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This paper examines the determinants of direct investment in the UK by technology-intensive Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs). It also investigates the ways in which investment strategies are being employed for entry to the UK and to achieve access to technology. Drawing on an inductive case study strategy it is found that Chinese SOEs are motivated by their ambitions to close the technology gap by tapping into UK knowledge networks. In terms of entry strategies, the findings indicate that the initial focus on existing technology subsequently shifts to the creation of added R&D capacity and new technology. This is achieved from a permanent UK R&D base which is integrated into the parent companies’ wider R&D networks. Technology creation is enabled by adoption of divergent management practices, especially at operational level, reflecting the parent companies’ surprisingly adaptable mindsets.

This research deals with international negotiations in multinational enterprises (MNEs), in particular the HQ–subsidiary negotiations. The theoretical part of the intercultural negotiation framework (Ott, 2011) highlights the potential for MNE negotiation analysis. An empirical investigation into Japanese MNE negotiations strengthens the theory. Different time perceptions and strategies influence HQ–subsidiary negotiations. The outcome of the fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) shows that an integrative approach needs a higher offer with a margin of at least 20% to cover for relationship building, patience and trust.

This article analyzes termination in international joint ventures (IJVs) with a set theoretic approach and fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) to show that parent contribution, ownership, managerial configuration and experience can lead to a successful end of a joint venture. The use of fsQCA provides the causal paths leading to termination. Termination by achieving the objectives and termination by corporate restructuring are the most common ways in IJVs to end the collaborative venture and are a consequence of the joint set of foreign contribution, ownership structure, managerial configuration and experience. The duration of terminated IJVs highlights the importance of managerial experience and local contribution. Resumen: Este artículo analiza la terminación en empresas conjuntas internacionales (IJV) con un enfoque teórico conjunto y un conjunto difuso de Análisis Comparativo Cualitativo (fsQCA) para mostrar que la contribución, propiedad, configuración administrativa y experiencia de los padres pueden conducir al final exitoso de una empresa conjunta. El uso de fsQCA proporciona los caminos causales que conducen a la terminación. La terminación mediante el logro de los objetivos y la rescisión mediante reestructuración corporativa son las formas más comunes en que las IJV ponen fin a la empresa de colaboración y son consecuencia del conjunto de contribución extranjera, estructura de propiedad, configuración gerencial y experiencia. La duración de las IJV terminadas destaca la importancia de la experiencia gerencial y la contribución local. JEL classification: C78, D8, F5, Códigos JEL: C78, D8, F5, Keywords: International joint ventures, Termination strategies, fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA), Automotive industry, Palabras clave: Empresas conjuntas internacionales, Estrategias de terminación, conjunto difuso Análisis comparativo cualitativo (fsQCA), Industria automotriz

Brexit is decidedly a “big question”. We agree with International Business scholars who say that such questions need to be addressed using an inter-disciplinary approach. We use bargaining theory models of rational behavior and the negotiation literature to explain various Brexit options and predict their consequences. Considering the lack of relevant experiential knowledge, and the multidimensional high-stakes negotiations underway, it is little wonder that anxiety is growing across all 28 European Union member states. Our analysis supports a coherent approach from rational bargaining model to real-life international negotiation. We position outcome scenarios in different agreement zones and explore their ramifications.

This chapter studies repeated contracting in international strategic alliances on the basis of information asymmetries owing to different cultural, organizational and/or technological backgrounds. The theoretical underpinning shows that these problems are embedded in the theoretical paradigms of contract theory. In general, the alliance partners have several options to take into account the uncertainty about ability and effort of the other players and the impact on the durability of the alliance. The complexity of multi-person decision-making is reflected in incentive schemes for the stages of an alliance life cycle. This dynamic contracting scenario should avoid cheating and enhance cooperation in terms of contributions and expertise in the stages of the life cycle. The outcome is the design of inter-temporal, culturally sensitive contracts.

Qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) is a set of techniques that are designed to transfer subjective data into numeric data. QCA has recently become popular, as it sets out to integrate the strengths of qualitative and quantitative methods while overcoming the key concerns inherent in both the approaches. This chapter discusses and explains the QCA method and highlights the possible application of the method in business and management research. The chapter offers an application example and concludes with suggestions regarding future avenues for using QCA approach in the field of management research.

This paper studies the factors affecting the longevity of international joint ventures (IJVs) in China and investigates the strategic interactions of the players in an IJV (foreign parent, local parent and IJV management) by adopting game theory and using empirical analysis based on national perceptions of time horizons. The theoretical part shows equilibria for the games played by the parents. The empirical evidence, based on a sample of Chinese-US and EU IJVs, as well as Chinese-Japanese and South Korean IJVs, is consistent with the propositions derived from our theoretical models. Our empirical findings show that the longevity of an IJV is affected by senior management control. Access to local knowledge is also a crucial factor affecting longevity. Furthermore, the degree of long-term orientation (LTO) of the parents influences the longevity of Sino-Foreign IJVs. The contributions made by both foreign and local parent firms are also found to influence the longevity.

This paper provides new activity-based classifications for cultural differences and similarities, in contrast to the cultural dimensions of hierarchy, group behavior, uncertainty avoidance and timeorientation.\ud Cultural activity types have been classified by Lewis (1999) into linear-active, multiactive\ud and reactive cultures. Moving away from a country perspective based on political boundaries to\ud a cultural community approach, it is not only task-orientation, but also the way cultures communicate, negotiate, and contract that is dominated by activity types. This article conceptualize, hypothesize and test observations with a set-theoretic tool (fsQCA). Our analysis focuses primarily on British and Chinese cultural profiles to start with. This should give us an initial approach towards understanding the similarities, differences and overlaps of cultural behavior. The outcome shows that future managers from Britain and China have more similarities than so far portrayed. Cultural dynamics are at the centre of a cooperative outlook towards managing across cultures.

This study examines the factors and the processes that contribute to a satisfying outcome for negotiations. Based\ud on a set theoretic framework, the authors investigated managers from various countries in terms of their approach\ud to negotiation. The fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) uses detailed data on preparation,\ud information exchange, persuasion, creativity in problem solving and overcoming deadlocks, break-up behavior,\ud as well as how to achieve a satisfying outcome, to test the joint sets of successful outcomes. The implications\ud of these results are relevant for practitioners and future research and highlight necessary and sufficient conditions\ud for a successful negotiation outcome

Does high long-term orientation (LTO) as a distinctive feature of Chinese and Asian national culture still influence modern business decisions? It is difficult to answer this question when any such cultural impact must be qualified by the influence of local Chinese institutions. We study, therefore, different nationalities of international joint ventures (IJVs) within the same institutional setting of China. With foreign partners distanced from their national institutions, this isolates any cultural influence on strategies. We report that strategic commitment does indeed seem to be higher in IJVs with overseas Chinese and other Asian partners, but this conclusion is not general, and is limited to the subset of human resource strategies.

This paper studies a repeated game of contracting in International joint ventures (IJVs) on the basis of information asymmetries due to different cultural backgrounds. Reputational effects, renegotiation and cooperation between the players are analyzed by using formal models. The organization, success and failure of an IJV are determined by the effort levels induced in each stage of the life-cycle. Besides managerial efforts, the cultural distance and convergence influence the design of long-term contracts in form of incentives for efforts of cultural cooperation. This leads to a dynamic contracting over the life-cycle of an IJV, in order to avoid cheating and to enhance co-operation on a cultural and managerial level. The outcome is the design of inter-temporal, culturally sensitive incentive schemes as a new approach to contracting in IJVs.

We live in curious times. People’s sense of individual autonomy co-exists with structures of power. How do these two phenomena co-exist? An important answer to this lies in the menu. The menu operates as a key form of mediation between people’s sense of individual autonomy and larger structures of power, allowing both to co-exist. This article illustrates the operation of the menu in society within consumption, within production, and within citizenship. The article also considers how far the metaphor of the menu in society is compatible with important contemporary attempts to characterize the macro-nature of society. The conclusion articulates how the metaphor of the menu in society can help open up the nature of society to critical investigation.

In lightly regulated economies many jobs are becoming subject to a process of ‘marketization’ involving an externalization of the employment relationship in the context of intensified product market competition. At the same time, a number of front-line jobs are becoming redefined to encompass more proactive sales aims. This study examines two sites at an intersection of these trends — sites where financial service jobs have been marketized and redefined to revolve around proactive sales activity. It examines the key social relations of the sales workers — relations with managers, immediate colleagues, back-office staff, customers and referrers — in considering how far marketization leads to the social relations of the cash nexus along bare market principles. It is found that one group of workers is enmeshed in a dehumanized, instrumental and antagonistic set of relations, while another, smaller, group of workers is insulated against such relations by the functioning of tight trust-based referral networks. It is concluded that the texture of the social relations of sales work under marketization is centrally influenced by the social constitution of the specific product market in which sales workers act. In addition, it is argued that the process of marketization tends to corrode the factors that support the functioning of tight trust-based networks.