Dear friends and colleagues,
Here are some articles on internationalization and multinational enterprises that have recently been accepted/published in the British Journal of Management. They include an important new article on extending internalization theory by Peter Buckley and Mark Casson.
Please also note the BJM special virtual issue on emerging market research, which can be found here:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal/14678551/homepage/VirtualIssuesPage.html#frd
Kind regards,
J. George Frynas
Associate Editor (Communications)
British Journal of Management
Roberta Aguzzoli, Jorge Lengler, Carlos M. P. Sousa and Gabriel R. G. Benito
Globalization has motivated firms to expand into foreign markets, but internationalization is inherently dynamic. Many firms have exited foreign markets for various reasons, but some later decide to re‐enter those same markets. Based on a case study of a Brazilian multinational's activities in Mexico, this study contributes to the literature on re‐entry decisions of multinational enterprises and their outcomes, focusing on the roles of institutional voids and the experiences of decision‐makers during such processes. The findings suggest that companies learn from their mistakes and reconsider how they approach re‐entry and the resources that may need to be mobilized. However, the learning process is not straightforward as it is clouded by international knowledge myopia. This study highlights how multiple actors and considerations influence re‐entry events.
BJM early view, https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.12407
Emma Avetisyan, Yehuda Baruch, Pierre‐Xavier Meschi, Emmanuel Metais and Anne Norheim‐Hansen
Cross‐border acquisitions are growing in volume and global economic importance, yet a considerable number end in failure. Many of these failures may be linked to people management‐related issues. We extend this stream of research by investigating the impact of the acquirer's aggregate human resource management (HRM) quality on cross‐border acquisition divestment. Our empirical analysis uses a panel database of 4128 cross‐border acquisition/year observations and an event history design. The findings confirm a curvilinear relationship and suggest that acquisition failures are not merely associated with poor HRM quality, but also with very high levels of HRM quality, that is, with both extremes. Moreover, our results show that financial slack has a significant moderating effect on the curvilinear relationship between HRM quality and the likelihood of acquisition divestment. Overall, our study reveals boundary conditions for the widely demonstrated positive relationship between HRM quality and organizational performance in an acquisition context.
BJM early view, https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.12403
Peter J. Buckley and Mark Casson
This paper presents an agenda for extending the theory of international business in order to explain a wider range of phenomena. This, however, has to be done with due attention to the requirements of good social science theory. Relevant criteria are set out, together with a list of issues that new theory must address. Theory needs to focus on industries as well as firms, and make greater use of formal multi‐actor models. 'Generalizing from the particular' should be avoided; theory needs to be derived from general social science principles that have proved successful in cognate disciplines.
BJM, Volume 31, Issue 2, April 2020
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Jedrzej George Frynas
Full Professor
The Open University
United Kingdom
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