AIB 2012 Conference Proceedings - Academy of International ...

MONDAY
Session: 2.1.14 - Interactive
Track: 4 - Strategy, Alliances, and Competitiveness
Perspectives in Global Strategy
Presented On: July 2, 2012 - 09:00-10:15
Chair: Simon C. Collinson, Reading University
Business Strategies of Foreign Subsidiaries: Performance Effects and Customer Access Moderations
Anders Pehrsson, Linnaeus University
The market context of the foreign subsidiary is essential in determining an appropriate headquarter-subsidiary
relationship in global strategy making. The study aims to extend the understanding of linkages between
business strategy and performance of foreign subsidiaries by focusing on customer access moderations.
Hypotheses were tested on 263 subsidiaries in Europe and the USA. The subsidiaries belong to Swedish
manufacturing firms. The study found that the customer scope of the subsidiary positively triggers its
performance if it encounters many obstacles to accessing customers. The study also found that a subsidiary
emphasis on differentiation of products from those of competitors negatively triggers performance regardless of
the number of obstacles, while customer responsiveness differentiation has positive effects where there are few
obstacles. Contributions to global strategy literature are discussed. (For more information, please contact:
Anders Pehrsson, Linnaeus University, Sweden: anders.pehrsson@lnu.se)
Antecedents of Multinational Enterprise Performance: A Literature Review
Lars Matysiak, Justus Liebig University Giessen
Andreas Bausch, Justus Liebig University Giessen
MNEs overarching goal is to maximize performance in the long run. Hence, research that focuses on explaining
antecedents of MNE performance is particularly relevant to practitioners. Previous research in the fields of
strategic management and international business suggest that key antecedents of MNE performance should be
found on the firm level, industry level, and country level. In this regard, our review of literature published in
three top business and management journals of high relevance for the field of international business reveals
three worrying facts. First of all, the majority of research on antecedents of MNE performance utilizes an
omnium-gatherum of theoretical arguments instead of a consistent and carefully developed theoretical
framework. Secondly, researchers utilize a wide variety of different performance measures without specifically
addressing this issue. Thirdly, the vast majority of studies focus on some measure of multinationality as an
explicatory variable. According to the dominating theory of the MNE, internalization theory, multinationality is
not related to MNE performance per se. Based on the three insights from our literature review, we suggest that
future research must abandon multinationality and concentrate on firm-specific and country-specific advantages
as well as industries in order to improve our understanding of antecedents of MNE performance. (For more
information, please contact: Lars Matysiak, Justus Liebig University Giessen, Germany: research@matysiak.com)
Geographical Choice and Firm Strategy: Insights from the Oil and Gas Industry
Simon C. Collinson, Reading University
Colin Dale, Reading University
Rugman and Verbeke (2004) suggest most firms favour local or regional rather than global internationalisation
strategies. In contrast, our analysis of intra-firm data from the oil and gas firms, segmented by both line of
business and geography, finds these strategies are increasingly global. Longitudinal analysis on ten years of
data, using a new methodological approach supports this less normative strategic perspective. We identify ‘new'
AIB 2012 Conference Proceedings
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