Entry Mode Research Articles

Internationalization of COVID-19 Vaccine Using the Biotech INVs Model

The purpose of this multiple case study is to explore the internationalization processes, patterns, and behaviours of BioTech firms producing a COVID-19 vaccine using the Biotechnology international new ventures (BioTech INVs) model as a conceptual framework. The sample consists of eight BioTech firms producing a COVID-19 vaccine, which is approved in at least one foreign market besides the home market in March 2021. The findings suggest that the sample firms are able to identify and to scale international market opportunities early and fast using different market entry modes, networks, and access to capital with governments, civil society, and within their own industry. The findings of our study contribute to the research about BioTech INVs and the speed of internationalization. We call for further qualitative research including interviews with subject-matter experts to better understand the internationalization behaviour of BioTech firms producing a COVID-19 vaccine.

The analysis of marketing strategies and market entry to the competitive market (case of lada company in uzbekistan)

Today's economic environment is rapidly changing, forcing companies to expand internationally. Foreign market entry has now become a well-studied topic among academics. When a firm enters a foreign market, crucial strategic decisions such as international market selection and entry mode selection must be made, and members of the management team are entrusted with making these complicated judgments that will set the company's path. There have been many studies showings that developing the strong strategies for entering to the market and based on this creating powerful marketing strategies can help company to succeed in the competitive market. SWOT analysis and interviews of Lada managers are used to comprehend the strategies of the LADA company used to enter Uzbek market and to ensure reliability of the findings.

Analysis of Hilton Worldwide Hotel Group’s Transnational Operation Strategy

The success of Hilton Group’s transnational operations is not only due to its correct international entry mode, through direct export, management contracts, franchising, mergers and acquisitions, it has achieved rapid expansion at low cost worldwide. At the same time, Hilton Group has implemented a variety of transnational business strategies in its entire international operation, including the growth strategies of brand diversification, M & A, and strategic alliances, product differentiation, low cost, competitive strategy for business development and the globalization of talent and other international business strategies, have laid the foundation for the success of the internationalization of the Hilton Group. Therefore, Hilton Group’s mature transnational operation mode is worthy to be studied and used for reference by Multinational Hotel Enterprises, and has important enlightenment significance to the development of hotel industry groups in China.

Foreign operation entry mode of wholly-owned subsidiary as the choice of Finnish hard-service firms in Spain: a grounded theory approach

Foreign operation entry mode of wholly-owned subsidiary as the choice of Finnish hard-service firms in Spain: a grounded theory approach

Negative Effects of Intellectual Property Protection on Trade: The Unusual Suspects

Previous literature has noted the negative effects of intellectual property protection (IPP) on trade volume when the market power effect dominates market expansion effect. Since both the effects increase profits, IPP often induces entry without ambiguity. However, this study, using product-level entry data, found that IPP has an adverse impact on market entry of large pharmaceutical firms. Direct supply entry mode was found to be negatively related to IPP, while IPP positively affects licensing. This implies that firms facing infringement risk or those who develop a technology market in stringent IPP countries often rely on licensing.

Coping with uncertainty in FDI entry mode choices: differences between family and non-family businesses

Coping with uncertainty in FDI entry mode choices: differences between family and non-family businesses

Ownership-Based Entry Mode Strategies and Limiting Factors of Foreign Direct Investment Undertaken by Polish Enterprises

The limiting factors of foreign direct investment (FDI) are of considerable significance to managers, governments, and scholars, as these factors directly influence the profitability of a foreign subsidiary and its parent multinational company. The aim of the paper is to present the results of research studies on the identification of FDI-limiting factors of the host country in relation to the firms’ ownership equity-based mode. It illustrates the results of a field survey involving direct interviews conducted with Polish companies as the direct investors. The research results confirmed that joint ventures might be used by Polish companies to reduce the difficulties related to the availability of resources. However, there was no strong conclusive evidence of the expected link between the higher barriers on running a business and the ownership equity-based mode.

Plural forms of governance for international strategic alliances: toward an integrative framework

Many international strategic alliances (ISAs) are characterised by plural forms of governance whereby individual, generic alliance arrangements such as equity investment, licensing, management contracts, and supply agreements coexist. Yet, most existing research on ISA governance decisions either deals with the choice of alliances against market transactions or hierarchy or studies the choice of one mode of alliance against another (such as equity versus non-equity alliances). Very limited insight is available on multinational companies' simultaneous inclusions of several, rather than only one, generic modes of alliance to establish plural ISAs for their international operations. In this paper, we tackle the issue of plural alliances in the context of selecting forms of governance for international strategic alliances. Drawing from diverse theories on interorganisational relationships, transaction cost theory, competitive strategy, organisational learning, relationship marketing, and foreign market entry modes; this paper develops an integrative conceptual model that guides company decisions on choosing plural governance forms for international strategic alliances. Research and managerial implications of the study are discussed.

Entry mode choice in emerging markets: is there any difference between emerging and developed country multinationals

Entry mode choice in emerging markets: is there any difference between emerging and developed country multinationals

Foreign operation entry mode of wholly-owned subsidiary as the choice of Finnish hard-service firms in Spain: a grounded theory approach

Foreign operation entry mode of wholly-owned subsidiary as the choice of Finnish hard-service firms in Spain: a grounded theory approach

South Korea - Russia economic relations: focused on FDI

The emphasis on economic cooperation between South Korea and Russia is growing according to the new foreign policies of the two countries. This study aims to draw policy implications for increasing inter South Korea-Russia investments as reflecting growing political significances of economic cooperation of the two countries. For that, we analyzed FDI data from Central Bank of Russia, Export-Import Bank of Korea, and KOTRA given that in globalized economies, above all the other entry modes in foreign markets, FDI plays a significant role in national economic growth as allowing firms to utilize cross-border production factors with high efficiencies. Based on the data analysis, we made the following meaningful conclusions. First, despite growing political importance, FDI flows between the two countries are insignificant, partially due to the profound sense of closeness. Second, the motivations of Korean FDI showed differences dependent on Russian cities. Third, Korean FDI in Russia is highly concentrated in the manufacturing industry. To increase FDI flows between the two countries, we recommend to launch cultural exchange programs in private sectors with longterm visions and diversify investment in a way to increase cooperation among SMEs, and start-ups in high value-added and innovative industries.

Entry Mode Strategy, Firm-Level Capability, Environmental Turbulence, and Organisational Performance: A Moderated Analysis

This study examined the effect of entry mode strategy and firm-level capability on organisational performance of selected Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) manufacturer in Lagos State, Nigeria; more so, it investigated the moderating effect of environmental turbulence on the interaction between entry mode strategy and firm-level capability, and organisational performance. The cross-sectional survey research design was adopted with a sample of 452 employees of twelve selected FMCGs manufacturers in Lagos State, Nigeria. A hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to substantiate the moderation-effect hypotheses formulated. Findings showed that entry mode strategy and firm-level capability have a positive and significant effect on organisational performance. Further analysis showed that the interaction term of environmental turbulence, firm-level capability, and entry mode strategy explained the increase in organisational performance with the introduction of environmental turbulence as a moderator. Beyond the performance-effect of entry mode strategy and firm-level capability, management needs to keep abreast of issues happening in the external environment and proactively position their organisation to take advantage of the environment's opportunities while reducing exposure to negative consequences.

Is “Born Global” a Viable Market Entry Mode for the Internationalization of SMEs? Evidence from China before COVID-19

ABSTRACT This study considers whether “born global (BG)” status aids the financial performance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Using panel regression models tracking Chinese listed companies, it finds a positive relationship between use of the BG model and firm performance. Also, that location influences firms, particularly those from the epicenter of the COVID-19 outbreak, which are more likely to choose BG as their international market entry mode. The study also finds that research and development investment is important for BGs, size is less so. These findings may aid economic recovery after COVID-19.

Strong alien or weak acquaintance? The effect of perceived institutional distance and cross-national uncertainty on ownership level in foreign acquisitions

PurposeFocusing on the direction of foreign acquisition, this study aims to differentiate the effect of institutional distance on the level of ownership. The authors identify several theoretical and methodological issues that might account for the inconsistencies in the literature and provide remedies accordingly. Specifically, the authors propose perceived institutional distance as a conceptualization of distance that controls for asymmetric uncertainty.Design/methodology/approachThe authors test the framework with ordinary least squares regression for a sample of 14,192 firm-entries in 115 target countries over 2007–2017.FindingsThe authors find that institutional distance shows a negative effect on equity ownership in all-inclusive global samples, while there are two imbalanced opposite effects if direction is considered. This casts doubt on the validity of studies that ignore direction. The authors suggest that multinational enterprises entering countries with lower-quality institutions tend to perceive more pronounced distance effects than those expanding the other way around. Hence, the authors argue that “perceived institutional distance” better explains the functional role of distance than simple distance.Practical implicationsThis study better delineates the link between distance and uncertainty and enhances managerial insights for entry mode selection. For policy-making purposes, the authors also show that improvement in institutional quality has a different effect on foreign resource commitment in developed and developing countries.Originality/valueTo the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that considers both directionality and imbalance in institutional distance and proposes a measure to control for non-linear asymmetric relationship between distance and ownership. The authors extend the institutional theory and show the superiority of perceived institutional distance in predicting ownership implications.

Joint Ventures and Sustainable Development. A Bibliometric Analysis

One of the most common business strategies in companies’ growth and internationalization is the Joint Venture (JV) strategy. This type of entry mode in the global market has contributed to building a more sustainable international market. This type of collaborative business normally happens between firms located either in the same country or located in different countries with different levels of development. This paper presents a thorough cross-bibliometric analysis of studies examining the relation between joint ventures and sustainability published in academic journals during the period from 1997 to 2020 and available in the Scopus Collection. This mapping of the field on the one hand graphically illustrates the publications’ evolution over time, and on the other hand, the use of bibliometric methodology shows a picture that clusters the academic research of the relationships among these two topics according to the following criteria: JV type, sustainability criteria, host country groups and activity sectors. In addition, the public or private JVs’ nature shows a relation to the type of sustainability, and mainly development and management sustainability. The paper reveals the knowledge gap regarding the connection of these two fields, JV and sustainability, and provides a robust roadmap for further investigation in this field.

Distinct signaling routes mediate intercellular and intracellular rhizobial infection in Lotus japonicus.

Rhizobial infection of legume roots during the development of nitrogen-fixing root nodules can occur intracellularly, through plant-derived infection threads traversing cells, or intercellularly, via bacterial entry between epidermal plant cells. Although it is estimated that around 25% of all legume genera are intercellularly infected, the pathways and mechanisms supporting this process have remained virtually unexplored due to a lack of genetically amenable legumes that exhibit this form of infection. In this study, we report that the model legume Lotus japonicus is infected intercellularly by the IRBG74 strain, recently proposed to belong to the Agrobacterium clade of the Rhizobiaceae. We demonstrate that the resources available for L. japonicus enable insight into the genetic requirements and fine-tuning of the pathway governing intercellular infection in this species. Inoculation of L. japonicus mutants shows that Ethylene-responsive factor required for nodulation 1 (Ern1) and Leu-rich Repeat Receptor-Like Kinase (RinRK1) are dispensable for intercellular infection in contrast to intracellular infection. Other symbiotic genes, including nod factor receptor 5 (NFR5), symbiosis receptor-like kinase (SymRK), Ca2+/calmodulin dependent kinase (CCaMK), exopolysaccharide receptor 3 (Epr3), Cyclops, nodule inception (Nin), nodulation signaling pathway 1 (Nsp1), nodulation signaling pathway 2 (Nsp2), cystathionine-β-synthase (Cbs), and Vapyrin are equally important for both entry modes. Comparative RNAseq analysis of roots inoculated with IRBG74 revealed a distinctive transcriptome response compared with intracellular colonization. In particular, several cytokinin-related genes were differentially regulated. Corroborating this observation, cyp735A and ipt4 cytokinin biosynthesis mutants were significantly affected in their nodulation with IRBG74, whereas lhk1 cytokinin receptor mutants formed no nodules. These results indicate a differential requirement for cytokinin signaling during intercellular rhizobial entry and highlight distinct modalities of inter- and intracellular infection mechanisms in L. japonicus.

The International Marketing Strategy of Luxury Food SMEs: The Case of Truffle

ABSTRACT This paper aims at investigating the international marketing strategy of luxury small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with a focus on food SMEs operating in the luxury global niche of truffle products. The paper proposes two qualitative case studies of highly internationalized Italian luxury SMEs in the truffle industry. It discusses market selection, entry modes, and international marketing mix in foreign markets. The U.S. and Brazil are considered as emblematic international markets in the empirical investigation. The study shows the need for luxury food SMEs to implement control over the distribution channels. Trust-based relationships with commercial partners are pivotal to this purpose. Moreover, the need to educate consumers and to exploit experiential rely on peculiar promotion strategies. The paper discusses five pillars of the international marketing strategy of luxury food SMEs. Lessons learned from the truffle case can be extended to the study of other luxury SMEs’ international marketing strategies.

Zooming in on co-creation practices of international franchisors

There is limited knowledge on value co-creation in international franchising despite the collaborative nature of this major foreign entry mode. This article zooms in on international franchisors' co-creation practices through in-depth interviews with 28 French franchisors and 25 of their foreign franchisees, offering three main contributions. First, the interviews reveal that franchisors do not always co-create value with their franchisees. Instead, franchisor-franchisee co-dependency manifests in both value co-creation and facilitation. Second, this research offers a typology of the domains of co-creation in franchising, showing that franchisors can participate in foreign franchisees' value creation processes during the set up and launch of the franchise abroad, training and knowledge dissemination, adaptation of the offering, and management of problems. Third, it offers a typology of seven franchisor co-creation styles – mentor, custodian, broker, partner, strategically focused, controlling principal, and chameleon – and their underlying dimensions in terms of franchisor activities and preferences. The mapping of co-creation domains and styles offers international franchisors a detailed account of the practical ways to support their foreign franchisees' value creation processes depending on their preferences, resources, and capabilities.

The role of family firms’ generational heterogeneity in the entry mode choice in foreign markets

This paper investigates how important sources of heterogeneity shape the way in which family firms (FFs) enter foreign markets. By integrating insights from International Business and Family Business literature, we claim that the interplay between the generation ruling the firm and the presence of non-family board members direct the choice between a greenfield investment vs. the acquisition of a local unit. FFs prefer to enter foreign markets through greenfield investments, especially when run by the founders, due to their emotional attachment to the firm and to the lack of adequate organizational capabilities to undertake and manage cross-border acquisitions. The bias towards greenfield investments is corrected by the presence of non-family members in the board. However, we claim that non-family directors’ voice is on average more effective in second-generation FFs as they show an average lower SEW orientation, while FFs surviving in the long term are those ruled by the successors more authoritative in imposing attention on the preservation of family values. Therefore, third-and-beyond generation FFs present a higher SEW orientation as well as diversified organizational capabilities, which make them less incline to follow external advice. We test our hypotheses on a sample of 1,849 manufacturing initiatives undertaken abroad by 532 Italian FFs in the period 2000–2013.

The role of internationalization in enhancing the innovation performance of Chinese EMNEs: A geographic relational approach

Abstract In attempting to integrate theory on developed and emerging countries, prior research has focused on the antecedents of specific internationalization decisions of Emerging Multinational Enterprises (EMNEs) rather than conceptualizing internationalization as a recurring process. This approach limits the understanding of the ways through which different internationalization paths lead to different performance outcomes. Using a geographic relational approach and a portfolio-level analysis, we demonstrate that the ability of Chinese EMNEs to increase innovation performance is driven by how and where they choose to internationalize over time. Our framework resolves these two strategic choices into six dimensions; namely, entry mode, geographic breadth and depth, cultural and institutional distance, and the economic state of the host country. Accordingly, it explains the geographic relational mechanisms through which these six dimensions influence the benefits and challenges of internationalization and, in turn, innovation performance. Results show that Chinese EMNEs improve their innovation performance where they have a portfolio of subsidiaries that (1) is built through M&As (rather than greenfield investments), (2) is distributed across multiple countries (rather than located in fewer locations), (3) is distant from home in terms of culture (but not in terms of institutions), and (4) is located in emerging (rather than developed) countries, although M&As perform better in developed countries.