Abstract: As more and more products work in conjunction to form networked systems, compatibility standards play a bigger role in strategy. Research has been organized around three main questions. Why some firms choose to introduce compatible products with its competitors? When should the firms introduce the standard? How should the firm establish the standard, through the market or through standardization committees? In course of reviewing the literature, we identify the gaps and indicate some future empirical and theoretical work to be explored. The empirical part of this paper draws on a case study of the so-called International Postal System (IPS) standard. IPS is a standard which was developed in 1995 by the Postal Technology Center of the Universal Postal Union. The case analysis will solely focus on why firms choose to collaborate to set a standard through committees, and how they strategize to reach a consensus.

Abstract: How does animosity between nations affect managerial decisions in selecting potential partners to form strategic alliances and/or choose targets for M&As? We constructed a large sample panel data of all countries and their verifiable conflicts between 1816-2001, and matched it with SDC alliance, as well as the M&A dataset for the entire population between 1988-2003. We find that managers are inclined to select partners from favorable nations, and managers from enemy nations declined to cooperate with potential partners regardless of the potential rewards given that conflict in partners’ histories existed. Our findings conflict with the traditional internationalization theories and models of selection and retention of alliance partners, and heuristics describing the optimal target identification in the international M&A literature.

Abstract: The recent shift toward internationally integrated strategies and complex systems of distributed innovation within MNEs entails the evolution of (a sub-set of) their subsidiaries from a competence-exploiting role, where they simply adapt competencies from the parent company to the local context, to a more explorative and competence-creating role. Previous literature suggests that whether a subsidiary achieves a competence-creating role depends on the qualities of location, and on the ability of the subsidiary to become embedded in the local business networks. Relying on the framework of the open innovation paradigm, we argue that the MNE corporate trend toward greater openness co-evolve with both the local business networks, in which sub-units of MNEs are involved, and the locations towards greater international openess/connectedness.

Abstract: Much research to date on international expansion has focused on the methods through which firms expand, and the relative difficulties of international expansion. Far less attention has been paid to why some industries seem more amenable to globalisation than others, and why some firms fail to ‘export’ the competitive advantage they enjoy at home. This paper looks beyond these ‘company’ and ‘country’ perspectives to focus on industry architectures, or the comparative structures of value chains in different countries. Value chains and industries evolve independently through path-dependent processes, hence the modularity or integration of the value chain and the nature of supplier and partner relationships can vary widely between countries. We summarise this logic in a set of hypotheses which we will be subsequently testing.