Firm integration is fundamentally shaped by contractual frictions. But do better contracting institutions, reducing these frictions, induce firms to be more or less deeply integrated? To address this question, this paper exploits unique micro data on ownership shares across more than 200,000...

Purpose—Amidst burgeoning attention for global value chains (GVCs) in international business (IB), this paper identifies a clear “missing link” in this literature, and discusses implications for research and corporate social responsibility (CSR) policy-making and...

This paper examines the relationship between foreign and domestic investment activity of multinational enterprises. The empirical analysis is based on micro data of German firms and their operations at home and abroad, including information on investment in fixed assets. The empirical approach,...

Over the last century, the passenger airline industry has undergone a series of transformations, with Lufthansa being a key player not only in Europe, but also worldwide. This case study traces Lufthansa's development, from its origins up until its current status, and outlines its expansion by...

In recent years, demutualized stock exchanges have been increasingly engaging in M&A and alliance activities. To examine the effect of these growth strategies on exchange shareholders' value creation, we focus on 14 public stock exchanges and investigate their short-run share price responses to...

In this paper we analyze the conditions under which a foreign direct investment (FDI) involves a net capital flow across countries. Frequently, foreign direct investment is financed in the host country without an international capital movement. We develop a model in which the optimal choice of...

In this paper, the author presents the impact of new players and factors in international business activities, which have a direct influence on international economic structure. One of the most important determinants over the last decades has been foreign direct investment, which has encouraged...

Global value chains have fundamentally transformed international trade and development in recent decades. We use matched firm-level customs and manufacturing survey data, together with Input-Output tables for China, to examine how Chinese firms position themselves in global production lines and...

The paper complements entry mode research by dealing with the choice of alternative modes of governance in the specific case of foreign R&D and its impact on a parent firm's performance. Firstly, we identify the factors that determine whether a firm locates abroad any R&D activities, and, if it...

Prior literature is ambivalent about whether organizational complexity has positive or negative effects on firm performance. Using rich data on global service providers, we explore this ambivalence by disentangling performance consequences of different types of organizational complexity. We show...