This paper investigates how subsidiary managers' global mindset interacts with paradoxical foreign direct investment (FDI) strategies—exploratory FDI versus exploitative FDI—and MNE subsidiary financial performance. From an integrative lens of paradox theory, we argue that subsidiary managers' global mindset —a paradoxical cognitive capability— helps transcend the paradoxical FDI strategies and contribute to subsidiary financial performance. Our examination leverages a dyadic dataset including both the headquarters and subsidiaries of 249 Chinese multinational enterprises (MNEs). The findings reveal that subsidiary managers' global mindset can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, a global mindset can support the pursuit of two paradoxical FDI strategies simultaneously and benefit subsidiary financial performance, when there is synergy between the two. On the other hand, a global mindset can be detrimental to subsidiary financial performance when a significant level of tension arises between the two paradoxical FDI strategies.

When cross-border acquisitions take place, whose institutional logics should dominate the control in the daily operation of the acquired entity – the acquirer or the acquiree? To answer this question, this paper investigates how Geely, a Chinese automaker, successfully acquired Volvo from Sweden, a developed country, and managed the differences in the institutional logics of the two firms by transforming its dominant institutional logic. Through the lens of matching theory, we employ an inductive approach and conduct a longitudinal case study of Geely’s acquisition. We find that matching commercial and social logic is an inevitable requirement to cope with external institutional pressures in cross-border acquisitions. We further reveal that the structured interaction between compatibility and complementarity facilitates the matching process between commercial logic and social logic, resulting in a synergistic logic via the three different mechanisms of compatibility, complementarity, and co-evolution. Our findings challenge previous research that focuses on conflicts as the foremost drivers of the transformation of different institutional logics in organizations. Based on our findings, we develop a matching process model that offers insights for firms from developing economies to navigate dominant institutional logic transformation and thrive in the marketplace through their strategic cross-border acquisitions.

Serial acquisitions, as strategic initiatives, often execute streams of mutually interrelated acquisitions aimed at specific strategic objectives. However, serial acquirer encounters the change-stability paradox as well as at their own rhythms or entrain with external environment. While interest in exploring temporal rhythms in serial acquisitions has gained momentum, it has fallen short on providing insights about interdependence of rhythm conditions and multilevel rhythms on acquirer performance. Using a fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis of 129 firms engaged in 891 acquisitions during the 10 years between 1 January 2010 and 31 December 2019, we discover that intra- and inter-organizational rhythm can influence acquirer performance and identify four patterns of multilevel temporal rhythm patterns (i.e., Adaptive-orientation, Routine-orientation, Experimental-orientation, Analytical-orientation) that can result in high performance. Our findings contribute to multilevel temporal acquisition rhythms research and respond to calls to balance change-stability paradox across hierarchies by proposing the temporal rhythms that serial acquirer may balance the internal need for rhythms with the entrainment need for responses to environmental change. Our study also enriches the implications for practitioners who influence acquisition decisions.

International joint ventures (IJVs) have become an important source of critical knowledge for multinational enterprises, but little is known about how knowledge can be effectively transferred to parent firms when the potential for interpartner opportunism still exists. Drawing on attachment theory, we study how boundary-spanning commitments to IJVs may help mitigate interpartner opportunism and facilitate effective knowledge transfer to parents. Specifically, we argue that knowledge transfer from IJVs to their parents is positively mediated by both boundary spanners' organizational commitment to IJVs and parent firms' resource commitment to IJVs. We test our arguments using survey data collected from 600 dyadic Chinese–foreign managers of 100 IJVs established in China. The results provide evidence that knowledge sharing between boundary spanners in IJVs positively affects their organizational commitment to these IJVs, which in turn positively affects knowledge transfer to parents. Similarly, knowledge sharing between such boundary spanners positively affects parent firms' resource commitment to IJVs, which in turn positively affects knowledge transfer to parents. The mediating role of boundary spanners' organizational commitment is stronger than that of parent firms' resource commitment. Collectively, our findings suggest that commitment-based relational mechanisms are imperative for safeguarding effective knowledge transfer from IJVs to parent firms.

We revisit the relationship between headquarters and subsidiaries under the context of emerging multinational enterprises (EMNEs) and develop a new model for releasing the subsidiary initiative, a significant form of corporate entrepreneurship activities hosted in advanced economies. Drawing upon institutional theory and corporate entrepreneurship theory, we argue that mutual trust between headquarters and subsidiaries serves as a mediating mechanism linking formal institutional distance and subsidiary initiatives. Meanwhile, we propose that communication effectiveness between headquarter and subsidiary plays as a moderator upon such relationships. Communication between the headquarters and the subsidiary positively moderates the relationship from formal institutional distance to trust. A sample including 232 EMNEs with headquarters in China and subsidiaries in advanced economies largely support our model on subsidiary initiative. Our model provides a solution to the global integration-local responsiveness paradox.

Drawing on the dynamic managerial capabilities perspective, we examine the effects of the global mindset of subsidiary managers on headquarters–subsidiary relationships and the moderating effects of their cognitive flexibility, overseas study experience, and exchanges with headquarters managers on the relationship. The analysis of dyadic survey data collected from managers at the headquarters and subsidiaries of 312 Chinese multinational enterprises reveals that the subsidiary managers’ global mindset is positively associated with the quality of headquarters–subsidiary relationships. This association is stronger when the subsidiary managers exhibit higher cognitive personality flexibility and more overseas study experience but weaker when exchanges with the headquarters managers become more frequent.

While the fund performance management literature has clearly documented that the fund size, fund family size, and net cash flow are important antecedents of equity fund performance, prior empirical studies have revealed mixed results that have not been adequately explained. Through the lens of the contingency perspective, we developed a conceptual model that examines how the expense ratio and management compensation as contextual factors interact with the fund size, fund family size, and net cash flow to affect equity fund performance. The empirical analyses were based on panel data including 690 equity funds in China over a 7-year period from 2009 to 2015. The results show that the expense ratio and management compensation moderate the effects of the fund family size and net cash flow on fund performance, and management compensation also moderates the relationship between the fund size and fund performance.

Do foreign banks enjoy a competitive edge in the Chinese banking market or are they disadvantaged vis-à-vis domestic banks? This is the question that the present paper seeks to answer. The issue is important since on the one hand, these banks face the challenges the liability of foreignness brings, but at the same time, they have bank-specific advantages. We examine this issue in light of the literature of the liability of foreignness. In our path-breaking study, we found that due to the cost of foreignness, foreign banks’ performance was not as good as that of the local banks. Furthermore, despite the same amount of location- and bank-specific advantages, they performed badly as compared to their local counterparts. It was found that the cost of location-based disadvantages outweighed the cost of bank-specific disadvantages for foreign banks, and recent policy changes may help them overcome some of the cost of foreignness.

Drawing on the perspectives of interfirm governance mechanisms, we develop a contingency theoretical framework that examines how contract specificity and trust interact with local suppliers' physical asset specificity and human asset specificity in shaping the relationship performance of offshore cooperation between local suppliers and global buyers. The empirical data for hypothesis testing were collected from a survey of 162 dyads composed of Chinese local suppliers and international buyers. The empirical results reveal an inverted U-shaped relationship between physical asset specificity and relationship performance, and this inverted U-shaped relationship is stronger when the level of contract specificity is higher. There is a linear and positive relationship between human asset specificity and relationship performance, and this relationship becomes stronger when the level of trust between the local supplier and international buyer is higher.

Drawing from transaction cost economics (TCE) and relational view (RV), we develop a contingency framework that matches governance mechanisms with different types of supplier transaction specific investments (TSIs) in cross-border outsourcing relationships. We further examine the three-way interaction effects between governance mechanisms, TSI types, and supplier roles in cross-border outsourcing relationships. Using data collected from 324 managers of local suppliers in China and 162 managers working for international buyers located in 15 different OECD countries, we find that while relational governance is more effective at safeguarding supplier human TSIs, it is not an effective solution for safeguarding supplier physical TSIs. In contrast, formal contracts help safeguard supplier physical TSIs against international buyer opportunism, but they are ineffective at safeguarding local supplier human TSIs. Moreover, we find that the interaction effect between formal contracts and supplier physical TSIs is stronger for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) than for original design manufacturers (ODMs), whereas the interaction effect between relational governance and supplier human TSIs is stronger for ODMs than for OEMs. Theoretical and managerial implications of the findings follow.

From the managerial cognition perspective, we develop a contingency framework that empirically examines the effect of senior managers' global mindset on their decisions regarding the choice of entry mode for foreign subsidiaries and how their cognitive decision-making style and managerial experience interact with their global mindset and thereby affect their decisions. Data were collected from both headquarters and subsidiary senior managers of 345 Chinese multinational enterprises. The results show that senior managers who exhibit a stronger global mindset tend to choose a lower-level ownership entry mode for their foreign subsidiaries. This tendency is stronger when senior managers possess a 'thinking' decision-making style as opposed to a 'feeling' decision-making style but weaker when senior managers have more experience in their managerial positions.

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Drawing on the theories of social capital (SC) and organizational learning, a contingency theoretical framework that examines the impact of structural, relational, and cognitive SC on local suppliers’ exploitative and exploratory learning in the context of global buyer–supplier (GBS) relationships in China was developed. The extent to which the impact is moderated by the contract specificity between the buyer and supplier is also examined. The empirical results show significant positive impacts of structural and relational SC on local suppliers’ exploitative learning but significant negative impacts on local suppliers’ exploratory learning. More specifically, contract specificity strengthens the positive effects of all three dimensions of SC on exploitative and the negative effects of structural SC and relational SC on exploratory learning. They put forward several potential implications for practicing managers and policymakers.

This study examines the relationship between cross-listing and firm valuation in the context of Chinese firms cross-listed on major international exchanges, such as the NASDAQ, New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), Hong Kong Main Board, Hong Kong Growth Enterprise Market (GEM), Singapore Stock Exchange, and London Alternative Investment Market (LAIM). Through the lenses of bonding theory and liability of foreignness-based multinational enterprise theories, two sets of alternative hypotheses are developed and tested using panel data over a period of twelve years during 2001-2012. Contrary to the bonding theory, the results reveal that the firms listed in Mainland China recorded better valuation than the firms cross-listed on the international stock exchanges. The more sophisticated corporate governance mechanisms applied in international stock exchanges do not always entail better firm valuation. Institutional distance, cultural distance and the distance in economic freedom between China and the cross-listing location countries interact with governance variables negatively affecting performance of cross-listed firms. The direct negative impact of the three distance variables on the firm valuation is also statistically significant. The outcome of Chinese firms' cross-listing behaviours appears to contradict the general bonding theory.

Through the lens of the institutional theory, we developed and empirically tested a contingency theoretical framework that examines the effects of formal and informal institutional distances on the quality of the headquarters–subsidiary relationship, and how such effects are contextualized by internal institutionalization of headquarters’ practices in subsidiaries of Chinese multinational enterprises (MNEs). Data were collected from both the headquarters of 297 Chinese MNEs and their respective subsidiaries. The results show that regulative and cultural distances are positively associated with the quality of the headquarters–subsidiary relationship, and that these positive relationships are stronger when subsidiaries institutionalize headquarters’ practices to a higher degree. Theoretical and practical implications are highlighted in the paper.

The second-order elastic constants of quartz were determined by Brillouin spectroscopy to 10 GPa in a diamond anvil cell. All elastic constants exhibit smooth pressure trends. A decrease in the magnitudes of C 14 and C 66 with pressure is observed, while C 44 shows a weak pressure dependence. Our measured elastic constants are more consistent with previous density functional theory calculations than with earlier experimental results. Aggregate elastic moduli were calculated and fit to a finite-strain equation of state, yielding values for the pressure derivatives of the adiabatic bulk modulus, K 0S ʹ, and shear modulus, G 0 ʹ, of α-quartz of 6.2(2) and 0.9(1), respectively. The equation of state obtained from our data is consistent with static X-ray diffraction data. A finite-strain extrapolation of our data predicts a violation of a Born stability criterion, indicating a mechanical instability in the structure, at ~26 GPa which is broadly consistent with the pressure range at which a phase transition and pressure-induced amorphization in quartz are observed.

The literature on antecedents of corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies of firms has been predominately content driven. Informed by the managerial sense-making process perspective, we develop a contingency theoretical framework explaining how political ideology of managers affects the choice of CSR strategy for their firms through their CSR mindset. We also explain to what extent the outcome of this process is shaped by the firm’s internal institutional arrangements and external factors impacting on the firm. We develop and test several hypotheses using data collected from 129 Chinese managers. The results show that managers with a stronger socialist ideology are likely to develop a mindset favouring CSR, which induces the adoption of a proactive CSR strategy. The CSR mindset mediates the link between socialist ideology and CSR strategy. The strength of the relationship between the CSR mindset and the choice of CSR strategy is moderated by customer response to CSR, industry competition, the role of government, and CSR-related managerial incentives.