yet there is a paucity of research that explains how these individuals realize the advantage of their identities within organizational workgroups. This study adopts an identity-based lens to examine how multicultural individuals working in the United Kingdom perceive being included in their workgroups. The two dimensions of multicultural identity (identity integration and identity plurality) were found to positively relate to workgroup inclusion with these effects mediated by prosocial motivation and context dependent message communication respectively. This research contributes to an understanding of multicultural individuals in workgroups and to knowledge at the intersection of culture and inclusion.
Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping the world that international management scholars study. Its impact extends well beyond research practice, publication processes, or managerial decision support. AI is transforming multinational enterprise strategy, global value chains, cross-border coordination, internationalization, institutional governance, global talent, emerging market upgrading, and the relationship between firms, states and society. This editorial introduces the Journal of International Management’s continuing special section on AI and International Management. The section is intended to provide a focused and sustained intellectual space for research that examines AI as a major international management phenomenon rather than merely as a technological tool or functional application. The editorial argues that AI requires timely, rigorous and theoretically ambitious engagement from international management scholars because it is already changing the topics, methods and policy questions that define the field. It outlines the rationale for the special section, identifies illustrative themes for future research, and clarifies the type of work that will fit JIM: scholarship that connects AI to cross-border strategy, multinational enterprises, institutions, governance, global value creation, emerging markets and international management theory. The editorial also emphasizes the need for efficient review processes while maintaining the journal’s standards of rigour, relevance and contribution.
How does intellectual property rights (IPR) regime incongruence affect the R&D internationalization speed of multinational enterprises (MNEs)? The institution-based view (IBV) and the springboard view (SBV) offer competing perspectives, framing its effect as either a liability or an opportunity. To reconcile this theoretical tension, we introduce social network status as a key contingency factor. Using discrete-time event history analysis on a sample of Chinese MNEs, we find that the impact of IPR incongruence is not uniform but critically depends on a MNE's social network status. Specifically, under low social network status, IPR incongruence slows down R&D internationalization speed—consistent with the liability perspective of IBV. In contrast, for MNEs with high social network status, it accelerates R&D internationalization speed—align with the opportunity perspective of SBV. Our study thus provides a contingency framework that resolves the IBV-SBV debate and advance the understanding of how IPR regime incongruence differentially shapes the pace of MNE global innovation depending on social network status.
Innovation in multinational enterprises (MNEs) depends critically on how firms develop and utilize human capital through human resource management (HRM) practices. Labor market regulations, as an essential institutional domain, shape these processes. However, existing research on labor market regulations typically assumes that firms operate within a single regulatory setting, offering limited insight into MNEs that face diverse labor market regulations across countries. These issues are especially relevant for emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs), which often expand abroad to acquire managerial expertise that is difficult to develop at home. This study examines how labor market regulation diversity affects EMNE innovation. Using a panel dataset of 1332 Chinese EMNEs from 2009 to 2019, we find an inverted U-shaped relationship: moderate labor market regulation diversity enhances innovation by expanding opportunities for learning and recombination, whereas excessive diversity imposes cognitive and compliance burdens that hinder innovation. We also show that this relationship is moderated by two human-capital-related conditions—high-tech industry context and board human resource (HR) expertise—both of which flatten the inverted U-shaped pattern. Overall, this study advances research on labor market regulations, institutional diversity, and innovation.
Given the changeable external environment and high demand for extradition treaties' protection effect in the era of growing cross-border crimes, we replicate and extend a prominent study by Hu and colleagues' work (Journal of World Business 59: 101542, 2024), which found that extradition treaties deterred foreign direct investment (FDI) by Chinese firms during 2001-2013. Arguing that the protective function of such treaties may have become more salient over time, we reexamine this relationship over an extended period (2001-2022). Our analysis reveals a striking reversal of the original finding: extradition treaties now attract Chinese FDI. We provide evidence that this temporal shift is driven by an enhanced "safeguard" effect, where treaties increase investors' perceived safety in an era of rising overseas risks. Furthermore, by refining the measurement of "escape motivation", we demonstrate that the treaties' deterrent effect ("shackle") primarily applies to a specific subset of politically exposed firms. Overall, our study highlights the dual and dynamic effects of international legal institutions, whose role can be both a shackle and a safeguard.
This study examines how multinational enterprises' (MNEs) alliance experience accumulated under regulatory constraint shapes their subsequent entry-mode preferences following institutional liberalization. Leveraging China's 2003 reform permitting foreign acquisitions as a quasi-natural experiment, we disentangle competing experiential mechanisms-external market learning and internal governance inertia. We decompose pre-2003 alliance experience into two dimensions: diversity (breadth of partnerships) and intensity (length of alliance reliance). Using longitudinal data on 1782 MNEs from 40 countries (2003-2019), we find that alliance diversity increases the likelihood of post-liberalization acquisition preference, whereas alliance intensity does not exert an independent effect but attenuates the positive impact of diversity. These findings demonstrate that experience is not monolithic: learning accumulated under institutional constraint generates distinct and interacting strategic consequences. Regulatory liberalization does not reset firms to a blank slate; instead, governance legacies condition how newly available strategic options are evaluated.
Although many studies have examined the link between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and business performance, evidence linking CSR to exporting is theoretically fragmented and empirically concentrated in Western contexts. Consequently, existing findings are context-specific and at times inconsistent, limiting theoretical development. To address this, we conduct a review using bibliographic coupling and keyword co-occurrence analyses to identify the core intellectual structure of the CSR–exporting literature, map its thematic clusters, trace their evolution, and outline an integrated research agenda. Our dataset, sourced from the Web of Science, comprises 196 journal articles published between 1991 and 2024. We reveal the circular evolution in the CSR–exporting relationship and identify four clusters representing current research themes in the domain, along with five key directions for advancing the field. Theoretically, the review advances the existing literature by highlighting alternative theoretical perspectives, such as the resource-based view, dynamic capabilities theory, signalling theory, and social network theory, to link CSR to exporting and capture its strategic nature.
In today's rapidly evolving global economy, although data intelligence has become a critical capability for firms seeking to thrive in competitive markets, not all firms are inclined to invest in it. Addressing this under-examined aspect, our study examines which firms invest more in data intelligence capabilities. Situating this study in an emerging market context, we predict that the extent of internationalization pursued by emerging economy firms is positively related to their investments in data intelligence capabilities. We further develop competing hypotheses to suggest that the quality of the home country institutions moderates the above-mentioned baseline relationship. We test our predictions on a sample of 3851 Indian firms from 1996 to 2022 and find support for our baseline hypothesis. We also find that with the improvement in the quality of home country institutions, firms with a higher degree of internationalization invest more in data intelligence capabilities. Our findings contribute to research on institutional theory, institutional voids, and the literature on internationalization by emerging economy firms.
Innovation performance feedback is a fundamental mechanism that shapes firms' strategic adaptation under uncertainty. Drawing on the behavioral theory of the firm (BTF), this study explores how firms interpret and act upon innovation performance feedback when they are configuring their R&D internationalization portfolios. On the basis of data from Chinese listed manufacturing firms between 2015 and 2021, we find that firms experiencing innovation performance surplus expand both the breadth and depth of their global R&D activities, whereas those facing innovation performance shortfalls selectively retreat, particularly from depth-oriented engagement. Furthermore, firms' international experience and industry technological uncertainty can moderate these relationships, amplifying or constraining the impact of innovation performance signals on internationalization behavior. This research provides both a theoretical extension of the BTF from a configurational perspective and practical implications for firms navigating global innovation strategies in complex environments.
Replication studies help establish cumulative knowledge by verifying or falsifying previous empirical findings, but this methodological approach receives scant attention in the international management (IM) domain. The objective of this special issue is to promote replication efforts in IM. In this editorial, we present the evolution of replication studies and their specific meaning to IM, and synthesize insights from the seven articles included in this special issue to identify future research directions. In particular, we recommend novel methodological trials and a collective scholarly commitment to replication studies.
