Journal of International Business Studies

Using panel data analysis, this paper investigates the impact of returnee entrepreneurs, foreign direct investment (FDI) intensity and inter-firm employee mobility on innovation in Chinese high-tech firms. International technology spillovers and internal R&D efforts are found to jointly determine the innovation performance of Chinese high-tech firms, and we report that the presence of returnee entrepreneurs positively affects innovation. In addition, there are significant knowledge spillover effects associated with returnees and multinational enterprise (MNE) employee mobility, and the effects of these two components of international human mobility on local firms' innovation are mutually reinforcing. We also present the distinctive result that FDI intensity in an industry has a negative impact on local innovation. The findings have important implications for practitioners and policymakers.

Madhok's 1995 article defined and developed a trust-based perspective on the stability of international joint ventures (IJVs). Proposing a shift in focus from ownership to relationship, and from governance form to process, the article emphasised the role of trust in holding IJVs together and the importance of considering the dynamics of inter-organisational collaboration. By distinguishing between structural and social components of trust, it contributed to a more nuanced understanding of what makes inter-firm partnership durable and able to realise its value potential. This paper reviews Madhok's original ideas and highlights the influence they have had on the field of international business. It concludes with avenues for further research inspired by the article.

The main objective of this paper is to develop a leading indicator of external debt servicing vulnerability that would serve as an advance signal of payments interruption. The traditional and widely used ratios of debt servicing capacity, such as the ratio of the balance on current account of debt service payment, and the ratio of external debt to exports among others, primarily measure a country’s current capacity to handle its international obligations. However, they fail to test the vulnerability to debtor countries to oncoming debt servicing problems, or to signal in advance an imminent situation of payments interruption. The proposed index combines a number of variables which have preceded payments interruption by a number of countries in recent years. These situations have been preceded with a varying time lead by all or most of the following developments: The complied index is a weighted average of sub-indices or ratios which measure recent changes in the variables listed above. The index was applied to 20 developing countries (LDCs) accounting for about 80 percent of total external debt. Depending on their score, these countries were grouped in five categories ranging from those signaling significant improvement in their debt servicing capacity to those signaling an imminent payments interruption.

Research on multinational corporations (MNCs) has neglected routines despite their importance for the process of coordination, and their prominence in organization theory. This paper focuses on three aspects of routinization in MNCs. First, the transmission of routines across cultural boundaries in considered. Second, the focus moves to routine interactions between performance teams in MNCs. Third, I discuss how such routines contribute to the structuring of complex international systems. The conclusion suggests that the MNC may have to recognize that every replica of an existing facility is also an experimental test of taken-for-granted practices.

The paper examines the effect of international experience on service firms' selection of foreign markets and entry modes. The investigation utilizes survey date from 151 United States-based service firms. Results on market selection suggest that, as their experience increases and becomes geographically more diversified, service firms tend to choose markets that are culturally less similar to their home country. On entry mode choice, the paper departs from traditional linear conceptualizations and hypothesizes a U-shaped relationship between experience and propensity for integrated entry modes. Results generally support the hypothesis. The paper explains these findings and describes how service firms resemble and differ from manufacturing firms in their foreign market entry behavior.

Foreign direct investments in the United States have become a highly controversial topic, particularly in the past year. This article presents some preliminary findings of the most recent, major research investigation of foreign direct investments in U.S. manufacturing, mining and petroleum sectors, and points out some problems encountered in conducting research in this area.