Nowadays motivation plays a huge role amongst employees especially when we relate it to people working in multinational companies for example Pepsi, Coca Cola, Nescafe and many more. Motivation is a ...topic that relates to all of us. It is very essential for employers to seek and recognize what motivates an employee. Many people underestimate the benefits and importance of human resource management in their businesses or day-to-day life. When we talk about human resource management, we are talking about human capital. Human capital emphasises the ability, skills, and the personality of the person you are trying to recruit or employ. In this study, we wish to analyse the importance of how motivation stands out in employees in different types of offices/workforces. The different aspects in multinational corporations show different characteristics.
Strategic agility is a fuzzy concept that may be counter intuitive as well as confounding to some scholars in terms of the agile strategies' contextual issues. At the same time, the need to be agile ...is crucial for firms, especially for Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) that operate in culturally different host countries. Thus, a deep understanding of strategic agility is very intriguing for both academics and executives, as several gaps are apparent in the extant literature. In this paper, we review mainstream studies on agility in the international business context, discussing its relevance and proposing main aspects of strategic agility to clarify further this indistinct concept. Moreover, we provide a novel conceptual framework based on the integration of agility in different operational areas (e.g. Information Technology, supply chain and production) that organizations should foster to become an “agile multinational”. Our synthesis represents an innovative strategic direction for MNEs to understand better strategic agility, which clearly extends the concept of flexibility, while managing stakeholder relationships in order to develop key dynamic capabilities. Finally, we also discuss the main contributions of the other articles included in this special issue, thus providing specific examples of agility in well debated IB contexts (e.g., emerging markets). We also suggest some future research areas for this complex and ambiguous concept.
•This paper investigates the relationship between knowledge-oriented leadership and open innovation using the mediating role of knowledge management capability.•This research develops and tests this ...relationships using structural equation modeling.•Data for the study were collected from 172 Multinational companies based in France.•Knowledge-oriented leadership can have a direct, positive impact on knowledge management capability and open innovation.•Knowledge management capability mediates the linkage between knowledge-oriented leadership and open innovation.
This paper discusses the links between knowledge-oriented leadership, open innovation and knowledge management in the international business context. Open innovation has become crucial for an increasing number of multinational enterprises (MNEs) to gain and maintain competitive advantage and become a market leader. Despite the recent proliferation of papers dealing with open innovation practices of MNEs, there is limited work investigating the role of knowledge management (KM) capability on the relationship between knowledge-oriented leadership and open innovation. Given MNEs’ growing interest in open innovation, the lack of research on knowledge-oriented leadership and KM capability in the open innovation context is a significant research gap in our knowledge. In response, we conducted a study on the mediating role of KM capability in the linkage between knowledge-oriented leadership and open innovation (inbound and outbound), using data collected from 172 subsidiaries of MNEs based in France. A structural equation modelling approach is employed to study the impact of the latent variables associated with knowledge-oriented leadership and KM capability on open innovation. The results indicate that higher levels of knowledge-oriented leadership can lead to enhanced KM capability and improved open innovation outcomes. That is, knowledge-oriented leadership has a direct, positive impact on KM capability and open innovation. Also, KM capability is found to mediate the linkage between knowledge-oriented leadership and open innovation. This study provides useful insights for managers who wish to enhance open innovation activities in MNEs, and offers useful guidance to international business scholars, encouraging further research in this area.
This paper presents the most comprehensive review and meta-analysis of the literature on cultural distance and firm internationalization to date. We analyze the effects of cultural distance on key ...strategic decisions throughout the entire process of internationalization. For the preinvestment stage, we examine the decisions on where to invest (location choice), how much to invest (degree of ownership), and how to organize the foreign expansion (entry and establishment mode). For the postinvestment stage, we examine the decisions of how to integrate the foreign subsidiary into the organization (transfer of practices) as well as the performance effects of cultural distance at both the subsidiary and the firm level. We find that firms are less likely to expand to culturally distant locations but if they do, they prefer greenfield investments and integrate subsidiaries more through transfer of management practices. Cultural distance does not seem to affect how much capital firms invest and whether they enter through a joint venture or full ownership. Interestingly, cultural distance has a strong negative effect on subsidiary performance but no effect on the performance of the whole multinational company. In addition, we find that the effects of cultural distance are not sensitive to time, but they are sensitive to the cultural framework used (e.g., Hofstede vs. Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness) and the home country of the company (developed vs. emerging market). Based on our study, we feel confident to offer some theoretical insights, recommendations for improving the validity and reliability of cultural-distance research, and ideas for future research.
This paper analyzes and presents Multinational Companies as a business Internationalization driving strategy with a focus on their implications for business values. The research methodology began ...with a literature review then there was a focus on data analysis and description. The research questions are “what are the characteristics of multinational companies for business internationalization?” And “what implications, reasons and goals are there?” Some of the results illustrated that multinational companies are very important for business internationalization since they are one of the main internationalization strategy but they may face some restrictions, losses or possible difficulties in negotiations abroad. Taxes and the unpredictable risks may make them an object to sudden losses. In conclusion, Internationalization has been so far a relevant step for companies and businesses to leave the difficulties of domestic narrow markets and similarities. Some business operations of multinational companies such as outsourcing, licensing, exports or FDIs should focus more on the contracting process and locations.
This study reviews the literature on multilatinas, Latin American multinationals, and provides suggestions for using these firms as a laboratory for extending exiting theories and models of the ...multinational. Analyses of their behavior tend to discuss their upgrading of capabilities and their patterns of internationalization. An additional opportunity exists to contribute to the literature by analyzing how some of the unique characteristics of Latin American countries affect the internationalization of firms. The review explains how four characteristics of their home countries (political uncertainty, violence, pro-market reforms and reversals, and geographic isolation) can result in the foreign expansion of firms, either because managerial learning of the home country conditions facilitates internationalization (the learning driver), or because the home country conditions induce internationalization to escape those conditions (the escape driver).
In recent years, a number of new guidelines and frameworks for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) have emerged, trying to support analysts in dealing with certain methodological issues and “gaps” of the ISO ...14040-44, that are still the main LCA reference standards. This trend can be considered as positive, because the lack of shared, standardised and more detailed rules regarding LCA has affected for years the consistency of LCA analyses and their potential comparisons. However, the proliferation of guidelines and frameworks can also have negative consequences, first of all related to the potential resulting confusion and the lack of a clear reference for LCA analysts. These potential risks are particularly accentuated for multinational companies, which deal with many clients, in different markets, countries and sectors, and have to conform their analyses to different requirements each time.
Focusing on the plastic packaging industry, this study compares six LCA guidelines and frameworks to highlight their similarities and differences. The documents selected to be analysed were: three documents applicable to products in general (ILCD, PAS 2050 and PEF), two packaging-specific guidelines (Pathfinder Framework and SPICE Methodological Guidelines) and a product specific standard for the packaging industry (PCR 2013:19). The methodological aspects analysed and compared, grouped according to the LCA stages, are: units of analysis; system boundaries; allocation methods; cut-off criteria; end-of-life; packaging; storage; biogenic CO2 emissions; carbon removals and carbon content; land use; offsets; impact categories and indicators; LCA methods and models; normalisation and weighting; data quality; sensitivity analysis. The aim is to understand to what extent potential differences may impact on companies and LCA analysts who conduct the assessments. Results highlight that the six guidelines and frameworks analysed are not always aligned and that, although some misalignments can be easily addressed, others could negatively affect the reliability of the analyses conducted.
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•In recent years, several guidelines and frameworks for LCA have emerged.•The proliferation of LCA guidelines and frameworks causes confusion for LCA analysts.•Six LCA guidelines and frameworks used by packaging companies have been compared.•Definition of system boundary, allocation and EoL are the most challenging aspects.
El objetivo del documento es determinar el efecto de las Empresas Multinacionales de Estados Unidos (EMN-EU) en la reducción de la pobreza en un grupo de 45 países de ingreso alto y medio-alto donde ...operan para el periodo 2009-2018. También se estiman los factores determinantes de la atracción de EMN-EU a esos países y se verifica si inciden en la pobreza. Se emplea una metodología econométrica de datos de panel dinámica (sys-GMM). Para el análisis se considera la muestra total y submuestras de países en función de su estatus comercial con EU. Se encuentra que las EMN-EU influyen positivamente en la reducción de la pobreza y que los determinantes significativos de su atracción son al mismo tiempo factores reductores de pobreza. En consecuencia, las EMN-EU pueden ser consideradas como un mecanismo central de la dinámica global de la pobreza.
We argue and explain how the study of emerging market multinational companies can help enrich our understanding of the internationalization process. Firms' internationalization process is a central ...and enduring theme in international business. However, most of the theoretical models are built on the analysis of advanced economy multinationals. Emerging market multinationals differ crucially in the role that the home country plays in their behavior, resulting in different patterns of internationalization. We propose that the discussion of the applicability of extant theory can be advanced by differentiating internationalization theories according to three different ontological perspectives: resource oriented, transaction oriented, and process oriented. We further suggest that the study of emerging market multinationals' internationalization processes reveals three contextual accelerators: government, catch-up, and global value chains. These accelerators help adapt internationalization process models to new contextual realities.