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Greenfield Investment versus Akquisition

Der moderierende Einfluss wahrgenommener institutioneller Unsicherheit bei der Internationalisierung von KMU

Greenfield versus acquisition

The moderating influence of perceived institutional uncertainty in the internationalization of SMEs

  • ZfB-Special Issue 3/2012
  • Published:
Zeitschrift für Betriebswirtschaft Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Zusammenfassung

Basierend auf dem Neo-Institutionalismus, untersucht die vorliegende Studie die moderierende Wirkung der wahrgenommenen institutionellen Unsicherheit im Zielland bei der Markteintrittsentscheidung (Greenfield Investment versus Akquisition) deutscher kleiner und mittlerer Unternehmen (KMU). Die empirischen Ergebnisse verdeutlichen, dass der Grad der wahrgenommenen institutionellen Unsicherheit im Zielland die Beziehungen zwischen dem Investitionsvolumen, dem Marktwachstum und der Entscheidung für den Aufbau eines Greenfield Investments (versus Akquisition) beim ausländischen Markteintritt von KMU moderiert. Durch die Fokussierung auf die wahrgenommene institutionelle Unsicherheit trägt die Studie dem Umstand Rechnung, dass Manager aufgrund der limitierten Ressourcenausstattung des KMUs ihre strategischen Entscheidungen häufig nicht auf Basis umfangreicher Analysen treffen können und nicht selten intuitiv agieren müssen. Der zentrale Beitrag der Studie liegt somit an der Schnittstelle wichtiger Einflussfaktoren für den ausländischen Markteintritt von KMU und der wahrgenommenen institutionellen Unsicherheit durch das KMU-Management. Dieser Fokus macht es möglich, vorherrschende heterogene Ergebnisbefunde zu reduzieren und die bislang vernachlässigte Unternehmenspopulation der KMU stärker in den Fokus der Betrachtung zu rücken.

Abstract

Based on neo-institutionalism, the present paper examines the moderating impact of perceived institutional uncertainty on the foreign establishment mode choice (i.e. the decision between greenfield versus acquisition) of German SMEs. The empirical findings demonstrate that the extent of perceived institutional uncertainty moderates the relationship between the investment volume, market growth and the decision between greenfield and acquisition. Focusing on the perceived institutional uncertainty, the paper adheres to the fact that due to limited resources of SMEs, SME managers often cannot make their managerial decisions based on profound knowledge from prior market analysis, but they have to follow their own intuition and perception. The key contribution of this paper is hence on the link between frequently studied establishment mode choice predictors and perceived institutional uncertainty of SME managers. This focus contributes to resolving some of the inconsistencies in previous research and to emphasize SMEs which have been largely neglected in prior literature.

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Author notes

  1. Julia Eiche

    Present address: Professur für Betriebswirtschaftslehre und Projektmanagement, Hochschule München, Dachauerstr. 98b, 80335, München, Deutschland

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lehrstuhl für Management, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Universitätsstraße 1, 40225, Düsseldorf, Deutschland

    Christian Schwens

  2. Lehrstuhl für Personalmanagement, Mittelstand und Entrepreneurship, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen, Licher Str. 62, 35394, Gießen, Deutschland

    Rüdiger Kabst

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  1. Julia Eiche
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  2. Christian Schwens
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  3. Rüdiger Kabst
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Correspondence to Julia Eiche.

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Eiche, J., Schwens, C. & Kabst, R. Greenfield Investment versus Akquisition. Z Betriebswirtsch 82 (Suppl 3), 143–165 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11573-012-0564-1

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