Dear friends and colleagues,
The fourth issue of Global Strategy Journal in 2020 is out! It contains nine articles studying global corporate governance. The issue opens with an overview of finance and global strategy (Puck
& Filatotchev). It continues with three analyses of firms¡¯ leadership: one on CEOS (Thams, Chacar, & Wiersema) and two on boards of directors (Reuer & Klijn; Douglas Fernandez & Sundaramurthy). The issue concludes with five papers analyzing the impact of ownership
on global strategy: two articles on state ownership (Heugens, Sauerwald, Turturea, & van Essen; Mariotti & Marzano), two on family ownership (Lahiri, Mukherjee, & Peng; Fourn¨¦ & Zschoche) and one studying multiple types of owners (Bahl, Kriauciunas, & Brush).
The papers were accepted as regular submissions. Together, their insightful ideas offer the state of the art on global corporate governance.
As always, we look forward to receiving your best work for consideration for publication.
Best wishes,
Gabriel R. G. Benito, Alvaro Cuervo-Cazurra, and Ram Mudambi, Co-editors of Global Strategy Journal
Jonas Puck, Igor Filatotchev
This paper argues for, and contributes to, a stronger integration of research on finance and international business/global strategy. We perform bibliometric analysis of journal publications between 2010 and 2016 and show that papers published in the two domains
relate to very different underlying literatures which, so far, have had a limited overlap. We further argue based on a qualitative review of the literature that both fields offer substantial novel perspectives, models, and theories to each other that have
the potential to enrich our theoretical understanding of relevant research questions in both domains. We map various pathways for further integration of international business/global strategy and finance fields and discuss different ways how to better connect
the two fields and their different research perspectives and research methodologies.
Yannick Thams, Aya Chacar, Margarethe Wiersema
The appointment of a new CEO is among the most pivotal and visible decisions made by a board of directors. While prior research has surveyed the impact of performance and governance©\related factors on CEO selection decisions, our understanding of the implications
of a firm's global context is limited. This article explores the influence of home country globalization, international diversification, and the undertaking of major cross©\border acquisitions on the appointment of a CEO with a global mind©\set. Using a sample
of European and U.S. firms from the Global 500 ranking from 2005 to 2010, we find that companies are likely to match the characteristics of new CEOs with their global strategic contexts.
Jeffrey J. Reuer, Elko Klijn
We examine board leadership structures in international joint ventures (IJVs) and investigate the determinants of CEO duality (i.e., the CEO also serves as chair). In contrast to corporate governance research emphasizing principal©\agent conflicts in corporations,
we argue that duality in IJVs can impair the board's execution of its responsibilities when the chair reflects the interests of one of the partners. We consider how unique characteristics of IJVs as organizational forms can exacerbate such governance challenges.
In addition, we investigate how formal and relational governance mechanisms supporting IJVs might mitigate these concerns and lead parent firms to adopt unified board leadership structures. By joining the IJV and corporate governance literatures, we identify
some of the distinctive properties and determinants of this facet of IJV governance.
Whitney Douglas Fernandez, Chamu Sundaramurthy
Board scholarship has generally taken the perspective that when it comes to board expertise, more is better. This study, in contrast, explores contingencies that may stretch board experience beyond the limits of its usefulness. We integrate insights from extant
research in board leadership and international strategy to identify and test internal and external contextual factors that can limit the effectiveness of boards' international experience. Exploring this in the context of cross©\border M&As, we find evidence
that the positive effects of boards' international experience are attenuated when the CEO lacks such knowledge, and when the institutional distance between the home and target countries is high. Overall, our findings suggest the need to exercise caution in
viewing board expertise as a ¡°panacea¡± of board effectiveness.
Pursey P. M. A. R. Heugens, Steve Sauerwald, Roxana Turturea, Marc van Essen
We argue that state ownership is a crucial policy instrument for alleviating what is perhaps the most important principal¨Cprincipal (PP) agency problem around the globe: private benefits of control (PBC). Our results illustrate that states reduce PBC in the
companies in which they acquire controlling ownership positions. We also examine how legal and political institutions influence the extent to which states accomplish this goal. Antiself©\dealing legal regulations make states more effective in their efforts
to constrain PBC, while political constraints make them less effective. Regimes with high state capacity appear not to prioritize PBC reduction. We test and corroborate these ideas in a sample of 1,354 control transactions across 54 countries.
Sergio Mariotti, Riccardo Marzano
We investigate when and how a foreign multinational enterprise by acting as a relational co©\owner helps the internationalization of hybrid state©\owned enterprises. We merge the ¡°liability of stateness¡± and the ¡°government as strategist¡± perspectives with an
institutional context©\based approach. We claim that the effect of multinational enterprise relational co©\ownership is contingent on the countries' institutional settings. It is positive at lower levels of both institutional coordination (as a measure of variety
of capitalism) and government effectiveness. This effect is mitigated as coordination and government effectiveness increase. Further, a comparison between hybrid state©\owned and private©\owned enterprises shows that the magnitude of the contribution by foreign
relational co©\owners to internationalization is also moderated by institutional variables.
Somnath Lahiri, Debmalya Mukherjee, Mike W. Peng
We review and synthesize the growing literature concerning the internationalization of small and medium©\sized family enterprises (family SMEs) around a strategy tripod framework. In doing so, we identify various resource©\based, institution©\based, and industry©\based
factors that contribute to family SME internationalization endeavors. We also pinpoint possible home©\country©\level and host©\country©\level institutional and industry©\based structural¨Ccultural contingencies that may interact with family SME resource©\based factors
to accentuate or impede their internationalization. Moreover, we highlight different behavioral orientations as crucial missing links that characterize the family SME internationalization scholarship. Overall, our comprehensive synthesis of the literature
sheds light on how internationalization strategies of family SMEs vary based on important drivers and contextual influences captured in our tripod framework.
Sebastian P. L. Fourn¨¦, Miriam Zschoche
This paper examines to what extent family firms rely on imitation when deciding on foreign investment growth, highlighting the role of mimetic isomorphism and social categories. We propose that family firms pursue trait©\based imitation to reduce uncertainty
in follow©\up foreign direct investment (FDI), and test our predictions on a large sample of German family firms. We find that family firms imitate successful peers that are also owned by a family. A family firm's tendency to imitate is strengthened during
the initial years in a foreign market or when the firm is publicly listed. Performance below or above social aspiration strengthens or weakens imitation, respectively. We discuss the implications for research at the nexus of foreign investment growth, social
categories, and the pursuit of imitation by family firms.
Mona Bahl, Aldas Kriauciunas, Thomas H Brush
This paper investigates the joint effect of ownership type and knowledge transfer on success of change. For knowledge transfer, we include transfer of both tacit and codified knowledge, and for ownership type, we consider state owned, privately founded, and
privatized firms. We argue that incentives and monitoring mechanisms will cause a given ownership type to moderate the direct effect of knowledge transfer on success of change. Using data from firms in four transition economy countries, we find that the relationship
between knowledge transfer and success of change is stronger for state owned firms compared to privately founded and privatized firms.
Alvaro CUERVO-CAZURRA
Professor, International Business and Strategy, Northeastern University
Co-editor, Global Strategy Journal
D'Amore-McKim School of Business, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston MA 02115, USA
[log in to unmask]. +1-617-373-6568. www.cuervo-cazurra.com.
Recent articles:
Informality costs: Informal entrepreneurship and innovation in emerging economies. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal
State ownership and internationalization: The advantage and disadvantage of stateness. Journal of World Business
Skepticism on globalization and global strategy: Increasing regulations and countervailing strategies. Global Strategy Journal
Recent books:
Building Strategic Capabilities in Emerging Markets. Cambridge University Press
State-Owned Multinationals: Governments in Global Business. Palgrave
Mexican Multinationals: Building Multinationals in Emerging Markets. Cambridge University Press
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