Understanding Japanese International Business: A Literature Review

Abstract

This chapter provides an overview of the development of international business (IB) research on Japanese companies through a literature review. The review focuses on papers published in major academic journals that have utilized the analysis results from Toyo Keizai Inc.’s Kaigai Shinshutsu Kigyo Soran, commonly referred to as the “Overseas Japanese Companies Data” or TK data. The papers are categorized based on their research focus, resulting in nine identified categories, covering topics such as foreign direct investment (FDI) patterns, performance, survival, subsidiary structure, staffing strategy, location choice, internationalization, FDI impact on domestic welfare, and methodology. The chapter also discusses future research directions and key areas of investigation in IB.

Appendix

	Objective variable		Paper	Research objectives/research question	Summary of the results
1	FDI characteristics and performance by region	Developed versus. developing countries	Makino et al. (2004)	To examine the characteristics and performance of Japanese FDI in less developed countries (LDCs) and developed countries (DCs)	There are stark differences in the characteristics and performance of Japanese FDI (JFDI) between less developed countries (LDCs) and developed countries (DCs). JFDI in LDCs has been growing more rapidly over the period, and it is concentrated in the Secondary industrial sector, with a lower level of control within a subsidiary, and has been initiated by parent firms with market-seeking and labor-seeking purposes and with relatively weak ownership advantages. In contrast, JFDI in DCs has maintained relatively stable growth over the period, is concentrated in the Tertiary industrial sector, with a higher level of control within a subsidiary, and has been initiated by parent firms with market-seeking and strategic-seeking purposes and with relatively strong ownership advantages. JFDI in LDCs tended to attain a higher financial performance and a lower exit rate, yet with a greater variance, than those in DCs
2		Africa	Chrysostome and Lupton (2011)	To examine the characteristics and performance of Japanese FDI in Africa	Efficiency and market seeking is the common purposes for Japanese firms in Africa. The Japanese subsidiaries are young and small in lower middle-income region, young and large in upper middle-income region, and old in low-income region; their performance is good with a very high exit rate in low-income region, high with high exit rate in low middle-income region and moderate with a low exit rate in upper middle-income region
3			Getachew and Beamish (2017)	To examine whether the purpose diversity of subsidiaries operating in Africa influences their exit likelihood	Subsidiaries entering the African market have a greater exit likelihood than those entering the OECD market. However, those subsidiaries entering the African market with diverse investment purposes or greater market-seeking orientation are less likely to exit
4		Latin America	Neupert and Montoya (2000)	To analyze the characteristics of Japanese foreign investment in Latin America, such as the countries and industries most attractive to Japanese MNEs, the preferred modes of entry, and the post-entry performance of these subsidiaries	In Latin America, most Japanese FDI has occurred in Brazil and Mexico; joint ventures are the most common mode of entry; and performance varies by country and mode
5		China	Beamish and Jiang (2002)	To investigate the challenges of achieving profitable investments in China and identify factors that may have influenced the profit performance of foreign subsidiaries in the country	There are significant benefits for early entrants into the market in China, but caution against the use of high majority ownership control. Larger subsidiaries tend to perform better
6			Delios et al. (2009)	To examine (1) the subsidiary development and multinational firm strategy implications of the developments in China; (2) the corresponding implications for our understanding of institutions and international business; and (3) the related developments for offshoring, outsourcing, and international business theory	The nature of Japanese firms’ international activity in China underwent substantive change between 1995–2006. Japanese companies now compete in many more regions in China and have shifted their investment strategies in various provinces and municipalities to reflect new competitive realities
7		Asia	Anand and Delios (1996)	Examination of MNE activity to the Asian context and argue that the nature and host country benefits of Japanese FDI are dependent upon the subsidiary strategy employed and the motive of the Japanese MNE’s investment; that is, whether FDI is incited by location-specific productive resources or by the desire to access local markets	FDI motivated by country-specific resources, like low-cost labor, promotes greater integration of the subsidiary in the MNE’s global network and is favorably inclined to the employment of newer technology, and the use of more expatriate managers to assist with the transfer of technology, management skills, and organizational knowledge. On the other hand, Investment motivated by market expansion (i.e., market access factors) is characterized by independent subsidiaries operating with few expatriate managers in capital-intensive, automated industries. Japanese firms exhibit greater equity participation in subsidiaries established to access country-specific resources, while lower equity participation and a more intensive utilization of shared ownership modes are characteristics of investments motivated by market access factors
8		Europe	Nitsch et al. (1995)	To provide a description of foreign investment patterns in Europe based on a relatively large sample from a single home country, and to demonstrate that the choice of host country can have a significant impact on subsidiary performance	Japanese investment in Europe grew significantly in the late 1980s, but is heavily concentrated in a few industries. Entry mode preferences have also shifted away from greenfield start-ups to more use of joint ventures
9		Canada	Delios and Ensign (2000)	To explore the business-level effects of subsidiary exit and the industry level and regional effects on subsidiary survival in Canada	Exit rates are related to subsidiary-level variables such as business size, expatriate employment levels, equity-ownership levels, and entry mode in Canada. The sector and region in which the investments are made are also related to subsidiary survival, with manufacturing-sector subsidiaries located in Ontario being the least likely to exit. Region and industry interact, both to draw investment to a region and to influence the likelihood of survival of foreign-owned businesses. Furthermore, the focus on regional issues for Canada shows that even within a small open economy, subnational (inter-provincial) variance can have important effects on the characteristics and performance of foreign direct investment
10			Goerzen and Beamish (2005a)	To update and enhance our knowledge of Japanese foreign direct investment in Canada based on an extensive longitudinal dataset that describes certain important characteristics of Japanese parent firms that have invested in Canada and provides information on the essential characteristics of their Canadian subsidiaries, including the changing investment motives that underpinned the establishment of these ventures	The Japanese firms that invest in Canada tend to be highly successful, diverse, sophisticated organizations. These parent firms emanate from a variety of industries and they invest in a great number of sectors of the Canadian economy. Further, the data indicate that manufacturing is increasingly becoming the target of Japanese investment in Canada. The investment motives of Japanese firms in Canada are many and nuanced. Not only do these motives vary by industry but also they have evolved over time
11		Others	Demirbag et al. (2011)	To identify the factors affecting the survival of foreign subsidiaries in the context of Japanese foreign equity ventures in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)	Economic distance and economic freedom distance exhibit significant positive and negative relationships respectively with the survival of Japanese FDI in the Middle East and North Africa region, and moderate positive relationship between subsidiary density and subsidiary survival
12			Apaydin (2009)	To examine the characteristics of Japanese Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Turkey in comparison to its immediate neighbors, Central and South-Eastern Europe (CSEE), and the Middle East	Japanese investors prefer to invest in the economies of Central and South-Eastern Europe (CSEE) due to their cultural proximity to Japan and lower levels of risk compared to Turkey and the Middle East
13	FDI performance	Business diversification and performance	Wade and Gravill (2003)	To examine the relationship between corporate diversification and the performance of Japanese subsidiaries in the information technology (IT) industry	Related subsidiaries outperform unrelated subsidiaries on performance, survival, and employee productivity growth. Related diversification in knowledge-based industries plays a more important factor in firm success than in primary or secondary industries
14			Delios et al. (2008b)	To examine (1) subsidiary performance consequences of a multinational firm’s within-country product diversification strategy, when matched to the institutional environment of the host country: and (2) the subsidiary performance consequences of this diversification strategy, when matched to a multinational firm’s corporate level product diversification strategy	The level of a multinational firm’s product diversity in the host country of a subsidiary is related to the subsidiary’s survival rate and growth rate. Higher levels of within-country product diversity lead to higher subsidiary performance where the institutional strength of the local market is weak, and where a firm’s corporate product diversity level is high
15			David et al. (2010)	To investigate how differences between transactional owners and relational owners shaped the performance consequences of diversification both for shareholders and for stakeholders. To develop the theory to explain why different types of owners may accrue different types of benefits from diversification, and hence may encourage managers to pursue diversification for divergent reasons	The relationship between corporate diversification and profit is stronger with transactional than with relational ownership. Conversely, the relationship between corporate diversification and growth is stronger with relational than with transactional ownership. Relational ownership facilitates greater value capture by stakeholders from diversification than does transactional ownership
16			Colpan et al. (2013)	To explore the specific question on how a firm’s levels of export commitment and product diversity jointly influence the impact of geographical diversification in manufacturing production (international operational scope) on the financial performance of a firm	The performance impact of international operational scope changes, depending upon the extent of a firm’s export commitment and product diversity. Exporting and product diversity, separately and jointly, moderate the relationship between international operational scope and performance
17			O’Brien et al. (2014)	To examine the role of debt in shaping the performance consequences of diversification strategies	Debt has a negative impact on changes in diversification. Changes in diversification has a positive effect on performance, whereas leverage has a significant negative effect on performance. Interaction between changes in diversification and leverage significantly more strongly negative than the interaction between diversification and leverage
18			Fang et al. (2013)	To examine the relationships between multiple knowledge resources (technological and marketing knowledge), the relatedness between parents and foreign subsidiaries, and subsidiary performance	Subsidiary performance is strongly associated with the interaction effect of parent technological and marketing knowledge. Relatedness amplifies subsidiary performance outcomes. Different forms of relatedness can interact to produce synergistic benefits to the subsidiary
19			Tang and Rowe (2012)	To critically examine the widely accepted view that business relatedness, defined as the extent to which a foreign subsidiary is related to its parent’s core business, has a positive effect on subsidiary performance	Modestly related subsidiaries, on average, outperform both unrelated and closely related subsidiaries, and that closely related subsidiaries perform poorly, especially when the parent has a heavy majority ownership in the subsidiary and the subsidiary is at its early stage of operating in the host market
20			Dutta and Beamish (2013)	To examine the role expatriates play as a critical managerial resource within the multinational’s international joint-venture (IJV) and to what extent industry relatedness between the multinational and the IJV affects the relationship between expatriate deployment and IJV performance	Expatriate deployment shows a curvilinear (inverted U) relationship with IJV performance. This relationship is positively moderated by product relatedness between the parent and the IJV
21		Geographical expansion and performance	Delios and Beamish (1999a)	To examine a fundamental criticism of the geographic scope–performance relationship; namely, that the observed positive relationship between geographic scope and performance is spurious because it is the possession of proprietary assets that is the foundation of superior performance, not expansion into international markets per se	Geographic scope is positively associated with firm profitability, even when the competing effect of proprietary assets on firm performance is controlled. Performance is not related to the extent of product diversification, although investment levels in rent-generating, proprietary assets are related to the extent of product diversification
22			Goerzen and Beamish (2003)	To examine the ways in which geographic scope is associated with firm performance	The relationship between economic performance and international asset dispersion is positive, but that country environment diversity is negatively associated with performance, with a positive interaction between them
23			Lu and Beamish (2004a)	To examine the nature of the relationship between geographic diversification and firm performance at different phases of internationalization, across firms with different assets	The association between geographic diversification and performance forms a S-curve, and this association is moderated by intangible asset advantages (technology or advertising asset)
24			Boeh and Beamish (2015)	To conceptually and empirically examine how the time required to travel between geographically separated locations affects subsidiary performance and survival	Longer travel time harms financial performance, and poor performers face higher closure rates. While distant subsidiaries perform poorly, they also survive longer. Further, distant subsidiaries are more likely to be relocated
25			Lu and Beamish (2001)	To examine the effects of an international aspect of an entrepreneurial strategy, namely the relationship between an SME’s internationalization strategy and its performance	When firms first begin FDI activity, profitability declines, but greater levels of FDI are associated with higher performance. Exporting moderates the relationship FDI has with performance
26			Lu and Beamish (2006a)	To examine the effect of two internationalization strategies, exporting and foreign direct investment (FDI) on two dimensions of SME performance: growth and return on sales (ROS)	Exporting activity has a positive impact on growth, but a negative impact on profitability. FDI activity has a positive relationship with growth, but a U curve relationship with profitability. Exporting activity has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between an SME’s FDI activity and firm growth, a negative moderating effect on the relationship between an SME’s FDI activity and firm profitability. An SME’s age has a negative moderating impact on the relationship between FDI and firm growth and profitability
27		Internationalization and performance	Goerzen and Makino (2007)	To develop a model of sequential investment by multinational corporations in service industries and examine the performance implications of internationalization in these industries	The initial investments of service MNEs are closely related to their core businesses and are less location-specific, but subsequent investments are less related to firms’ core services and are more location-specific
28			Jiang and Beamish (2005)	To examine if the faster pace has been beneficial to the performance of their subsidiaries in China	Too much haste can result in problems when expanding in China. When companies set up subsidiaries too quickly after they have entered China, the subsidiaries tend to have a lower likelihood of survival, growth, and profitability
29			Jiang et al. (2014b)	To examine the speed with which firms establish subsequent subsidiaries after their initial entries into a foreign market, and explore whether this time-related process factor will influence the performance of these subsidiaries	The speed of establishing subsequent subsidiaries is negatively associated with subsidiary survival. Time compression diseconomies (TCD) are exacerbated with environmental uncertainty and lack of vicarious learning, so that early mover subsidiaries are less likely to make a profit when they are established with faster speed
30			Yang et al. (2017)	To examine the conditions that facilitate or hinder the effectiveness with which a new entrant learns from the failures of prior entrants in China	The relationship between the speed of FDI expansions (SFEs) and firm performance forms an inverse U-shape. This inverse U-shaped relationship varies with the level of globalization pressure in such a way that the inverse U-shaped curve will have a steeper upward and steeper downward curvature for firms operating in global industries than for those in multidomestic industries
31			Delios and Beamish (2001)	To examine the influences a firm’s intangible assets and its experience have on foreign subsidiary survival and profitability	Host country experience has a direct effect on survival but a contingent relationship with profitability. The entry mode moderated the nature of these relationships
32			Miller et al. (2016)	To advance research on the performance implications of internationalization by uncovering the multifaceted nature of internationalization and developing a generalizable theoretical framework that unbundles internationalization into three main facets: international intensity, international diversity, and international distance	International intensity and international distance produce sigmoid effects on firm performance, though for different theoretical reasons. In turn, international diversity generates a U-shaped performance effect
33			Jung and Bansal (2009)	To examine the effect of relative performance, which influences a firm’s attitude toward risk-taking, on a firm’s internationalization	There exists an inverted U-shaped relationship between a firm’s relative performance and its degree of internationalization using its historical performance target
34			Lim et al. (2013)	To examine the efficacy of two commonly used retrenchment strategies—asset and cost retrenchment—in the context of two different strategic orientations—Schumpeterian and Ricardian rent creation mechanisms	Two distinct mechanisms of rent creation include: Ricardian rent creation based on the exploitation of resources and Schumpeterian rent creation based on explorative capabilities. Cost retrenchment is negatively associated with post-retrenchment performance for firms with a relatively higher Schumpeterian focus. The above relationship is positively moderated if the firm operates in an industry with a higher level of Schumpeterian orientation
35			Wang and Schaan (2008)	To revisit the “national cultural distance paradox” by examining nonlinear relationships between cultural distance (CD) and entry mode and between CD and performance	Results suggest that there is a nonlinear (inverted U-shape) relationship between cultural distance (CD) and the choice of a joint venture as the preferred market entry mode, and between CD and performance. The relationship between CD and performance is moderated by entry mode choice: the nonlinear relationship between CD and performance is stronger for joint ventures than for wholly owned subsidiaries
36		Entry mode, equity ownership, and network characteristics:	Woodcock et al. (1994)	To examine the relationship between ownership entry modes and performance	The new venture mode outperforms the joint venture mode and the joint venture mode outperforms the acquisition mode
37			Nitsch et al. (1996)	To examine the links between entry mode and performance of Japanese direct investment in Western Europe	Greenfield mode tends to have the highest proportion of grains relative to losses; joint ventures are not far behind; and acquisitions have, at best, mixed performance
38			Makino and Beamish (1998a)	To examine the relationship between the extent of local ownership restrictions, the choice of entry mode (greenfield JVs versus greenfield WOS), and its performance	The extent of local ownership restrictions is negatively and significantly associated with the financial performance of WOS, whereas it does not directly influence that of JVs. There is no clear association between the extent of local ownership restrictions and the termination rate for the JV and WOS samples
39			Makino and Beamish (1998b)	To identify four distinct JV forms based on the JV partners’ nationality and equity affiliation, and examine their incidence, financial performance, and termination rate	Traditional IJVs are the most successful JV ownership structure of the four JV ownership structures, and Intrafirm JVs are the second most successful JV ownership structure. Cross-national DJVs are not as successful as the preceding two JV ownership structures. Trinational IJVs are the least successful JV ownership structure
40			Makino and Beamish (1999)	To examine why firms choose different JV ownership structures and how they maintain or enforce good partnerships	To examine why firms choose different JV ownership structures and how they maintain or enforce good partnerships
41			Delios and Beamish (2004)	To establish a baseline from which future research on joint ventures, entry mode, and performance can be developed by presenting new evidence for comparisons of performance—survival perceived financial performance—across entry modes	Joint ventures have a perceived financial performance and a survival rate no worse than wholly owned subsidiaries, and joint ventures with different divisions of equity ownership have different levels of performance. In particular, joint ventures have a 50 percent higher survival rate than co- and minority-owned joint ventures
42			Tanganelli and Schaan (2014)	To analyze different entry modes used by Japanese multinationals (MNEs) to enter the European market and investigate whether there is a relationship between the entry mode and the Japanese subsidiary performance	More than half of the Japanese investments in Europe took the form of new ventures, and no specific entry mode performed better than another
43			Gaur et al. (2007)	To examine (1) how the institutional distance between home and host countries affects MNE subsidiary staffing decisions; (2) the performance consequences of a subsidiary’s staff composition	MNEs that invest in Chinese provinces with lower FDI legitimacy use more local nationals as subsidiary general managers (GMs), compared to MNEs that invest in provinces with higher FDI legitimacy. In provinces with low FDI legitimacy, subsidiaries with local GMs perform relatively better than subsidiaries with expatriate GMs. This effect is particularly strong for wholly owned subsidiaries, as compared with joint ventures, and applies to all provinces except the most developed coastal regions. In provinces with higher levels of FDI legitimacy, these effects are reversed
44			Fang et al. (2010)	To examine to what extent the use of expatriates affects the relationship between a parent firm’s organizational knowledge and its foreign subsidiary’s performance, as the knowledge is transferred from the parent firm to the subsidiary	The number of expatriates relative to the total number of subsidiary employees strengthens the effect of a parent firm’s technological knowledge (with low location specificity) on subsidiary performance in the short term, but weakens the impact of the parent firm’s marketing knowledge (with high location specificity) on subsidiary performance in the long term. The expatriates’ influence on knowledge transfer eventually disappears
45			Goerzen and Beamish (2007)	To examine the conditions under which the Penrosian concept of organizational slack—in the form of “excess” expatriates—influences subsidiary performance	When host country experience is comparatively low, subsidiaries with excess expatriate managers are more likely to experience inferior performance. Alternatively, expatriate slack is associated with a higher likelihood of superior performance in the context of comparatively high host country experience
46			Fang et al. (2007)	To explore this paradox in resource value and mobility, we look at the influence of knowledge resources on subsidiary performance. We examine the link between international diversification, organizational knowledge resources, and subsidiary performance	Knowledge that is valuable, but not rare, positively affects subsidiary performance in the short term, but not the long term. In contrast, knowledge that is both valuable and rare affects subsidiary performance in the long term, but not the short term
47			Fang et al. (2013)	To examine the relationships between multiple knowledge resources (technological and marketing knowledge), the relatedness between parents and foreign subsidiaries, and subsidiary performance	Subsidiary performance is strongly associated with the interaction effect of parent technological and marketing knowledge. Relatedness amplifies subsidiary performance outcomes. Different forms of relatedness can interact to produce synergistic benefits to the subsidiary
48			Dutta and Beamish (2013)	To examine the role expatriates play as a critical managerial resource within the multinational’s international joint venture (IJV) and to what extent industry relatedness between the multinational and the IJV affects the relationship between expatriate deployment and IJV performance	Expatriate deployment shows a curvilinear (inverted U) relationship with IJV performance. This relationship is positively moderated by product relatedness between the parent and the IJV
49			Goerzen et al. (2010)	To examine the capacity of MNE foreign experience to create value by mitigating country-level risks brought on by FDI	Japanese MNEs that have direct or indirect experience in a host country showed greater abnormal returns in a FDI, particularly where environmental risk was high
50			Delios and Beamish (2001)	To examine the influences a firm’s intangible assets and its experience have on foreign subsidiary survival and profitability	Host country experience has a direct effect on survival but a contingent relationship with profitability. The entry mode moderated the nature of these relationships
51			Chung et al. (2008)	To examine the value of MNE networks from a network perspective by conceptualizing operational flexibility as a mechanism through which MNE networks impact foreign subsidiaries: and to examine the role of host country economic conditions by investigating the contingent effects of MNE networks in stable versus crisis economic periods	The enhanced flexibility associated with intra-and inter-firm organizational linkages is more likely to increase the performance of subsidiaries operating in crisis rather than economically stable environments
52			Jiang et al. (2020b)	To examine how the performance impact of parent firm CSR on overseas subsidiaries may vary according to the task, the institutional, and the informational aspects of the signaling environment facing host country stakeholders	A parent firm’s strong CSR performance positively affects subsidiary performance, but the performance-enhancing effect is more pronounced among sales subsidiaries than manufacturing subsidiaries. Media freedom in a host country positively interacts with parent firm CSR in enhancing subsidiary performance
53			Makino and Delios (1996)	To examine the relationship between local-knowledge acquisition channels and performance	Partnering with local firms (the first channel) can be a primary strategy for accessing local knowledge and improving JV performance. JV experience in the host country (the second channel) also mitigates local knowledge disadvantages and leads to increased JV performance. The third channel, the foreign parent’s host country experience, leads to increased performance in the absence of a local partner. However, when a JV is formed with a local partner, increased parent experience in the host country leads to decreased performance
54			Chung and Beamish (2010)	To examine how multiple waves of ownership change unfold in the middle stages of IEJV evolution and how such repeated changes impact short-term performance and long-term survival	Even if partners reorganize the ownership control structure of the IEJV as a result of an initial dissatisfaction with the venture performance, the continual change process is likely to position the IEJV unfavorably in the long run. A continual change process starts to hurt IEJV performance after two iterations
55			Chung and Beamish (2012)	To investigate the evolving influences of multi-party IJV complexity on performance in a dynamic context where the multi-party IJV goes through multiple waves of structural change	When multi-party IJVs experience structural change once or twice, there is not a significant relationship between the number of partners and performance. Once the multi-party IJV experiences structural change more than twice, the relationship between the partner number and performance becomes not only significant but also negative
56			Beamish and Kachra (2004)	To explore whether the increases in transaction costs are balanced out by increased benefits as the number of partners grows, by examining the relationship between the number of partners in a joint venture (JV) and performance	No significant relationship is observed between the number of partners in an international JV and JV performance, even when moderators like JV type were considered
57			Beamish and Jung (2005)	To examine whether size asymmetry between IJV parents is an additional factor influencing IJV performance and survival	No significant relationship is found between size asymmetry between parents and IJV performance and survival
58			Lu and Beamish (2006b)	To explore how two types of resources, host country knowledge and size-based resources contributed by IJV partners, can help small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and their foreign subsidiaries mitigate one or all three of the liabilities and ultimately influence the performance and longevity of SMEs’ international joint ventures	SMEs’ IJVs with local partner(s) may be associated with decreases in longevity, especially when SMEs acquire host country knowledge. The host country experience of Japanese partner(s) does not have any direct effects on IJV profitability but reduces the longevity of IJVs. The size of Japanese partner(s) increases the longevity of IJVs but may have negative effects on IJV profitability when large Japanese partners have low equity ownership in IJVs
59			Lu and Ma (2008)	To investigate the value of local partners’ business group affiliations in international joint ventures (IJVs) by integrating economic and political perspectives on business groups with insights from the IJV literature	A local partner’s affiliation to a regional business group enhances the performance of an IJV when its location restricts foreign direct investment (FDI). Meanwhile, a local partner’s affiliation to a national business group enhances the performance of an IJV when it operates in an FDI-restricted industry
60			Goerzen and Beamish (2005b)	To examine the impact of alliance network diversity on multinational enterprise (MNE) economic performance	MNEs with more diverse alliance networks experience lower economic performance on average than those with less diverse alliance networks
61			Goerzen (2007)	To examine the connection between the propensity of firms to enter into repeated equity-based relationships with prior partners and corporate economic performance	Firms not only often do enter into repeated equity-based partnerships but also that those with a greater propensity to do so experience inferior economic performance. The negative effect of repeated partnerships on performance is particularly strong in environments of greater technological uncertainty
62			Delios et al. (2004)	To investigate the factors that contribute to a firm’s persistence with failing alliances, using an escalation framework for strategic alliances	Escalation determinants, although not unique to alliances, are central to the alliance context. These determinants may interact in a manner that makes alliances more susceptible than other forms of international investment
63			Lu and Beamish (2004b)	To examine the potential competitive advantages from the development of an internal network of subsidiaries and external network of alliances	While there are exploitation and exploration benefits from subsidiary network development, internationalizing firms (especially smaller firms) are subject to the liability of foreignness. Alliance network development is an effective way to mitigate this liability if internationalizing firms choose the right alliance strategy
64		Staffing strategy	Gaur et al. (2007)	To examine (1) how the institutional distance between home and host countries affects MNE subsidiary staffing decisions; (2) the performance consequences of a subsidiary’s staff composition	MNEs that invest in Chinese provinces with lower FDI legitimacy use more local nationals as subsidiary general managers (GMs), compared to MNEs that invest in provinces with higher FDI legitimacy. In provinces with low FDI legitimacy, subsidiaries with local GMs perform relatively better than subsidiaries with expatriate GMs. This effect is particularly strong for wholly owned subsidiaries, as compared with joint ventures, and applies to all provinces except the most developed coastal regions. In provinces with higher levels of FDI legitimacy, these effects are reversed
65			Schotter and Beamish (2011)	To examine (1) how one can reliably measure institutional differences at the subnational level (e.g., between different provinces in China); (2) how the results of within-country studies of the foreign subsidiary general manager (GM) staffing decisions compare with the aggregated results of previous between-country studies in explaining subsidiary GM staffing decisions; (3) how the different staffing decisions affect subsidiary performance	MNEs that invest in Chinese provinces with lower FDI legitimacy use more local nationals as subsidiary general managers (GMs), compared to MNEs that invest in provinces with higher FDI legitimacy. In provinces with low FDI legitimacy, subsidiaries with local GMs perform relatively better than subsidiaries with expatriate GMs. This effect is particularly strong for wholly owned subsidiaries, as compared with joint ventures, and applies to all provinces except the most developed coastal regions. In provinces with higher levels of FDI legitimacy, these effects are reversed
66			Dutta and Beamish (2013)	To examine the role expatriates play as a critical managerial resource within the multinational’s international joint-venture (IJV) and to what extent industry relatedness between the multinational and the IJV affects the relationship between expatriate deployment and IJV performance	Expatriate deployment shows a curvilinear (inverted U) relationship with IJV performance. This relationship is positively moderated by product relatedness between the parent and the IJV
67			Konopaske et al. (2002)	To investigate how staffing practices moderate the relationship between entry mode (wholly owned and joint ventures) and international venture performance	For joint ventures, ethnocentric staffing is negatively and significantly related to subsidiary performance. Conversely, for wholly owned ventures, ethnocentric staffing is positively and statistically significantly related to subsidiary performance
68			Goerzen and Beamish (2007)	To examine the conditions under which the Penrosian concept of organizational slack- in the form of “excess” expatriates—influences subsidiary performance	When host country experience is comparatively low, subsidiaries with excess expatriate managers are more likely to experience inferior performance. Alternatively, expatriate slack is associated with a higher likelihood of superior performance in the context of comparatively high host country experience
69			Fang et al. (2010)	To examine to what extent the use of expatriates affects the relationship between a parent firm’s organizational knowledge and its foreign subsidiary’s performance, as the knowledge is transferred from the parent firm to the subsidiary	The number of expatriates relative to the total number of subsidiary employees strengthens the effect of a parent firm’s technological knowledge (with low location specificity) on subsidiary performance in the short term, but weakens the impact of the parent firm’s marketing knowledge (with high location specificity) on subsidiary performance in the long term. The expatriates’ influence on knowledge transfer eventually disappears
70			Riaz et al. (2014)	To investigate the relationship between expatriate-deployment levels (the administrative capacities of expatriates in foreign subsidiaries) and the growth of international subsidiaries over time	Higher subsidiary growth over the long term is achieved through both (a) a higher proportion of expatriates at subsidiary founding and (b) a slower reduction in the proportion of expatriates over time
71	FDI survival and exit	Parent control, ownership, and market entry	Xu and Lu (2007)	To examine the relationships among parent firm technological knowledge, parent–IJV product relatedness, parent control over the IJV, and IJV survival	Both equity control and managerial control of a Japanese parent have a positive interaction effect, with the parent’s technological knowledge, on IJV survival. Equity control also has a positive interaction effect with product relatedness in China. In a sub-sample of Sino–Japanese IJVs, managerial control by the Chinese parent has a positive interaction effect, with Chinese parent–IJV product relatedness, on IJV survival
72			Lu and Hebert (2005)	To examine whether and how the equity control and IJV performance relationship was contingent on asset specificity and uncertainty factors, as associated with transaction-cost theory	The payoffs of control emerge more clearly in the presence of technology-intensive assets where increases in foreign equity control tend to stabilize IJVs. In contrast, when foreign parents have high industry experience, increases in foreign control add to termination risks
73			Dhanaraj and Beamish (2004)	To examine the impact of equity levels on mortality of overseas subsidiaries	While investments involving small ownership levels (<20%) have very high mortality rates, those with high ownership levels (>80%) have mortality rates comparable to that of wholly owned subsidiaries
74			Gaur and Lu (2007)	To investigate the relationship between ownership strategy and foreign investment survival by bringing together arguments from two theoretical perspectives, namely, institutional theory and organizational learning perspective	The effect of ownership is contingent on institutional distance and host country experience. In institutionally distant countries, subsidiaries have better survival chances if foreign parents have more ownership. Host country experience has a negative impact on subsidiary survival, but the effect is weaker if foreign parents have larger ownership positions in the subsidiaries
75			Delios and Makino (2003)	To examine the relationship between the timing of entry and a subsidiary’s relative size and its survival and the moderating effect of timing of entry on this relationship	Early entrants not only have a larger relative size but also have greater exit likelihood than do late entrants. The magnitude of these effects depends on the type of asset advantages a foreign-investing firm possesses
76		Legitimacy, institutions, and culture	Lu and Xu (2006)	To examine the growth and survival of international joint ventures (IJVs) from a legitimacy perspective	Chinese parentage, Chinese parent size, and IJV industry relatedness to either parent have a positive effect on IJV growth and/or survival. However, IJV industry relatedness to both parents led to lower rates of IJV growth and survival
77			Peng and Beamish (2019)	To examine how organizational ecology and the strategic choice perspective can be combined to provide more contextualized insights into how multinational corporations (MNEs) can better counter environmental pressures with evolving subnational FDI legitimacy and improve the survival likelihood of their subsidiaries	The level of country-of-origin (COO) agglomeration in the focal province in China moderates a U-shaped relationship between FDI legitimacy and subsidiary exit, such that the curve will be flatter for subsidiaries located in provinces with higher levels of COO agglomeration. There exists a three-way interaction between FDI legitimacy, subsidiary ownership level, and subsidiary size on subsidiary mortality such that with increasing FDI legitimacy, larger subsidiaries with higher ownership levels are more likely to exit
78			Dhanaraj and Beamish (2009)	To examine the effect of the institutional environment (IE), political openness, and social openness, on the mortality of overseas subsidiaries and how joint venture status moderates these effects	There exists a negative main effect for political and social openness and positive interaction effects with openness when the FDI is through a JV. However, political and social openness show significantly different influences on subsidiary mortality
79			Sartor and Beamish (2020a)	To investigate how strategic choices with respect to the structure of foreign subsidiary investments established by developed country MNEs moderate the relationship between high levels of host market government corruption and the likelihood of subsidiary exit from emerging markets	An increase in the foreign-investing MNE’s equity ownership share negatively moderates the positive relationship between corruption and the likelihood that foreign subsidiaries established by developed market MNEs will exit host emerging markets when corruption is high
80			Getachew and Beamish (2021)	To advance a fine-grained understanding of the relationship between host-country institutions and foreign subsidiary survival by unbundling institutions into contracting and property rights institutions as well as engaging subsidiary-level heterogeneity	Whereas weak contracting institutions are more detrimental to market-seeking subsidiaries, weak property rights institutions have a greater adverse effect on the survival of resource-seeking subsidiaries
81			Farah et al. (2021)	To examine the relationship between host country corporate income tax rates (HCCITRs) and foreign subsidiary survival	The effect of host country corporate income tax rate (HCCITR) on foreign subsidiary survival is not only significant, but also stronger than several other explanatory variables such as subsidiary size, MNE size, cultural distance, and host country GDP growth that have been consistently used in IB survival analysis research
82			Peng and Beamish (2014a)	To examine the role which the long-term orientation (LTO) dimension of host country culture plays in transforming multinational corporations’ (MNEs’) focus from transaction cost to transaction value in the context of MNE subsidiary ownership and survival	Long-term orientation (LTO) has a direct positive effect on ownership levels. There are positive interactions between LTO and cultural distance, and between LTO and geographic distance, on ownership levels. There were positive interactions between LTO and subsidiary ownership level, and between LTO and cultural distance, on subsidiary survival
83		Learning, experience, and subsidiary dynamics	Delios and Beamish (2001)	To examine the influences a firm’s intangible assets and its experience have on foreign subsidiary survival and profitability	Host country experience has a direct effect on survival but a contingent relationship with profitability. The entry mode moderated the nature of these relationships
84			Kim et al. (2010)	To explore how organizational geography and prior experience jointly affected subsidiary exit rates, and examine how experiential learning and vicarious learning, as tied to a subsidiary’s organizational geography, influence the exit rates of Japanese subsidiaries located in China	Exit rates are lower for subsidiaries that are established geographically proximate to the prior expansions of industry peers from Japan. Exit rates are also lower for subsidiaries established by firms with experience in similar product markets in China. Exit rates are greater, however, when a parent firm has substantial experience outside the product market of the current expansion
85			Kim et al. (2012)	To extend research on experiential learning of foreign subsidiaries by exploring the temporal conditions under which a foreign subsidiary can benefit from the experience of its sister subsidiaries	Survival is enhanced by the experience of different entry cohorts of sister subsidiaries, but not by that of similar cohorts. Multiple channels of experience exchange across sister subsidiaries lead to actual learning. The survival benefit derived from different cohorts is contingent on the level of environmental change, as well as on the level of experience of the focal subsidiary and its parent firm
86			Park and Chung (2019)	To examine how foreign subsidiaries facing constant growth pressures can implement business expansion opportunities successfully	Affiliates are more likely to expand into unfamiliar business domains successfully if they have a higher level of absorptive capacity
87			Yang et al. (2015)	To examine the conditions that facilitate or hinder the effectiveness with which a new entrant learns from the failures of prior entrants in China	Learning from the failure experiences of prior entrants increases a new entrant’s survival chances when entering China. The value of this learning is less effective when there is a greater level of heterogeneity in the causes of these failures. However, this learning is more effective when a new entrant’s parent firm has ownership ties with investors who had ventures that failed previously in China
88			Hebert et al. (2005)	To explore the relationship between experience, the use of expatriate managers and the survival of acquired subsidiaries; and examine different types of experience that should appropriately be transferred by expatriate managers	There exists (1) a positive relationship between subsidiary survival and the use of expatriate managers in the presence of industry experience; (2) a negative relationship between subsidiary survival and the use of expatriate managers when the acquirer has acquisition experience; (3) a positive relationship between subsidiary survival and the use of expatriate managers when the acquirer has acquisition experience in the country of the acquired firm; and (4) parent ownership percentage, host country risk and cultural distance are significantly and positively related with survival
89		Network configuration, governance, and asymmetry	Lee et al. (2019)	To investigate how the configurational characteristics of a subsidiary’s mandate portfolio affects its dependence within the MNE and in turn, affects its survival likelihood	While having a mandate portfolio with greater scope in relation to same-parent subsidiaries enhances the survivability of foreign subsidiaries, the effect is weakened when the portfolio has a higher degree of overlap with those of other same-parent subsidiaries. Conversely, when a subsidiary’s mandate portfolio puts a greater emphasis on the multinational enterprise’s (MNE) global value-chain activities, its effect on subsidiary survival is strengthened
90			Hu et al. (2021a)	To examine how alliance partners’ centrality asymmetry affects the dissolution rates of their equity alliances	Partner firms’ asymmetry in network centrality (centrality asymmetry) has a U-shaped relationship with alliance dissolution. Interpartner cooperation and external competition reduce the effects of centrality asymmetry
91			Lu and Ma (2015)	To examine the relationship between partner resource asymmetry and IJV survival by examining different types of resource asymmetry (property-based versus knowledge-based) and by considering the interplay between resource asymmetry and ownership strategy	IJV partners’ industry knowledge asymmetry had a negative effect on an IJV’s survival likelihood. However, this negative effect could be reduced by the level of equity controlled by the partner who had more industry knowledge over the other partner
92			Farah et al. (2022)	To examine the relationship between multinational enterprise parent-subsidiary governance (MNEPSG), host country governance quality (HCGQ), and foreign subsidiary survival	We find that key MNE parent-subsidiary governance (MNEPSG) mechanisms (e.g., Ownership, Expatriates, and Regional Headquarters) positively impact foreign subsidiary survival, whereas host country governance quality (HCGQ) negatively impacts it; and that increasing Ownership and Expatriates is more effective in high HCGQ contexts
93		Political hazard and Economic crisis	Lupton et al. (2021)	To examine the extent to which locating primary industry subsidiaries in politically unstable countries impacts their survival	Political instability has a slight, curvilinear relationship with subsidiary survival, such that both high and low stability are associated with lower exit hazard, while moderate levels of stability increased exit hazard. This nonlinear relationship is stronger for efficiency-seeking subsidiaries, and weaker for market-seeking subsidiaries
94			Dai et al. (2013)	To address why certain MNEs stay in and other leave conflict zones, by focusing on the role of geography in foreign subsidiary survival in host countries afflicted by political conflict	Greater exposure to geographically defined threats, in both a static and a dynamic sense, reduces the likelihood of MNE survival. Both concentration and dispersion with other firms affect survival; however, the effects depend on where the firm is spatially located (whether the firm is in a conflict zone) and with whom (home country peers or sister subsidiaries)
95			Dai et al. (2017)	To explain why some foreign MNEs stay on while others leave (strategic response) when war (political risk/instability) breaks out in a host country	Highly valuable resources can become liabilities when exposed to harm, and the best way to cope with external threats may be to exit
96			Chung and Beamish (2005b)	To examine the complex influences of policy reforms on the characteristics and survival of foreign subsidiaries in emerging economies before and after the 1997 Asian Economic Crisis	Foreign subsidiaries tend to take the form of wholly owned subsidiaries (versus joint ventures), majority joint ventures (versus minority joint ventures), or trading operations (versus manufacturing operations) in the post-crisis institutional environment. Consistently, foreign subsidiaries with these characteristics are more likely to survive in the post-crisis environment
97			Papyrina (2007)	To examine whether joint ventures or wholly owned subsidiaries are more likely to survive in the context of Japanese subsidiaries in China	Joint ventures founded during the early stage of institutional reforms in China are more likely to survive than wholly owned subsidiaries set up at that time, and vice versa for subsidiaries established in the late phase of institutional reforms
98			Henisz and Delios (2004)	To examine the extent to which political hazards and regime change influence foreign-owned subsidiary exit rates	Prior exits by peer firms enhance exit rates, particularly when political hazards are high. A multinational firm’s own experience under the current political regime has a moderating influence on subsidiary exit rates in the presence of political hazards, but it enhances exit rates after a change in the political regime
99			Chung et al. (2005a)	To examine the main and interaction effects of investment mode strategy and expatriate strategy on subsidiary survival during times of economic crisis	Greenfield wholly owned subsidiaries are more likely to survive than greenfield joint ventures and acquired wholly owned subsidiaries during times of economic crisis. The further distant the operational structures of subsidiaries are configured from the multinational networks, the more benefit the subsidiaries can extract from the greater utilization of expatriates. In an environment of economic crisis, the greater utilization of expatriates is more likely to enhance the survival likelihood of greenfield joint ventures and acquired wholly owned subsidiaries than greenfield wholly owned subsidiaries. While this positive interaction effect is significant in an economic crisis environment, it is not in an economically stable environment
100			Chung et al. (2013)	To examine how MNE divestment decisions in economic crisis predicted by the emerging perspective of real options differ from those predicted by the traditional perspective of risk diversification	Large MNEs with greater international diversification are less likely to divest their subsidiaries during times of economic crisis. The negative effect of joint ownership control is however manifested in both crisis-stricken and non-crisis country subsidiaries as well as in their interaction effect
101	Entry mode choice		Makino and Neupert (2000)	To examine whether a transaction-cost perspective can explain the choice of ownership levels irrespective of the country-of-origin of foreign-investing firms, or whether it is moderated or altered by the national characteristics of the investing firms	The transaction-cost explanation for the ownership choice holds in the both national contexts. Yet, the propensity to choose JV or WOS significantly varied between Japanese and the U.S. firms
102			Yiu and Makino (2002)	To explain how institutional factors influence the choice of foreign entry mode, by examining the effects of institutional factors and transaction-cost factors on foreign entry mode choice	Multinational enterprises tend to conform to the regulative settings of the host-country environment, the normative pressures imposed by the local people, and the cognitive mindsets as bounded by counterparts’ and multinational enterprises’ own entry patterns when making foreign entry mode choices
103			Lu (2002)	To examine if institutional influences have an effect on the entry mode choice, over and above transaction-cost related influences, and present a unifying theoretical framework to examine this effect	Organizational imprinting and frequency-based, trait-based, and outcome-based mimetic factors each had important influences on the entry mode decision. Institutional isomorphism is present, as later entrants tend to follow the entry mode patterns established by earlier entrants. Isomorphic behavior is also present within a firm, as firms exhibit consistency in entry mode choices across time. Further, a firm’s investment experience (uncertainty) moderates institutional influences on entry mode choice
104			Peng and Beamish (2007)	To examine how evolving FDI legitimacy in China influences two strategic choices (entry mode and expatriate staffing)	As FDI legitimacy improves over time, smaller subsidiaries tend to choose the wholly owned subsidiary mode and deploy a higher percentage of expatriates, whereas larger subsidiaries tend to choose the joint venture mode and use a lower percentage of expatriates; and that Japanese subsidiaries are more likely to have a local manager, and this tendency may be stronger for larger subsidiaries
105			Dutta and Beamish (2009)	To examine the impact of the environmental determinants of managerial discretion on the internationalization of Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) reflected in its choice of mode of entry	Higher levels of environmental determinants of managerial discretion influence lead managers to choose the IJV (over WOS). This relationship is intensified when the MNE has had prior host country experience
106			Jung et al. (2010)	To investigate the dynamic conditions under which environmental and firm-level factors affect MNE ownership strategy	Internal and external changes trigger changes in the use of IJVs. At the environmental level, the proliferation of FDI opportunities significantly increases the use of IJVs. At the firm level, increase in FDI experience has significant positive effect on the use of IJVs
107			Zhang and Beamish (2019)	To investigate how Japanese MNEs are adapting their ownership choices to accommodate China’s economic liberalization	While on one hand, Japanese MNEs increase their ownership levels with the progress of economic liberalization, on the other hand, they reduce ownership levels by strengthening local equity partner relationships with the accumulation of subsidiary experience. The progress of economic liberalization weakens the influence of subsidiary experience on MNE ownership choices
108			Wang and Schaan (2008)	To revisit the “national cultural distance paradox” by examining nonlinear relationships between cultural distance (CD) and entry mode and between CD and performance	Results suggest that there is a nonlinear (inverted U-shape) relationship between cultural distance (CD) and the choice of a joint venture as the preferred market entry mode, and between CD and performance. The relationship between CD and performance is moderated by entry mode choice: the nonlinear relationship between CD and performance is stronger for joint ventures than for wholly owned subsidiaries
109			Sartor and Beamish (2020b)	To investigate the relationship between the perceived level of public sector (government) and private sector (non-government) corruption in foreign host countries and the organizational structure of subsidiary operations established by multinational corporations (MNEs)	Foreign host market corruption is disaggregated into two components—private and public corruption. While heightened perceived levels of public corruption are found to motivate MNEs to invest through a JV with a local partner rather than a WOS, more pronounced private corruption precipitates the opposite outcome
110			Sartor and Beamish (2018)	To examine the impact of host market government corruption on the equity-based entry strategies of MNEs	The main effect of grand corruption and the interaction between grand and petty corruption significantly impact a MNE’s entry mode. While more pervasive grand corruption increases the likelihood that a MNE will engage in a joint venture investment with a host country partner, an increase in petty corruption heightens a MNE’s preference to invest with a home country partner
111			Anand and Delios (1997)	To investigate the effect of firm-specific advantages being ‘local’ in scope, and the influence of subsequent location-specific disadvantages, on the choice of foreign entry mode and subsidiary performance	In situations where required capabilities must be developed through local experience and where location-specific resources are subject to market failure, acquisition and joint venture strategies are preferred. Greenfield entries are successful in industries that permit the off-setting of location-specific disadvantages with firm-specific advantages
112			Jung et al. (2008)	To investigate whether convergence or divergence has occurred in MNE ownership strategy, specifically among US and Japanese MNEs	Japanese MNEs show a stronger preference for IJVs over the last two decades as compared to US MNEs. IJV performance exceeded WOS among Japanese firms in most sample years, while WOSs outperformed IJVs among US subsidiaries in all sample years
113			Bouquet et al. (2004)	To investigate the effect of operating in service industries, in which separability and human capital intensity factors influence the choice of foreign entry mode and expatriate staffing decisions	In situations where required capabilities must be developed through (1) close contacts with end customers and (2) high levels of professional skills, specialized know-how, and customization, wholly owned subsidiaries, and expatriate staff are preferred
114			Delios and Beamish (1999b)	To empirically investigate the relative importance of these three factors—transactional, experience, and institutional—on the ownership strategies of Japanese investors in East and South-East Asia	Experience and institutional factors are the most important influences on the ownership position taken in the foreign investment, while transactional factors have a much less important and a more ambiguous role
115			Delios and Henisz (2000)	To examine the effects of organizational capabilities and public and private expropriation hazards on the level of equity ownership chosen for foreign subsidiaries in emerging markets	A firm’s capabilities, in terms of its experience in an industry and a country of expansion as well as elsewhere, influence the level of equity ownership the firm chooses in a foreign subsidiary
116			Chan and Makino (2007)	To examine the legitimacy rationale behind the choice of subsidiary ownership structure among multinational corporations (MNEs) from an institutional perspective, particularly regarding the sharing of equity ownership among partners of a foreign subsidiary in their pursuit of legitimacy at the host country, local industry, and corporate levels of the institutional environment	When under a strong pressure to conform at the host country and local industry levels of their institutional environment, MNEs are likely to take a lower ownership stake in exchange for external legitimacy in the host country or local industry that their foreign subsidiaries are entering. MNEs are likely to take a higher ownership stake in response to strong internal pressure to sustain their internal legitimacy at the corporate level of their institutional environment. MNEs are more likely to exchange ownership for legitimacy in local industries than in host countries, and in local markets with a high level of political instability than in those with a low level of political instability
117			Wilkinson et al. (2008)	To explore the diminishing influence of national cultural distance on two subsidiary control issues, expatriate staffing and parent company ownership level of the foreign subsidiary	Subsidiary age moderates the effect of cultural distance on expatriate staffing and ownership. Cultural distance has a significantly greater impact on subsidiary control mechanisms for newer subsidiaries than for older subsidiaries
118			Xu et al. (2004)	To develop the regulative and normative distance measures and empirically test their effectiveness in explaining MNE ownership and expatriate strategies	The regulative and normative distances influence Japanese MNEs’ ownership and expatriate strategies in their sub-units abroad
119			Sartor and Beamish (2014)	To investigate how differences in the informal institutions that prevail in the home and host countries influence multinational enterprise (MNE) strategy (or, the organizational control decision) with respect to subsidiaries established to offshore innovation	MNEs exercised less organizational control when establishing subsidiaries to offshore their innovation under conditions of heightened technology-oriented informal institutions (TOII) distance and demand-oriented informal institutions (DOII) distance but not behaviorally oriented informal institutions (BOII). An increase in BOII distance would attenuate an MNE’s preference for less organizational control under conditions of heightened DOII distance
120			Zhang (2015)	To investigate how cross-national distance influences MNEs’ equity ownership in their overseas subsidiaries	Cross-national distance and MNEs’ relevant networks not only independently influence, but also interact with each other to influence Japanese MNEs’ ownership strategies. Cross-national distance and insidership (Home Network/Host Network) within relevant works strengthen or weaken each other’s influences on Japanese ownership strategies
121			Boeh and Beamish (2012)	To develop a new construct, dyad travel time, and examine its impact on firm-level strategic choice (entry mode)	Firms using shared entry modes select locations with greater monitoring efficiency (i.e., low travel time). While the times for shared entry modes decrease woyj experience those for non-shared modes do not
122	Expatriate staffing level		Beamish and Inkpen (1998)	To examine the myth that Japanese MNEs are unwilling to hire local managers	The number of Japanese expatriates is declining and has been for some time
123			Peng and Beamish (2007)	To examine how evolving FDI legitimacy in China influences two strategic choices (entry mode and expatriate staffing)	As FDI legitimacy improves over time, smaller subsidiaries tend to choose the wholly owned subsidiary mode and deploy a higher percentage of expatriates, whereas larger subsidiaries tend to choose the joint venture mode and use a lower percentage of expatriates; and that Japanese subsidiaries are more likely to have a local manager, and this tendency may be stronger for larger subsidiaries
124			Bouquet et al. (2004)	To investigate the effect of operating in service industries, in which separability and human capital intensity factors influence the choice of foreign entry mode and expatriate staffing decisions	In situations where required capabilities must be developed through (1) close contacts with end customers and (2) high levels of professional skills, specialized know-how, and customization, wholly owned subsidiaries, and expatriate staff are preferred
125			Widmier et al. (2008)	To investigate the relationship between Dunning’s OLI variables and expatriate staffing ratios (the ratio of expatriates to local employees)	With respect to the two ownership variables (capital investment and FDI experience) only FDI experience is significantly related to higher expatriate staffing ratios in Japanese new foreign subsidiaries
126			Peng and Beamish (2014b)	To examine the U-shaped relationship between subsidiary size and expatriate staffing level	The U-shaped relationship between subsidiary size and expatriate staffing level, together with the other three moderating relationships, accounts for a significant amount of variance in expatriate staffing level both crosssectionally and longitudinally
127			Delios and Bjorkman (2000)	To examine and explore expatriate staffing decisions in foreign wholly owned subsidiaries and joint ventures of Japanese firms located in China and the United States	The control function is more prominent in joint ventures in China than in the US. Expatriates play a more significant knowledge-transfer function role in technology and marketing-intensive industries in China than in the US. A lack of MNE experience in China is associated with limited use of expatriates. Expatriate employment is negatively related to the number of subsidiaries of the parent company worldwide
128			Xu et al. (2004)	To develop the regulative and normative distance measures and empirically test their effectiveness in explaining MNE ownership and expatriate strategies	The regulative and normative distances influence Japanese MNEs’ ownership and expatriate strategies in their sub-units abroad
129			Schotter and Beamish (2011)	To examine (1) how one can reliably measure institutional differences at the subnational level (e.g., between different provinces in China); (2) how the results of within-country studies of the foreign subsidiary general manager (GM) staffing decisions compare with the aggregated results of previous between-country studies in explaining subsidiary GM staffing decisions; (3) how the different staffing decisions affect subsidiary performance	MNEs that invest in Chinese provinces with lower FDI legitimacy use more local nationals as subsidiary general managers (GMs), compared to MNEs that invest in provinces with higher FDI legitimacy. In provinces with low FDI legitimacy, subsidiaries with local GMs perform relatively better than subsidiaries with expatriate GMs. This effect is particularly strong for wholly owned subsidiaries, as compared with joint ventures, and applies to all provinces except the most developed coastal regions. In provinces with higher levels of FDI legitimacy, these effects are reversed
130			Wilkinson et al. (2008)	To explore the diminishing influence of national cultural distance on two subsidiary control issues, expatriate staffing and parent company ownership level of the foreign subsidiary	Subsidiary age moderates the effect of cultural distance on expatriate staffing and ownership. Cultural distance has a significantly greater impact on subsidiary control mechanisms for newer subsidiaries than for older subsidiaries
131			Shin et al. (2017)	To investigate why, when, and in which direction the cultural distance between an MNE’s home and host country affects the deployment decision between expatriate parent country nationals (PCNs) and local staff	There exists a U-shaped relationship between cultural distance and the proportion of expatriate parent country nationals and a moderating (steepening) effect of tightness–looseness on this relationship
132			Gaur et al. (2007)	To examine (1) how the institutional distance between home and host countries affects MNE subsidiary staffing decisions; and (2) the performance consequences of a subsidiary’s staff composition, and how these consequences are contingent on institutional distance and subsidiary age	MNEs that invest in Chinese provinces with lower FDI legitimacy use more local nationals as subsidiary general managers (GMs), compared to MNEs that invest in provinces with higher FDI legitimacy. In provinces with low FDI legitimacy, subsidiaries with local GMs perform relatively better than subsidiaries with expatriate GMs. This effect is particularly strong for wholly owned subsidiaries, as compared with joint ventures, and applies to all provinces except the most developed coastal regions. In provinces with higher levels of FDI legitimacy, these effects are reversed
133	Location choice		Henisz and Delios (2001)	To examine how firm-specific uncertainty and policy uncertainty influence the kind of imitative market entry strategies	Prior decisions and actions by other organizations provide legitimization and information to a decision marked by uncertainty, and this effect holds when the uncertainty comes from a firm’s lack of experience in a market but not when the uncertainty derives from the structure of a market’s policymaking apparatus
134			Delios and Henisz (2003b)	To examine how the political environment influences choices about which markets to enter for firms with different levels and types of international investment experience	Firms with relevant types of international experience are less sensitive to the deterring effect of uncertain policy environments on investment
135			Zhou et al. (2002)	To examine the role that policy determinants had in influencing the subnational location decision of Japanese firms in China	The Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and Opening Coastal Cities (OCCs) were a successful policy instrument initially, as SEZs and OCCs had a strong influence on Japanese foreign investment during the early years of China’s liberalized foreign investment environment. Since the mid-1990s SEZs and OCCs have attracted proportionally less foreign investment as competition from other special investment zones has intensified in China
136			Hu et al. (2021b)	To examine how intergovernmental ties at subnational levels between home and host countries influence the intensity and location of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows	The sister-city relationships heighten the profile of a potential investment location, increase information and understanding of a potential investment location, and sway policy and incentives from the country of the sister-city partner toward an MNE
137			Lupton et al. (2020)	To examine the extent to which host country income inequality influences multinational enterprises’ (MNE) expansion strategy for foreign production investment, depending on their specific strategic objectives	As inequality increases, MNEs accrue lower transaction costs arising from interactions with various local actors, leading to higher probability of investment. As income inequality increases further, its effect on location attractiveness will become negative. The impact of income inequality is contingent on investment objectives: The inverted U-shaped relationship is stronger for efficiency-seeking investment but weaker for market-seeking and competence-enhancing investments
138			Dolansky and Alon (2008)	To examine the impact of religion—religious freedom and religious diversity—on the foreign direct investment of Japanese companies	Of the religious freedom and diversity that are thought to attract more FDI, only religious diversity has an impact on FDI, and that impact is relatively small compared to the size of the economy
139			Azémar and Delios (2008)	In this paper we investigate the sensitivity of Japanese firm location choices to statutory corporate tax rates across developing countries	Special tax sparing provisions signed with Japan can alter the effect of host country taxes on Japanese firms’ location choices. Finally, we find that even though tax competition can be strong in developing countries, this competition should not lead to an effective rate of zero taxation for these countries in their competition for FDI inflows
140			Voyer and Beamish (2004)	To examine the relationship between corruption and Japanese FDI	There exists a negative effect of corruption on Japanese foreign investment, especially in emerging economies
141			Peng and Beamish (2008)	To examine the relationship between Japanese foreign direct investment (FDI) and the national corporate responsibility (NCR) environment in host countries using corporate social responsibility and international business theories	The level of national corporate responsibility (NCR) has a positive relationship with FDI inflow for developing countries. The relationship for developed countries is negative but not statistically significant
142			Kunsch et al. (2014)	To examine the relationship between the relative rule of law of home and host countries, the home country’s institutional frame, and foreign direct investment (FDI)	While the rule of law is a predictor of FDI per capita, the relative nature of the rule of law between home and host countries in higher rule-of-law home countries is also important. Companies from Japan, a high-level rule of law country, do seek out similar or higher rule of law environments for higher levels of FDI per capita investments while companies from a medium level rule of law country, South Korea, are less beholden to institutional standards
143			Ma and Delios (2007)	To investigate how this variance influences the timing of entry, entry mode, industrial traits, and survival rates for Japanese foreign direct investments (FDIs) made in China’s two major metropolises—Shanghai, the economic center, and Beijing, the political capital	Japanese multinational enterprises (MNEs) tend to choose an economic-oriented rather than a political-oriented city as their investment location, with the consequence being higher survival likelihoods in Shanghai than in Beijing
144			Qian and Delios (2008)	To explore whether multinational banks (MNBs), like other service firms, have a shift in their motive for international expansion from client servicing to local market expansion, as learning and experience are accumulated in a host country	Banks undertake foreign direct investment to secure internalization benefits by following their existing clients, and to achieve economies of scale in the application of their intangible assets in international markets. The magnitude of these relationships, however, is contingent upon the level of a bank’s experience in the host countries
145			Arregle et al. (2009)	To examine whether a firm’s localization decisions depend on or are influenced by its previous market entry and exit decisions at the regional level	A firm’s prior entry and exit at the regional level have a significant impact on its subsequent foreign subsidiary location decision
146			Jiang et al. (2014a)	To investigate how vicarious experience affects MNE location decisions by reducing investment barriers arising from formal and informal institutional environments in host countries	As other firms’ experiences in a host country increase, a firm is less deterred by greater institutional distance from entering the country. The distance-mitigating effect of other firms’ experiences in different industries is less significant when a larger body of same-industry firm experience exists in a country
147			Arregle et al. (2013)	To examine institutional effects in the context of semiglobalization by considering the influences of three formal institutions (i.e., regulatory control, political democracy, capital investments) of countries and geographic regions on MNEs’ location choices of internationalization	The degree of internationalization into a country is influenced by both country and regional institutional environments
148			Arregle et al. (2016)	To investigate the different effects of its two components (i.e., region’s institutional diversity and number of countries in a region) on MNEs’ decisions to locate their foreign direct investments (FDIs) into a country	There exists a U-shaped relationship between a region’s institutional diversity and MNE internationalization: extremely low or high regional institutional diversity has negative effects on internationalization, but moderate diversity has a positive effect on internationalization. Larger numbers of countries within the region reduce MNE internationalization in a linear fashion
149			Arregle et al. (2018)	To examine the degree to which firm-level attributes determine the extent of semiglobalization, i.e., the extent of regional integration	There exists a strong correlation between the different measures of an MNE’s geographic scope (international dispersion [ID] and country institutional diversity [CID]). Even though an MNE’s CID and ID are conceptually different, they are empirically strongly correlated
150			Chan et al. (2006)	To examine the extent to which the prior entry and exit decisions of other MNEs influence the subsequent entry decisions of an MNE; and the extent to which an MNE’s own prior entry and exit decisions influence its subsequent entry decision	An MNE’s market entry decision has a stronger inverted U-shaped relationship with the prior entry and exit decisions of other MNEs at the local industry level than the prior entry and exit decisions of other MNEs at the host country and global industry levels. Both the prior entry and prior exit decisions of an MNE have a marginal influence on its own subsequent market entry decisions at the parent firm level
151			Stallkamp et al. (2018)	To examine how the initial subnational entry location of foreign multinational enterprises (MNEs) in China influences their subsequent within-country location choices and expansion speed	Entry through subnational locations with strong co-ethnic communities is followed by expansion into other locations where co-ethnic communities are present; and entry through co-ethnic communities accelerates the pace at which MNEs establish additional subsidiaries in China. Co-ethnic community effects continue to influence within-country MNE activities
152			Jiang et al. (2016)	In this study, we focus on cross-border linkages within the firm and specifically examine the question: how do spatial relations between subsidiaries influence MNE expansion strategy? We examine how the spatial structure of MNE subsidiaries in supranational regions affects subsidiary location choices	Firms are more likely to establish new production subsidiaries in countries geographically more proximate to existing production subsidiaries, but not to trading subsidiaries, in the same region. The proximity effect diminishes for production subsidiaries engaged in accessing natural resources or R&D. Performance of production subsidiaries is also stronger for those closer to other production subsidiaries in the same region
153			Jiang and Beamish (2020a)	To examine how strategic and resource contingencies moderate factors that affect how prior entries into a host country influence subsequent entry decisions	Differences in investment motives (i.e., horizontal and vertical investment) and corporate capabilities (i.e., marketing and production capabilities) moderate how prior entries into a host country affect subsequent entry decisions. In general, the positive impact of prior entries on investment in a country is weaker for horizontal investments and stronger for vertical investments
154			Delios and Henisz (2003a)	To investigate how policy uncertainty influences choices about the sequence of establishment of operations in a market	While a distribution to manufacturing entry sequence tends to prevail in countries with low levels of policy uncertainty, as uncertainty in the policy environment increases, initial entry by distribution is increasingly likely to be eschewed in favor of an initial entry by a joint venture manufacturing plant
155			Boeh and Beamish (2012)	To develop a new construct, dyad travel time, and examine its impact on firm-level strategic choice (entry mode)	Firms using shared entry modes select locations with greater monitoring efficiency (i.e., low travel time). While the times for shared entry modes decrease woyj experience those for non-shared modes do not
156	Internationalization		Voyer and Beamish (2004)	To examine the relationship between corruption and Japanese FDI	There exists a negative effect of corruption on Japanese foreign investment particularly in emerging economies
157			Delios et al. (2008a)	To investigate how the home organizational environment as related to inter-firm rivalry, as well the characteristics of competing firms, can act independently and jointly as impetuses to the international expansion decision	Firms from high-concentration industries quickly imitate competitors’ foreign entry moves during the early stage of entry into a new geographic market
158			Hashai and Delios (2012)	To examine the relationship between geographic and product diversification that takes into account the current levels of both types of diversification when predicting future levels of these two types of diversification	The relationships between geographic and product diversification are likely to differ according to the current levels of diversification in both directions. Under-diversification in one path and overdiversification in the other will lead to an expansion of the former at the expense of the latter, hence leading to a negative correlation between geographic and product diversification. Firms that are either under-diversified or overdiversified in both directions will respectively increase diversification or decrease it along both paths
159			Chung et al. (2010)	To examine how the real options orientations of individual subsidiaries (within-country growth and across country operational flexibility) interact with the general characteristics of multinational enterprise networks	Economic crises can be detrimental for subsidiaries with stronger within-country orientations, and advantageous for those with stronger across-country orientations; and network characteristics are not the sole determinants of subsidiary expansion/contraction—what really matters is how the real options orientations of individual subsidiaries mesh with the overall characteristics of the network they belong to
160			Delios and Beamish (2005)	To explore whether multinational firms primarily adopt a home-region orientation rather than a global one, as proposed by Rugman (2000) and Rugman and Verbeke (2003); and examine the strategies, characteristics, and performance of firms with a home-region orientation and compare them to those with a global orientation	Japanese firms with a home-oriented international strategy have lower performance (ROS, ROA and Tobin’s Q) than firms that had a host-oriented, bi-regional, or global strategy Well-internationalized firms (those with more than 50 FDls) that adopted a tri-regional or quad-regional global strategy, had significantly and substantively higher performance, than those using a home-oriented or host-oriented regional expansion strategy
161			Chakravarty et al. (2017)	To examine (1) how regional management centers (RMCs), regional management mandates (RMMs), and regional headquarters (RHQs) differ in their characteristics and performance; (2) how characteristics and performance differ between MNEs deploying different RMC configurations; and (3) how characteristics of RMCs, and of MNEs with RMCs evolve over time	Japanese MNE deployment of regional management centres (RMCs) varies considerably by region and country; at the foreign affiliate level, regional headquarters (RHQs) and regional management mandates (RMMs) differ significantly in terms of characteristics and performance; the three types of MNEs which use RMCs as part of their governance structure (those with both RHQs and RMMs, those with only RHQs, and those with only RMMs) differ significantly from each other in regard to characteristics and performance; and there are some notable trends over time concerning RMC establishment, characteristics and performance at the affiliate and parent levels
162			Schotter et al. (2017)	To examine under which conditions MNEs disaggregate headquarters (HQs) to the regional level, and which form of disaggregation they choose	Regional management centre (RMC) formation is more likely for MNEs with a greater regional footprint (i.e., the number of subsidiaries in logarithmic form associated with a focal MNE in a focal region). A greater regional footprint should increase the likelihood of an MNE choosing a regional headquarters (RHQ) over a regional management mandate (RMM). MNEs with more dispersed subsidiaries (i.e., a larger number of countries in which the focal MNE has subsidiaries) should be more likely to choose RMMs over RHQs. MNEs that have more experience in a region when establishing their first RMC are more likely to choose RHQs over RMMs
163			Plourde et al. (2014)	To explore the circumstances under which expatriates can help their host-subsidiary capture headquarters’ attention	Subsidiaries hosting expatriates and experiencing growth at the subsidiary or market level have a higher probability of capturing headquarters’ attention
164	Research methodology		Asmussen and Goerzen (2013)	To develop a framework that simultaneously considers the interregional, intercultural, and interinstitutional dispersion of MNEs; and investigate the contingencies that underpin the degree to which the foreign direct investment (FDI) of MNEs is globally oriented along these three dimensions	Firms are significantly more dispersed across cultural and, in particular, institutional boundaries, than they are across geographically defined regional boundaries. Certain firm-specific resources such as technology, marketing, and partnering capabilities are associated with firms’ global dispersion
165			Schotter et al. (2018)	To investigate how interactive visualization improves research contextualization and insight generation from spatial, temporal, and other relational data beyond those generated by existing approaches	Applying interactive visualization early on improves contextualization by means of simultaneous dynamic representations of various phenomena and their respective properties and relationships, even for phenomena that have been widely researched before, like in the cases of international joint ventures and MNE foreign direct investment
166			Boeh and Beamish (2012)	To develop a new construct, dyad travel time, and examine its impact on firm-level strategic choice (entry mode)	Firms using shared entry modes select locations with greater monitoring efficiency (i.e., low travel time). While the times for shared entry modes decrease woyj experience those for non-shared modes do not
167			Arregle et al. (2006)	To present a multilevel model of international mode of entry and test this model with a well-known dataset using two statistical methods	Research on mode of international entry has a clear conceptual and empirical multilevel dimension. Non-multilevel quantitative methods limit the conceptual development of this research and have negative statistical consequences that pose a risk for the validity and robustness of the results. In contrast, multilevel quantitative methods provide benefits when incorporating them for research on the selection of an entry mode. This has important methodological implications for future quantitative research on this topic
168			Ma et al. (2020)	To develop a new classification scheme, we focus on the totality of an MNE’s subsidiaries within a single host country as a unit of analysis, emphasizing a host country headquarters (HCHQ) perspective rather than a corporate headquarters (HQ) or a subsidiary perspective	We develop a novel perspective on MNE management that focuses on the totality of an MNE’s subsidiaries within a single host country, which can help address questions of how MNEs can gain an advantage in the promising but challenging markets of emerging economies. By focusing on the host country and the entirety of an MNE’s subsidiaries in a host country as the unit of analysis, we delineate the importance of considering the operations of MNEs at three levels: the corporate HQ perspective, the subsidiary perspective, and the host-country perspective, as captured in our new level of analysis
169	FDI impact on domestic employment		Hong et al. (2019)	To investigate whether and how outbound foreign direct investment (FDI) boosts or reduces domestic employment by multinational enterprises (MNEs)	Outbound FDI motivated by (1) market seeking for scale and scope expansion, (2) natural resource seeking, or (3) strategic asset seeking tends to enhance domestic employment by MNEs. However, outbound FDI motivated by (4) market seeking associated with declines in domestic demand or (5) labor resource seeking tends to reduce domestic employment by MNEs
170			Lee et al. (2020)	To examine the impacts of MNEs’ three most commonly observed forms of non-conventional outbound FDI (i.e., as a means to counter trade barriers, to achieve a financial hedge, or to obtain tax breaks) on domestic employment levels of MNEs at home	Non-conventional outbound FDI in core business activities reduces MNEs’ domestic employment levels when the investment is primarily for responding to country-specific conditions, such as circumventing host country restrictions (e.g., FDI to counter trade barriers) or escaping from home country restrictions (e.g., FDI for tax incentive packages), while FDI in non-core business activities (e.g., FDI for financial hedging or FDI in tax havens) has either a positive or insignificant effect on MNEs’ domestic employment levels depending on whether it aims to develop FSAs or not