Abstract: This study examines the influence of parent firm reputation risk on the level of corporate social responsibility activities of foreign subsidiaries. We first argue that a strong reputation risk spillover occurs from parent firms to their foreign subsidiaries due to the high visibility of multinationals, the control of parent firms over their subsidiaries, and the liability of foreignness associated with foreign firms in host countries. Then, we argue that subsidiaries may resort to CSR in their host country to reduce the spillover effect. Thus, we hypothesize a positive relationship between parent firm reputation risk and foreign subsidiary CSR activities. Moreover, we explore several contingency factors at both the parent firm and subsidiary levels that affect the extent of spillover and the need for subsidiaries to use CSR as a buffer against parent firm reputation risk. We find that the positive relationship between parent firm reputation risk and foreign subsidiary CSR activities is weaker for foreign subsidiaries that directly report to the parent firm, with longer operations in the host country and larger institutional distance between host and home countries. Using a unique sample of subsidiaries of large multinationals in China from 2009 to 2016, we find general support for our arguments.
论文原文：
Zhou, N., & Wang, H. 2020. Foreign subsidiary CSR as a buffer against parent firm reputation risk. Journal of International Business Studies, 51(8): 1256-1282. DOI: 10.1057/s41267-020-00345-7
Abstract: The lifetime of foreign equity partnerships is often limited. Research suggests that MNCs abandon their local partners when the need for sharing ownership in foreign subsidiaries has diminished. This study shows that MNCs may abandon their local equity partners to reap the benefits of multinationality: as MNCs gain a competitive advantage from leveraging resources across borders, they will initially benefit from sharing ownership with a local firm, to embed their foreign subsidiaries in the local environment and access local resources more effectively. Later, they will benefit from taking over the local partner's equity share, to better embed their subsidiaries in the parent organization and transfer locally accessed resources to the MNC's other locations. Moderated-mediation regressions provide evidence of such practice in the context of cross-border transfers of capital resources. This strategy seems to work: as a corollary of our model, panel regressions suggest that sharing ownership with local firms in a host country with a capital resource advantage is associated with appropriating more capital resources from the local debt market, while abandoning these partner firms later is associated with transferring more capital resources from this host country, via internal capital markets, to other parts of the MNC.
论文原文：
Fisch, J. H., & Schmeisser, B. 2020. Phasing the operation mode of foreign subsidiaries: Reaping the benefits of multinationality through internal capital markets. Journal of International Business Studies, 51(8): 1223-1255. DOI: 10.1057/s41267-020-00321-1
Abstract: Under a worldwide tax system, firms pay taxes on their domestic income and repatriated foreign income, whereas under a territorial tax system repatriated foreign income is exempt from taxation. We examine whether worldwide tax systems reduce the incentives of multinational corporations to engage in tax management in their foreign subsidiaries. Using two quasi-natural experiments, we show that multinationals lower the effective tax rates in their foreign subsidiaries after countries switch from a worldwide to a territorial tax system. Thus, multinationals subject to a worldwide tax system face competitive disadvantages compared to competitors from countries with a territorial tax system.
论文原文：
Kohlhase, S., & Pierk, J. 2020. The effect of a worldwide tax system on tax management of foreign subsidiaries. Journal of International Business Studies, 51(8): 1312-1330. DOI: 10.1057/s41267-019-00287-9
Abstract: Host-country terrorism poses extreme uncertainty to MNEs' foreign operations. However, little is known about how MNEs respond to host-country terrorist attacks and how they make the related decisions. Drawing on the research on MNEs' responses to exogenous shocks and the inter-firm imitation literature, we argue that MNEs obtain relevant information from peers' actions under terrorist attacks to inform their own responses. Thus, MNEs are more likely to divest under host-country terrorist attacks when peers also divest. Furthermore, the impact of peers' divestments on focal MNEs' divestments is magnified by the temporal consistency in peers' behavioral pattern under terrorist attacks, as temporal consistency reduces inferential difficulties. Empirical evidence based on 93 Fortune US companies and their 8698 foreign subsidiaries over 2005-2015 support our hypotheses. Our study extends the literature on MNEs' responses to host-country exogenous shocks and on inter-firm imitation by demonstrating the social amplification of terrorism threat and the role of temporal consistency in inter-firm imitation under extreme uncertainty. Practically, we stress that MNE executives should always consider their firms' idiosyncratic situations when modeling peer MNEs' actions, and be mindful that they are especially likely to imitate peers' temporally consistent behaviors under extreme uncertainty.
论文原文：
Liu, C., & Li, D. 2020. Divestment response to host-country terrorist attacks: Inter-firm influence and the role of temporal consistency. Journal of International Business Studies, 51(8): 1331-1346. DOI: 10.1057/s41267-020-00333-x
Abstract: Much of the rising international connectedness of city-regions has developed from MNEs replacing local connections with (superior) international ones. This often creates local disconnectedness that energizes the current populist backlash against MNE activities. We develop approaches to new IB theory, addressing the interdependencies of MNEs and city-regions that we propose as a crucial avenue for future research. We contrast two generic MNE strategies. The first is the traditional one: the 'global orchestration' of resources and markets. We argue that it exacerbates local disconnectedness. The second, that we call 'local spawning,' involves engaging with the local entrepreneurial eco-system to create and renew local connectedness, diffusing populist responses. Some MNEs are better able to implement a local spawning strategy, due to industry factors like innovation clock-speed, and firm characteristics like organizational path dependency. Finally, we distinguish between disconnection, which is an outcome of MNE strategy, and global disruptions, like the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which are primarily stochastic events. Addressing disconnections requires MNEs to re-orient their strategies while dealing with disruptions requires undertaking risk mitigation. We present empirical evidence from city-regions around the world to illustrate our theory.
论文原文：
Lorenzen, M., Mudambi, R., & Schotter, A. 2020. International connectedness and local disconnectedness: MNE strategy, city-regions and disruption. Journal of International Business Studies, 51(8): 1199-1222. DOI: 10.1057/s41267-020-00339-5
6、跨国团队中的文化鸿沟弥合
摘要：跨国团队是一个组织现实，但他们也提出了许多挑战。文献表明，具有多元文化身份的个人更可能表现出提升跨国团队中跨文化互动的行为，尽管学者们尚未确定这些行为的精确性质。本研究通过识别五种团队文化鸿沟弥合行为（cultural gap bridging/CGB：促进、翻译、整合、中介和移情安慰）的多方法双研究设计填补了这个研究空白。在研究1中，作者利用一个定性数据集和两个定量数据集来识别团队内部的CGB行为，并开发出了对CGB行为的测量方法。在研究2中，作者利用两轮的问卷调查，研究文化身份多元性与CGB行为的直接关系，以及通过文化智力的间接关系，并提供了实证支持。
Abstract: Multinational teams are an organizational reality, but they present several challenges. The literature suggests that individuals with multicultural identities are more likely to show behaviors that aim at improving intercultural interactions in multinational teams, though scholars have yet to determine the precise nature of these behaviors. We address this research gap in a multimethod two-study design by identifying five team cultural gap bridging behaviors (CGB behaviors: facilitating, translating, integrating, mediating, and empathetic comforting). In Study 1, we draw on one qualitative and two quantitative datasets to identify within-team CGB behaviors and develop a measure of CGB behaviors. In Study 2, drawing from two-wave survey data, we investigate and find support for the direct relationships between cultural identity plurality and CGB behaviors and the indirect relationships via cultural intelligence.
