Multinational Service Research Articles

Netflix’s growth in India on a slippery turf

Research methodology A secondary research method was used to collect data for this case. The authors have made use of newspaper articles and published articles written by journalists and experts, which are available in the public domain. Case overview/synopsis This case discusses the hurdles faced by Netflix in India. Netflix experienced rapid growth ever since its entry into the Indian over-the-top (OTT) sector. The aggressive pricing strategies by OTT competitors put Netflix in a defensive position in India. Netflix introduced the low-priced mobile-only plan to attract price-sensitive Indian consumers. However, this was not sufficient. Netflix was forced to reduce the price of all its plans in December 2021. The dilemma faced by Reed Hastings (Founder and Co-CEO, Netflix) was whether the revised price was low enough to hold on to existing subscribers and attract new subscribers in India. Netflix was caught between the rock and the hard place in its pursuit to achieve its target of achieving 100 million subscribers from India versus continuing its skimming-pricing strategy. This case highlights the compound challenges of low household income in India and high-income inequality resulting in a lower available market for multinational service providers such as Netflix. The pricing plans and features of OTT competitors in India have also been discussed in sufficient depth to facilitate analysis and classroom discussion by the target audience. Complexity academic level Undergraduate students studying marketing management and basic marketing courses in business management and commerce streams can use this case. This case can also be used for marketing specialization courses at the undergraduate level.

Dynamic customer-oriented relational capabilities: how do they impact internationalizing firm performance?

PurposeThis work proposes that a multi-national service company (MNSC) needs to develop dynamic customer-oriented relational capabilities (DCRC), constituting dynamic service customization (DySC), dynamic customer integration (DyCI) and dynamic timeliness of service delivery (DyTSD) capabilities, to gain competitive advantage and performance in its internationalization efforts.Design/methodology/approachFor empirical validation of the framework, developed through qualitative interviews, this study includes multi-cross-sectional data from twelve countries, four each in the category of underdeveloped (Africa), developing (Asia) and developed economies (Europe). Covariance-based structural equation modelling is used to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe study supports that DySC, DyCI and DyTSD capabilities have a significant positive influence on firm competitive advantage and performance across economies. The levels of competition intensity and regulatory restrictions, an outcome of the type of economy, have negative intervening effects, with varying intensities across economies.Practical implicationsThis work guides the internationalization service managers to leverage DCRC across national borders keeping the state of the economy into consideration.Originality/valueThis work proposes a model of DCRC, based on the Intangibility, Heterogeneity, Inseparability and Perishability (IHIP) service framework, that enables firms to derive competitive advantage and performance across economies with varying environmental conditions.

Double-edged sword of global demand heterogeneity: How service multinationals capture the benefits and mitigate the costs of managing customer knowledge

Drawing on the knowledge-based view, we develop a cost–benefit approach to examine how service multinationals can capture the benefits and mitigate the costs of customer knowledge gained from global demand heterogeneity so as to improve their internationalization performance. In the relationship between global demand heterogeneity and internationalization performance, we theorize that customer relationship orientation and structural flexibility serve as two key moderators: the former amplifies the benefits of diverse customer knowledge, and the latter reduces the costs of knowledge processing and routine adaptation. The study of Chinese service multinational enterprises supports our theoretical predictions regarding the moderating effects of customer relationship orientation and structural flexibility. Moreover, we find positive three-way interactions among production and consumption simultaneity, customer relationship orientation, and global demand heterogeneity in shaping internationalization performance. This study contributes theoretically and practically to our understanding of how service multinationals tap into global customer knowledge to improve their internationalization performance.

Navigating the Digital World - the Impact on the New World of Work, A Multigen Perspective

Digital technology impacts the 21st century, and it shapes our lifestyle, the way we think and the way we act. This paper presents aspects of the digital transformation of the workplace and how this process requires the creation and development of new skills and competencies for employees today but especially in the future. In this new context, an essential role is played by education, by educational systems that need to adapt to new requirements, precisely so that educators have the skills needed to be more productive. From this perspective, in the paper, the authors present a teaching and learning method called the TADEO method, which encourages learning the skills needed for Education 4.0. This method is based on a technology support software tool to help teachers build their teaching plan, teaching duration, teaching materials, and assessment method. Hybrid work is an opportunity that brings new challenges: the work environment is changing rapidly, and automation is replacing human tasks in order for organizations to thrive. Recruitment has become complicated with the digital transformation, and new challenges are emerging for employers as they need people with the skills needed to cope with a changing work environment. The study was conducted on a sample of respondents from a multinational service company based in western Romania, where the accounting department employees were interviewed to see what they think about artificial intelligence, the implications of robots, and the future at work. This research is based on four objectives that have been achieved and three hypotheses that have been tested. The study results showed that about half (43.7%) of the employees who answered this questionnaire worked in the office. Only 28.2% consider themselves very satisfied with the job, and 37.9% see themselves working at the same company for 10 years.

Romantic blockbusters: the co-commissioning of Korean network-developed K-dramas as ‘Netflix originals’

ABSTRACT Since Netflix started offering its multinational service in South Korea in 2016, the company’s main strategy has been to enter into partnerships with local legacy networks in the form of co-commissions and offer locally developed K-dramas as ‘Netflix Originals’. In this paper, I analyse the industrial changes that led to the Korean cable channel tvN and Netflix co-commissioning television series, focusing in particular on Mr. Sunshine (Miseuteo syeonsyain, 2018) and Crash Landing on You (Sarangui bulsichak, 2019-2020) as the culmination of the many successful K-dramas developed through this partnership. Renowned internationally for productions in the romance genre, K-drama has evolved rapidly since the enormous success of Winter Sonata (Gyeoul yeonga, 2004), the series that initiated the Korean Wave in Japan. These programs continue the decades-long lineage of romance-themed K-dramas by terrestrial broadcasters while offering enhanced production values made possible by infusions of capital from Netflix, which have fuelled the evolution of K-dramas into what I have termed ‘romantic blockbusters.’ I examine the triadic relationship among the key stakeholders—the local networks, the local production companies, and Netflix—to trace the development of local network-developed K-dramas into internationally circulating Netflix Originals.

Challenges Related to Fight Against Cybercrime. A Need to Strengthen International Cooperation

The objective of this article is to highlight the need for additional tools and frameworks for international cooperation. As the cyber threat landscape has considerably worsened in the last few years, in particular during the COVID-19 pandemic, law enforcement authorities worldwide need to take necessary measures to respond to this situation. As there are also new types of crime and modus operandi emerging, countries need to assess their legislative and organizational frameworks, and improve their capacities to detect and investigate these criminal offences. As most of the cases are of cross-border nature and electronic evidence needed for the investigations is stored in other countries, there is a greater dependence on international cooperation in conducting successful investigations. As traditional Mutual Legal Assistance measures don’t provide the necessary speed and effectiveness needed to adequately address the cybercrime threat, additional tools need to be developed. So far the Convention on Cybercrime or Budapest Convention has been the only international legally binding treaty on cybercrime and electronic evidence. In order to provide additional measures to supplement the ones established in the Convention, officials have opened discussions about creating the Second Additional Protocol. Although the background work and preparations for the Protocol were conducted over the course of several years, the Protocol negotiations started officially in September 2017. In May 2021 the Cybercrime Convention Committee agreed on the conditions of the Protocol. The Protocol would complement the Convention and provide several new tools and measures for law enforcement authorities. These measures include inter alia Mutual Legal Assistance and disclosure of computer data in emergency situations as well as providing avenues for direct cooperation with Multinational Service Providers. The Protocol will be opened for signature in 2022 and hopefully implementing the measures listed in the Protocol will aid in the fight against cybercrime and increase the effectiveness of international cooperation. As the threats and risks related to cybercrime have increased over the years, it is also time for law enforcement to display a stronger response to this pressing issue.

Talent management in the “new normal”—Case study of Indian IT services multinationals in China

AbstractEmerging market multinational corporations (MNCs) are coming under increasing scrutiny for their international performance. While the success of Indian IT multinationals in the West has been extensively researched and reported, there is a lack of research on their relative failure in China. The rise of economic nationalism and the COVID‐19 pandemic pose challenges for the mobility of professionals and the global talent management (GTM) strategy of MNCs. Through in‐depth interviews with senior managers from four well‐known Indian IT services multinationals, this article presents an evidence‐based critique of the design and implementation of their GTM strategy both inside and outside China. It focuses specifically on the quality of the IT talent pool in China, control and coordination issues, and the challenges of workforce localization.

Double-edged Sword of Global Demand Heterogeneity on the Performance of Service Multinationals

Drawing upon knowledge-based view and transaction-costs perspective, the study identifies customer relationship orientation and structural flexibility as the two key mechanisms that service multinationals can use to capture the benefits and mitigate the costs of global demand heterogeneity. Using a sample of Chinese service multinational firms, we show that one the one hand, customer relationship orientation amplifies the benefits of customer knowledge in the interaction between customer relationship orientation and global demand heterogeneity, resulting in a positive impact on internationalization performance. On the other hand, structural flexibility mitigates the costs of knowledge processing and routine adaptation in the interaction between structural flexibility and global demand heterogeneity, also contributing to the improved internationalization performance. Besides, production and consumption simultaneity strengthens the positive moderating effect of customer relationship orientation in the global demand heterogeneity–internationalization performance relationship. This study contributes theoretically and practically to our knowledge of how demand-side factors can shape firms’ internationalization performance.

In praise of COVID-19: discovering adaptive leadership in unprecedented times

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore adaptive leadership behavior during a global health crisis in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. It discusses the characteristics of adaptive leadership and offers practical steps to help managers lead through tough times. Design/methodology/approach This paper is based on an in-depth study of a mid-sized multinational professional service firm where 25 frontline managers were interviewed. Individual stories about the challenges and opportunities of how these managers led their company out of ambiguity contribute to critical insights as discussed in this paper. Findings First, leading adaptively involves a fundamental acknowledgment of your vulnerabilities by turning them into a source of inner strength through the support of others. Second, it is important to harness collective wisdom to accelerate urgent and complex decision-making. Third, experimentation is key to breaking away from status quo and venturing into innovative practices. Fourth, following personal instincts while exercising objective judgment could give you the courage to think and act differently. Originality/value This paper offers firsthand insights into the mindsets and behaviors of practicing managers who spontaneously shared their deeper feelings and expectations of their leadership setbacks and foresight of what would be expected of the “new” normal in a post-pandemic era. The perspectives offered here provide a deeper dimension to the current understanding of adaptive leadership.

IMPACT OF CORPORATE GOVERNANCE FAILURE ON PUBLIC TRUST: AN EVIDENCE FROM INDIA

This research study explores the maligned role of Chanda Kochhar, the top-notch executive of ICICI Bank, a leading multinational and financial service provider. An alleged corruption case was filed against her under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The case was filed against her after a whistleblower alleged that the bank had given INR 32.50 billion to Videocon group in 2012, the majority of which was declared as Non- Performing Assets later by the bank. This research study focuses on misused the position for personal gains. It touches upon the board of directors of an organisation's fiduciary role and tries to outline whistleblowers’ importance in corporate governance. The study unravels the conflicts of interest, alleged corruption, lack of disclosures of related party transactions required by corporate governance principles, and quid-pro-quo. The study will deliberate the impact of such alleged corruption on the various stakeholders, especially shareholders. The study is exploratory and qualitative and based on publicly available information. Other corroborative evidence verifies the reliability of the information. This study will offer suggestions to improve the corporate governance principles to the regulators. 
 JEL Classification Codes: D73, D74, G21, G34.

Firm performance in the financial industry: the role of foreign entrants and their origin

PurposeThis study aims to provide firm-level evidence on the relationship between the presence of financial services multinationals and indigenous counterparts’ performance, using a comprehensive sample of firms in the emerging financial industry in Vietnam.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses the generalized method of moments with instrumental variables (IV/GMM) to deal with potential endogeneity problem. Of this technique, a pragmatic approach to constructing instruments is adopted, capitalizing on the geographical and industry segmentation of the local market. The empirical analyses also address statistical issues of the overall model significance, heteroskedasticity and multicollinearity.FindingsThe regression results reveal that foreign entrants have a positive and statistically significant association with indigenous firms’ labor productivity and the average wage, with a more pronounced impact on the latter. The increased entry of financial multinationals appears to be uncorrelated with indigenous firms’ profitability. The extended estimations also suggest that investor origin matters in determining spillover magnitude. The average estimate of Asian affiliates in the examined relationship is approximately half that of European affiliates, whereas foreign entrants originating from America show an insignificant role.Originality/valueThis study sheds light on the broader impacts of foreign financial affiliates by simultaneously exploring their impacts on three key dimensions of indigenous firm performance, namely, labor productivity, average wage and profitability. This paper also enriches the existing literature by disentangling the effects of foreign entrants from different regions of origin, which was largely neglected in the context of financial services multinationals.

Double-Edged Sword of Global Demand Heterogeneity: How Service Multinationals Capture the Benefits and Mitigate the Costs of Managing Customer Knowledge

Double-Edged Sword of Global Demand Heterogeneity: How Service Multinationals Capture the Benefits and Mitigate the Costs of Managing Customer Knowledge

International Subsidiary Closure in the Software Services Sector: The Experience of Indian Software Services Multinationals

ABSTRACT Physical presence through establishment of subsidiary is one of the salient features of internationalization of Indian multinationals in the software services sector. However, closure of such subsidiaries has received limited limelight than the success stories. The paper examines the less explored event of international subsidiary closure using a representative sample of Indian software services multinationals and the associated subsidiaries closed during 2007–2017. Cox proportional hazard function is estimated using host-country, parent-firm and subsidiary-specific factors. Results show that the three levels of factors have significant impact on subsidiary closure. While economic growth in host country reduced probability of closure, the smaller subsidiaries and less profitable ones had higher probability of closure. Business group affiliation was found to have direct and independent impact on reducing probability of subsidiary closure. However, the liability of inter-regional foreignness due to higher geographical breadth of internationalization was not supported in the case of Indian software multinationals.

Chinese Service Multinationals: The Degree of Internationalization and Performance

We investigate the degree of internationalization of Chinese service multinational enterprises (MNEs) and their performance relative to global peers operating in the same industries, using the benchmarking method with the industry financial data. Our theoretical development is based upon Verbeke and Forootan (2012)’s framework, grounded in “new” internalization theory, arguing that an MNE’s financial performance is fundamentally determined by its firm-specific advantages (FSAs). Here FSAs include not only conventional strengths in R&D and brand names, but also the recombination capabilities, which is a higher-order FSA. We theorize that Chinese service MNEs develop FSAs, which are built upon home country-specific advantages (CSAs) and thus their FSAs are home country-bound in nature. They have not yet been able to develop advanced management capabilities through recombination with host CSAs. We empirically examine the largest 500 Chinese service firms. We find that only 23 Chinese service firms are true MNEs, whereas the majority of them are purely domestic firms. The financial performance of Chinese service MNEs is poor relative to global peers. They internationalize mainly through acquisitions of foreign firms, which help them increase their foreign sales, but they are not able to achieve superior performance in overseas operations. We discuss the strategic implications of our findings for managers, public policy makers, and academic research.

Foreign multinationals in service sectors: A general equilibrium analysis of Brexit

AbstractWe examine the role of foreign multinationals in service sectors in the context of Brexit, which is assumed to induce an increase in different types of barriers: (a) FDI barriers to multinationals in services; (b) non‐tariff barriers to trade; and (c) import tariffs between the UK and the rest of the EU. We use a state‐of‐the‐art Melitz approach in manufactures with multinationals operating in imperfectly competitive service sectors in a multiregional general equilibrium framework. We find that the increased FDI barriers in services explain about one third of the total welfare loss of Brexit. Furthermore, our decomposition analysis (by introducing each type of barriers separately) shows that the barriers against the EU service multinationals in the UK are harmful to British manufacturing sectors because they face a reduced (and more expensive) supply of intermediate services.

Cultural differences in the effects of contextual factors and privacy concerns on users’ privacy decision on social networking sites

ABSTRACT Many social network sites (SNSs) have become available around the world and users’ online social networks increasingly include contacts from different cultures. However, there is lack of investigation into the concrete cultural differences in the effects of contextual factors and privacy concerns on users’ privacy decisions on social network sites (SNSs). The goal of this paper is to understand how contextual factors and privacy concerns cast different impact on privacy decisions, such as friend request decisions, information disclosure and perceived risk, in different countries. We performed a quantitative study through a large-scale online survey across the US, Korea and China to model the relationships between contextual factors, privacy concerns and privacy decisions. We find that the contextual influence and focus of privacy concerns vary between the individualistic and collectivistic countries in our sample. We suggest that multinational SNS service providers should consider different contextual factors and focus of privacy concerns in different countries and customise privacy designs and friend recommendation algorithms in SNSs in different countries.

In between the global and the local: Mapping the geographies of Netflix as a multinational service

The different technological affordances and revenue models of subscriber-funded, internet-distributed video streaming services have altered the competitive environments of audiovisual services. One category of these services, multinational SVODs (subscription video on demand), are changing the dynamics of transnational video distribution. Although having subscribers and offices, and commissioning content from many countries, are obvious measures of these services’ multinational status, the extent to which the distinct affordances of these services diminish the national lens through which all other international television trade occurs may be the most profound measure. The article explores how this too becomes a distinguishing competitive tool for Netflix that enables uncommon content strategies, such as the ability to program for tastes and sensibilities too small to effectively form a viable market for services limited by national reach.

MO030PATIENT SAFETY IN A LARGE MULTINATIONAL RENAL SERVICES PROVIDER NETWORK

Abstract Background and Aims Patient safety is considered of paramount importance under any qualified provision of care, but results from routine tracking of incidents have scarcely been reported, even when that may negatively impact survival. To analyze all types of incidents in a multinational renal service provider network from Jan.1st to Sept. 30th, 2019. Method For the last 10 years, our institution has tracked all incidents under a structured process program, as well as, educated our staff in the importance of proactively reporting and analyzing incidents in a quarterly basis at the clinic, by country and globally. Incidents are categorized in 4 different types: A-Patient related; B-Staff and visitors; C-Products and D-Equipment. Different incident codes are assigned to each type. Results A total of 68.399 incidents (2.7 incidents/patient/year) have been reported during Q1-Q3 2019 (higher than in 2018: 2.2). This means an increase of 20% in the total number of reported incidents. Total incidents/1000 treatments was 17.1 (12.1 patient-related incidents). Reporting follows a heterogeneous pattern among countries, being lowest in Argentina and highest in the UK. Top 5 reported incidents were as follows: Codes A15 (voluntarily shortened treatment) and A14 (Patient did not show up), both related to patient adherence to treatment, accounted for 36% of total incidents, vascular access (VA) complications (A4) for 10.5%, change of dialyzer and/or blood lines due to clotting (A2) for 8.6% and recurrent minor monitor malfunction (D1) for 6.7% of incidents. Codes related with unexpected death or cardiorespiratory arrest are not present among the total global top 10 incidents. Conclusion Detailed tracking of incidents and comparison between countries have potential to increase quality of care. Room for improvement recently made the Corporate Medical Office to launch new strategies on VA management, anticoagulation and patient compliance, among others. This large series may help other institutions to better monitor and standardize patient safety.

Internationalization process of Spanish firms of the service sector

The objective of this research is responding to two important questions that have been analyzed in the literature on international management, the “where” and the “how”. With this purpose both descriptive and comparison of means analysis are applied. The resulting analysis indicates that Spanish multinationals in the service sector have a semi global focus in their international operations and are located principally in Europe and Latin America. Furthermore, we found that Spanish service multinationals exert high levels of subsidiary control and that do not present significant differences in the levels of control they have over subsidiaries in relation to the type of service.

Applying design thinking in a hierarchical organisation

Many large financial services organisations are seeking to develop their employees’ design capability to develop innovative customer solutions. Yet, there appears limited understanding on how individual employees (without a background in design) view the relationship of design thinking to innovation. This study investigates how employees perceive design thinking and its potential link to drive innovative practices within a large Australian multinational financial services organisation. An exploratory qualitative approach used face-to face semi-structured interviews with diverse participants from across the organisation. A modified existing design capability framework was used to map each individual’s perspectives and illustrate the organisation’s current DT and innovation capacity. Findings from this study contribute new insights regarding employee perceptions and design capability requirements