Multinational Competition Research Articles

Emerging Market Firms’ Internationalization Pricing Strategies: The Role of Country of Origin and Organizational Learning

Over the last decade there has been significant interest in international expansion of emerging market firms (EMFs) due to their distinctive patterns compared with developed market firms (DMFs). In this article, the authors develop an analytical model to generate prescriptive insights for pricing strategies when EMFs enter new foreign markets. Grounded in the international marketing and organizational learning literatures, the model accounts for local and multinational competition, the influence of country-of-origin effects, and the role of organizational learning in foreign markets. The results suggest that when an EMF enters a host market with a local competitor, it could generate higher profits even when charging a lower price than the local competitor. Additionally, the authors find that DMFs enjoy greater profitability than EMFs in foreign markets as a result of positive country-of-origin effects. Finally, the authors propose and validate the use of organizational learning as a process EMFs can use to surmount the negative impact of country-of-origin effects and achieve greater profitability than DMFs.

The Impact of R&D Subsidy and IPP on Global Supply Chain Networks System—A Technology Spillover Perspective

In the current globalized business environment, multinational competition has become the norm for companies. This paper considers technology spillovers among manufacturers and develops a global supply chain network equilibrium model. Firstly, the optimal decision-making behaviors of manufacturers, retailers, and demand markets are characterized separately. Secondly, based on the variational inequality theory, the optimal decision-making behaviors of global supply chain members are transformed. Finally, the model is solved and analyzed using the Euler algorithm. The primary objective is to explore the impact of research and development (R&D) subsidies and intellectual property protection (IPP) strategies on manufacturers’ research and development technological levels. Furthermore, the study delves into their effects on the production and transactions of the global supply chain network and social welfare. The following conclusions are drawn: (1) Technology spillovers have a positive effect on the technological level achieved by manufacturers through research and development investment and social welfare. However, intense technological competition may harm manufacturers’ profits. (2) Under the symmetric subsidy policy, higher subsidies may lead to a decrease in social welfare. (3) Under symmetric intellectual property protection policies, increasing the intensity of intellectual property protection benefits manufacturers but is detrimental to retailers and social welfare. However, under an asymmetric intellectual property protection strategy, implementing high-intensity intellectual property protection by high-technology countries is advantageous for retailers and social welfare. This conclusion has contributed to the technical research and development and production operation decision making of global supply chain members, as well as government policy formulation, and has also provided a new perspective for theoretical research in the field of global supply networks.

Exploring the Reliability of a Cross-Cultural Model for Digital Games: A Systematic Review

In recent years, the game industry has become one of the most popular and competitive industries. To quickly expand game markets and attract more game players and consumers, a variety of types of games are developed by the companies and developers. Cross-region games are also common in the current game markets. Consequently, a multi-national competition across different cultures or countries is inevitable. For successful expansion of game market, the existence of cultural differences of game players with various cultural backgrounds is one of the notable issues we cannot ignore. Even though there are studies focusing on the relevant cultural differences, there are no study summarizing the past findings. Additionally, no powerful norm has yet been defined, therefore this paper will investigate whether it is feasible to apply the Hofstedes’ Cultural Dimensions Theory, often utilized in Management, to game industries and to be a reliable guidance for game design and development for cross-culture game players.

INNOVATION AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN GLOBALIZATION

Change is a pre-requisite for survival amongst individual human beings and even more so in the organizations which they create and in which they work. Put simply, if an organization does not change what it offers the world – its product or services- and the ways in which it creates and delivers these offerings, it may not survive. The pressure for a constant innovation means that creativity is a key resource. Innovation, technology advances and competitive advantage are connected by complex and multidimensional relationships. Demands for organizational innovation and technological advantage are increasingly crucial components of competitive strategy for many firms. Most firms face serious competitive challenges due to the rapid pace and unpredictability of technology change. Industries dependent on highly sophisticated technologies and firms engaged in multinational competition are particularly vulnerable to the need for continuous and rapid modification of their product features and the ways in which they conduct business.

STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION AUDITS. A QUALITATIVE RESEARCH PERSPECTIVE FOR IMPROVING HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT

Internal diversity within organizations and the technology-determined restraints of multinational competition raise the need of developing organizational communication more than ever. Communication audits have been approached as an effective tool for improving organizations’ business targets, but this article argues that communication audits go beyond that and fill the diverse communication needs of today’s manpower. 
 Firstly, the article clarifies the nature of strategic communication and the boundaries of this domain. Then, the paper examines the nature of the term „strategic”. We argue that the results of a communication audit are the first step towards a strategic communication plan. In view of this perspective, the article’s main research questions are: What is the link between strategic communication, communication audit and management performance? How do we measure and illustrate where the organization currently stands in terms of its communication performance? 
 The conclusions of this conceptual paper highlight the role of communication audits in providing useful information for the strategic communication process and HR management by clarifying the nature of qualitative data that are instrumental for strategic communication and how should a researcher report the results of a qualitative study in order to be effective for the strategic communication plan.

Partnering with your Pirate: Interdependent Sino-foreign rivalry in China's textbook market

AbstractAs the Qing state launched its full-scale educational reform at the turn of the twentieth century, tens of thousands of new schools mushroomed all over China. Their urgent and enormous demand for textbooks created a thriving new market that attracted both Chinese and foreign publishing firms. Nurtured in China's traditional book trade, Chinese print capitalists had local knowledge of distribution networks and cultural politics, but not a real command of producing educational Western knowledge. To keep up with Chinese students’ increasing demand for Western knowledge, they pirated textbooks published by foreign companies. Meanwhile, leading American and British publishing corporations were expanding their international business by targeting developing countries that had recently established a modern general education system, like China. Drawing from government and company archives, as well as personal papers and legal documents, this article traces the multinational competition, copyright disputes, and business collaborations between a leading textbook provider in China and their Anglo-American competitors between the 1900s and the 1930s. It illustrates an unexpected and uneasy partnership some foreign publishers formed with Chinese pirates in order to gain better access to China's textbook market. Chinese publishers, on the other hand, used piracy and their local knowledge to bargain for better import credit and deals with their foreign rivals. Both sides were dependent on each other to gain the advantage in their transnational business operations in the globalizing Asian textbook business.

THE CONCEPTUAL BASES OF MULTINATIONAL AND GLOBAL COMPETITIVENESS ENVIRONMENT AND STRATEGIC ALLIANCES


 
 
 Under the conditions of integration of national markets global competition environment is created in international markets. As a result of this competitors compete based on price and related conditions of competition. In the context of global competition the competitiveness of rival companies is proportional to its global competitive advantage. In the context of global competition, the competitiveness of rival companies is proportional to its global competitive advantage. In a multinational competition, companies are struggling for leadership in the national market and in a global competition, they fight for leadership in the world. In a certain network at the same time, one can observe both global and interstate multinational competition. This paper evaluates the increasingly important role and the interdependencies between multinational and global competition, technological innovations and the theory of international production.
 
 

Gains from multinational competition for cross-border firm acquisition

Abstract This study shows that when there is multinational competition for foreign acquisition, the strategic use of a consumer welfare argument in regulating foreign market entry leads to a preemptive foreign acquisition. Even under fierce competition, foreign acquisition will emerge as part of a non-cooperative equilibrium (although multinationals would have gained more had they been able to credibly commit to a cooperative equilibrium of independent foreign sales, either via greenfield investment or trade under complete liberalization) which increases local welfare by more than both the case without foreign market entry and the case with foreign market entry via independent foreign sales.

Strengthening Competitiveness of Multinationals through Relocation of Production to Asia

<p>This article asks whether a strategic opportunity exists for a company producing products with the label ‘Made in Germany’ to relocate production to Asia while retaining German engineering. This article focuses on the prevailing market situations of several multinational corporations based in Germany, which are encountering growing competition from Asia due to disadvantages in product price, delivery costs and transportation time that are related to a non-adapted and non-future oriented sourcing concept. Through an empirical research study, respondents from Asia were asked about their willingness to accept the price of a ‘Made in Germany’ product, the importance of price, their opinion about delivery issues, and their acceptance of local production in Asia. Total responses of N = 636 (100.0%) were collected, including n = 108 (17.0%) responses from Asia. The results are addressed to strategic management for German companies that can gain competitiveness through a relocation of production to Asia while considering long-term requirements. The results of the study suggest that the fundamental strategy of pairing German engineering with local production in Asia is worth pursuing in which the market conditions of tomorrow are considered.</p>

English

English

Arguments for Csr-Based Sustainable Competitiveness of Multinationals in Emerging Markets (Part II)

Abstract The (two parts of the) paper aims to bring into discussion the case of CSR-based sustainable competitiveness of multinationals in emerging market economies, through an interdisciplinary approach (international business and strategic management) applied to a multilevel analysis (country and company). The main conclusion of the paper is that, despite the circumstances that nowadays characterize international business in general and the emerging market economies in particular, such a transformation in business models is not only desirable, but mandatory. Key arguments in favor of this assumption are found (both theoretically and empirically) at global/general level and, as well, at the emerging market economies’ level.

Oil and gas cooperation between China and Central Asia in an environment of political and resource competition

This paper investigates Central Asia’s oil and gas resources, special geopolitics and energy competition, and approaches, challenges and prospects in cooperation between China and Central Asia. The objective is to propose measures for oil and gas cooperation between China and Central Asia. Central Asia is rich in oil and gas resources. Its remaining recoverable reserves of crude oil and natural gas account for 1.9% and 10.6 %, respectively, of the world’s total reserves. Moreover, there is great exploration and development potential. As a strategic channel connecting Eurasia, Central Asia has a prominent geopolitical status. Many powerful countries such as the United States, Russia and China, as well as Europe, have an intense energy competition in Central Asia. In the oil and gas cooperation with Central Asia, the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) focuses on establishing a coordination group, promoting overall oil and gas business opportunities and sustainable development, innovating and applying specialty engineering technology and improving project economic benefits. Through its efforts over the last nearly two decades, the China National Petroleum Corporation has completed a 50-million-tonne a year oil and gas production centre in Central Asia and oil and gas pipelines passing through multiple countries, becoming an important channel for securing China’s energy imports. If appropriate measures are taken in the ‘Thirteenth Five-Year Plan’ period or later, the China National Petroleum Corporation will develop a 100-million-tonne p.a. oil and gas production centre in Central Asia and a strategic oil and gas import channel exceeding this amount of production. This cooperation between China and Central Asia is however faced with the following challenges: increasing multinational competition uncertainty, potential risks in the political systems of Central Asian countries, frequently occurring violence and also resource policy tightening in Central Asia. To further oil and gas cooperation with Central Asia, it is recommended that China should develop an energy acquisition strategy, assign a regional energy ambassador, enhance oil and gas supply by mergers and acquisitions, establish regional multinational subsidiaries and improve its risk prevention system.

Multinational Exposure and the Quality of New Chinese Exports

AbstractWe exploit information on the geographic, product and trader characteristics of China's 1997–2009 exports to examine how the evolving city‐industry presence of multinational firms influenced the quality, frequency and survival of new export transactions by private Chinese firms. Our results show that own‐industry multinational firm contact was associated with more frequent, higher‐valued, and longer‐lasting new trade transactions. These effects appear to arise from beneficial multinational spillovers, rather than selection effects due to increased multinational competition, as increases in own‐industry or other multinational presence were also associated with an increase in the number of trade transactions introduced by private Chinese firms.

Strategic Application of Storytelling in Organizations: Toward Effective Communication in a Diverse World

Internal and external workplace diversity and the technology-induced time constraints of multinational competition make the challenge of improving organizational communication bigger than ever. Nar...

Knowledge transfer between marketing functions in multinational companies: a conceptual model

A key competitive advantage of multinational companies lies in their ability to exploit locally created knowledge worldwide. This implies that such companies have to be able to transfer knowledge within organizational networks characterized by separation through time, space, culture and language. Given the pivotal importance of knowledge transfer for the competitiveness of multinationals, it is remarkable that the process of transferring knowledge effectively across dispersed units of multinational corporations has only attracted little and rather fragmented research interest. What appears to be missing is a unifying framework that serves as a basis for a research agenda. Our paper aims to develop such a framework. Specifically, we propose a conceptual model of knowledge transfer between marketing functions within multinationals and advance research propositions for future empirical testing.

Core Competencies of Service Firms: A Framework for Strategic Decisions in International Markets

Core competency theory is used to develop a framework to analyse how firms' leverage their resources meets the demands of international competition. Key competencies for services differ from those used in product marketing and include nurturing, empowerment, operating, data management, new service development, alliancing, communication, and market sensing. A framework for strategic analysis using service competencies and a perceptual grid is developed and illustrated with data from an international market. The grid maps the current marketplace in terms of both positive and negative determinant resources and facilitates the development of new strategic moves. The paper yields fresh insights into strategic marketing for high-service industries with multinational competition.

Technologies without Boundaries: On Telecommunications in a Global Age by Ithiel de Sola Pool

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 399 presents a valuable summary of major economic developments that shaped the postwar West. Gunther Barth Dr. Barth teaches cultural history, with emphasis on the westward migration and emerging urban societies, at the University of California, Berkeley. His latest book, Fleeting Moments: Nature and Culture in American History, was published by Oxford University Press. Technologies without Boundaries: On Telecommunications in a Global Age. By Ithiel de Sola Pool. Edited by Eli M. Noam. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1990. Pp. xiii + 283; notes, index. $27.50. The study of telecommunications occupies a curious place in social science research. While narrow policy-related studies of telecommu­ nications proliferate, broader theoretical and sociological studies remain comparatively rare. For theoretically oriented social scientists, “communications” is generally taken to be synonymous with the mass media. In this context, Technologies without Boundaries is an exception: a book that attempts to provide a grand political theory of telecom­ munications and at the same time sheds light on a whole series of issues in contemporary telecommunications policy. Ithiel de Sola Pool’s grand political theory is unashamedly neolib­ eral and, indeed, unrepentantly American. The book essentially has two broad themes. First, a whole range of forms of national and international regulation of telecommunications are regarded at best as uneconomic, at worst as manifestations of bureaucratic self-interest and xenophobia. Attempts by first- and third-world countries to restrict the flow of U.S. media imports, for example, are simply mechanisms for frustrating consumer sovereignty, rather than legiti­ mate attempts to maintain national cultural identity or protect vul­ nerable local industries from multinational competition. “Govern­ ments everywhere,” the author writes, “have an inherent bias in favor of controls, restrictions, and provincialism” (p. 204). The book’s second theme concerns not bureaucratic interference with the economics of communications networks, but the political potential such networks embody. For Pool, telecommunications holds out the promise of being a truly democratic and liberal technology. On the one hand, the development of modern telecommunications leads to a homogenization of space and therefore, according to the author, to an equalization of differences within and between nations: everyone can talk immediately to anyone. On the other hand, contemporary telecommunications technologies have the potential to meet the specific and diverse demands of individual consumers. For Pool the old world of centralized, and often state-owned, communications networks is gradually being replaced by the brave 400 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE new world of a flexible and specialized communications services industry. This is a study of technology and culture, but one in which tech­ nology undoubtedly has the upper hand. According to the editor of this volume (Pool died in 1984), the author described himselfas a “soft technological determinist.” This is a reasonable description. For while there is some sensitivity in Technologies without Boundaries to the influ­ ence of politics and economics on the development of telecommuni­ cations networks, in the end it is the inherent (and benign) force of technological change that is seen as leading to cultural transformation. While it is tempting to dismiss this book’s arguments as overdeter­ mined by its neoliberalism, its scope and ambition are undoubtedly impressive. The impact of telecommunications on freedom of speech, on the environment, and on relations between developed and devel­ oping countries are all examined with equal vigor. The relation between telecommunications and global transformations in the spatial organization of social activity is explored at length. In an era when social science research has often retreated into the safety of policy analysis or the individual case study, Technologies without Boundaries has, at the very least, indicated a gap in the market. Andrew Barry Dr. Barry is lecturer in sociology at Goldsmiths’ College, University of London. His current research is on the sociology of telecommunications in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Olivetti: A Study ofthe Corporate Management ofDesign. By Sibylle Kicherer. New York: Rizzoli, 1990. Pp. 163; illustrations, notes, bibliography. $35.00. This book recounts in careful detail the evolution of Olivetti as one of Italy’s most respected companies, with a unique international identity between technology and culture. Sibylle Kicherer sympathet­ ically relates management design philosophy to corporate structures...

Multinational Competition in the British Advertising Agency Business, 1936–1987

American multinational advertising agencies first made inroads into the British advertising industry in the early twentieth century. Some were pioneers, but most came to Britain to service the advertising of American–based multinational companies. Their impact on British advertising was significant, particularly from 1945 until the late 1970s, years when American multinational agencies dominated the top end of the business. The British staged a major counter-challenge in both the British and American markets in the early 1980s, however, with considerable success. The basis of the British challenge was improved access to capital, which permitted expansion through acquisition, rather than the servicing of British–based multinational companies. Professor West places these developments in the context of multinational enterprise theory, using new data and evidence drawn largely from trade sources.