Contractual frictions are widely known to shape firm boundaries. But do better contracting institutions, which reduce these frictions, induce firms to be more or less deeply integrated? This paper provides a large-scale investigation of this question using a unique micro dataset of ownership...

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...

Western multinational corporations (MNCs) increasingly locate advanced functions, including product development and engineering, in emerging economies to gain access to lower-cost science and engineering (S&E) talent and specialized service providers. Over time, new S&E clusters have developed...

This paper explores local and global dynamics underlying the development of knowledge services clusters, which we define as new geographic concentrations of technical talent and service providers offering upstream technical and knowledge-intensive business services to regional and global...

This paper investigates hidden costs of offshoring, i.e. unexpected and often hard to measure costs resulting from the relocation of business tasks and activities outside the home country. Particularly, the paper shows that hidden costs can be explained by the degree of offshoring complexity....

The aim of this work is to give a perspective about the utility of the strategic alliances from the view of three theories: The resource-based theory, the industry-based theory and the institutional-based theory. The raised hypotheses were that the strategic alliances are useful to enter to the...

Intra-firm trade is an important component of United States' international trade with the rest of the world. The stylized facts about U.S. intra-firm trade reveal some interesting patterns. Intra-firm trade is increasing with newly developed countries particularly in Asia and Eastern Europe....

Recent research suggests that unequal access to home country institutional resources affects firm internationalization strategies. We add to this debate, based on an analysis of state-owned (SOEs) and non-state-owned (NSOEs) Chinese mining firms, by developing a more dynamic and multi-layered...

This paper explores knowledge services clusters (KSCs) as a distinct and increasingly important form of geographic cluster, in particular in emerging economies: KSCs are defined as geographic concentrations of lower-cost skills serving global demand for increasingly commoditized knowledge...