Open Access
Liability of political embeddedness in Chinese multinationals: implications for headquarters' roles and reverse knowledge transfer
(Elsevier, 2023) Su, Cong; Holm, Ulf; Martín Martín, Óscar; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
It is well known that Chinese multinationals' international expansion is often supported by the home-country government. This study argues that the political embeddedness of Chinese multinationals' headquarters may impair their managerial intentions and abilities to carry out their entrepreneurial and administrative roles and, indirectly, their capacity to achieve reverse knowledge transfers from their foreign subsidiaries. Based on a study of 177 subsidiaries of 99 Chinese multinationals, we find no support for the argument that political embeddedness affects headquarters' centralization of subsidiary decisions, although such centralization is negatively associated with reverse knowledge transfer. Additionally, our findings show that home-country political embeddedness is negatively associated with headquarters' entrepreneurial role vis-à-vis individual subsidiaries. This hampers subsidiaries' reverse knowledge transfers. The results contribute to understanding the value of political embeddedness and headquarters' roles in the context of Chinese multinationals. They also provide insights into the strategic asset-seeking internationalization of Chinese multinationals. By developing and operationalizing the multidimensional concept of political embeddedness, this study further contributes to the research on firm-government relations.
Open Access
Impossible is nothing: entrepreneurship in Cuba and small firms' business performance
(Taylor and Francis Group, 2024) Cerviño, Julio; Chetty, Sylvie; Martín Martín, Óscar; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
While entrepreneurs play a crucial role in shaping the business environment in transitional economies, there is a lack of studies that involve such contexts. Cuba represents an idiosyncratic collectivist economy that is gradually transforming into a socialist market economy, and there is a dearth of literature on entrepreneurship in Cuba. Understanding business performance drivers and challenges faced by small firms in this context may have important theoretical and practical implications. We explore the determinants of small firms’ business performance in Cuba. We combine a capabilities and institutional perspective on entrepreneurship to explain small firms’ business performance in this turbulent transitional market. Specifically, we suggest that managerial capabilities, supply-chain problems, and institutional factors explain small firms’ business performance. We contribute to both the small firm and entrepreneurship literature by contextualizing capabilities and institutional perspectives to identify the critical role played by managerial capabilities and supply-chain problems in economies where supply is constrained.
Open Access
Causal foreign market selection and effectual entry decision-making: the mediating role of collaboration to enhance international performance
(Elsevier, 2024) Chetty, Sylvie; Martín Martín, Óscar; Bai, Wensong; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
Foreign market selection and entry are important decisions for internationalizing small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) because they involve uncertainty, and influence performance. While it is inherent in effectual foreign market entry (FME) decision-making to rely on international partners and relationships to develop international markets, causal foreign market selection and business relationships/networks have frequently been presented as alternative ways to expand abroad. We conceive SMEs’ foreign market selection and entry as international business decisions and build on causal and effectual logic, and business network theory, to propose a model explaining SMEs’ international performance. We contribute to international business and SME literature by uncovering two different paths (causal and effectual) to FME collaboration and international performance. FME collaboration mediates the relation between causal foreign market selection and effectual entry decision-making and international performance. Our theoretical explanation for the mediating mechanism through which international performance can be enhanced is the network approach.
Open Access
International market, network, and opportunity selection: a systematic review of empirical research, integrative framework, and comprehensive research agenda
(Elsevier, 2024-06-29) Francioni, Barbara; Martín Martín, Óscar; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE
International Market Selection (IMS) is a strategic and complex decision by which firms choose the markets in which to be present. Despite the undisputed academic and managerial relevance of IMS, extant reviews do not include the most recent empirical literature, do not consider different perspectives linked to alternative units of analysis and research domains, and ignore important changes in the international business environment. This research aims to carry out a holistic and systematic assessment of recent IMS empirical research, propose an IMS framework, and provide directions for future research. We contribute to the international business and management literature by updating and upgrading our understanding of IMS, by expanding the IMS conceptualization, proposing an integrative conceptual framework, and developing research propositions, and by suggesting a comprehensive, updated, and radically original research agenda.
Open Access
Value creation in mobile social media: a systematic review and agenda for future research
(Emerald, 2021) Ju, Xingting; Chocarro Eguaras, Raquel; Martín Martín, Óscar; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE; Gestión de Empresas; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa
Purpose: the purpose of this study is to provide a systematic review of the current state of research regarding mobile social media use for value creation by firms and customers and an agenda for future research. Design/methodology/approach: the authors conducted a systematic review following three main steps: keyword search, study selection and data extraction. A total of 53 articles were identified using academic databases and manual cross-referencing. By means of a thematic analysis method, the study addresses issues related to theory, methods, context, findings and gaps. Findings: the study reviews and illustrates 14 value aspects of the mobile social media and value creation literature. The findings indicate that mobile social media are effective tools for firms to create and capture value from customers and for customers to co-create value. Originality/value: the study contributes to the marketing and social media literature by proposing a conceptual framework that integrates the core components of value creation by firms and customers in the mobile social media context and by proposing an agenda for future research.
Open Access
Speed of internationalization: conceptualization, measurement and validation
(Elsevier, 2014) Chetty, Sylvie; Johanson, Martin; Martín Martín, Óscar; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa
To better manage and understand the speed at which firms internationalize, managers and scholars need an appropriate conceptualization and a reliable and valid measure of speed of internationalization. The literature, however, adopts a limited temporal perspective and usually conceptualizes and measures it as the time it takes the firm to start to internationalize. This unidimensional view neglects the central aspects of internationalization that create speed. Our purpose is, therefore, to propose a new, theory-driven – embedded in the main concepts of the original Uppsala model – and multidimensional conceptualization and operationalization. The main contribution is that we develop this conceptualization and measure.
Open Access
Dual embeddedness, influence and performance of innovating subsidiaries in the multinational corporation
(Elsevier, 2014) Ciabuschi, Francesco; Holm, Ulf; Martín Martín, Óscar; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa
This study adopts a business network view to study the effects of subsidiary embeddedness on both subsidiary influence within the MNC and innovation-related business performance. Through Structural Equation Modeling we analyze subsidiary relationships connected to 85 innovation projects. The results show that external and corporate embeddedness are complementary contexts, although they affect subsidiary influence and performance differently. Whereas external embeddedness directly affects innovation-related business performance, corporate embeddedness strengthens the subsidiary’s influence within the MNC, which in turn positively relates to performance. Moreover, as the study also finds that external and corporate embeddedness are positively associated, it stresses the issue of simultaneously balancing both external and corporate relationships (i.e. dual embeddedness) to nurture innovation projects.
Open Access
Country distance (COD): development and validation of a new objective measure
(Wiley, 2014) Martín Martín, Óscar; Drogendijk, Rian; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa
We propose a multidimensional and objective measure, Country Distance (COD), as a comprehensive measure of distance between countries. Although the literature has called for a measure like this, in particular to support international decision-making by SMEs, the research carried out so far has relied on measures of limited focus. We use Partial Least Squares (PLS) to develop the COD index and investigate the relative importance of its three dimensions: socio-economic development, physical, and cultural and historical distance. We externally validate the measure in an analysis of the international market selection decisions of a sample of SMEs and country-level export flows.
Open Access
Determinants of mobile social media use, customer heterogeneity, and international microsegmentation
(Wiley, 2021) Ju, Xingting; Martín Martín, Óscar; Chocarro Eguaras, Raquel; Enpresen Kudeaketa; Institute for Advanced Research in Business and Economics - INARBE; Gestión de Empresas; Universidad Pública de Navarra / Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa
How to effectively examine the heterogeneous nature of consumer preferences across borders and cultures is a challenge for firms that use mobile social media. This study identifies the determinants of individuals’ mobile social media use behavior and profiles the resulting international microsegments. We propose a model that integrates different theoretical perspectives and sets of factors to explain mobile social media use behavior and test it on a sample of users in China and the United States via online surveys. We estimate a global model (GM) based on all respondents and three local models created by post hoc international microsegmentation. The three local models reveal the existence of three unobserved user segments: 'usage goal experts', 'determined pragmatists', and 'pressured hedonists'. Perceived usefulness is the most influential factor in the GM, while users in the three segments significantly differ in their behavioral patterns, cultural value orientations, and demographic characteristics. This study is the first to examine unobserved heterogeneity and international microsegmentation in the mobile social media domain. It provides insights into the factors explaining use behavior and international microsegmentation for scholars and marketers operating in the global marketplace.
Open Access
Relevant dimensions and contextual weights of distance in international business decisions: evidence from Spanish and Chinese outward FDI
(Elsevier, 2015) Drogendijk, Rian; Martín Martín, Óscar; Gestión de Empresas; Enpresen Kudeaketa
We investigate how distance and different dimensions of distance between countries explain the outward FDI of firms according to distinct home country contexts. We identify three important dimensions of country distance: socio-economic development distance, cultural and historical distance and physical distance. We then empirically explore whether these dimensions receive different weights when explaining the location of FDI depending on its origin by comparing the outward FDI of China and Spain using partial least squares-based structural equations modelling (SEM-PLS). We find that although country distance significantly explains the FDI of both countries, the weights of the three dimensions of distance depend on the home country context. More specifically, we find that all three dimensions of distance explain the direction of Spanish investments, whereas only cultural and historical distance significantly explains Chinese outward FDI. Our research advances the understanding of distance between countries, the dimensions of distance, and how context influences the impact of the dimensions of distance.