Internationalization and performance: evidence from Chinese firms

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chao Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Firm Size ◽  
Small Firms ◽  
Manufacturing Firms ◽  
Research Database ◽  
Large Firms ◽  
Chinese Firms ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Overseas Subsidiaries ◽  
A Share

Purpose This paper aims to test the internationalization–performance relationship based on data of Chinese firms and the impact of firm size on the internationalization–performance relationship. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses overseas subsidiaries as a percentage of total subsidiaries to measure the degree of internationalization. As the overseas subsidiaries and total subsidiaries data of Chinese A-share listed firms are not available in any existing databases, the author hand-collected information on subsidiaries of Chinese A-share listed manufacturing firms from their annual financial reports during 2001-2014. The basic accounting and market information is collected from the China Stock Market and Accounting Research Database. This paper finally gets 535 manufacturing firms. Findings The empirical results suggest that the internationalization–performance relationship is W-shaped in overall samples, but varies with firm size. Specifically, the internationalization–performance relationship is W-shaped in small firms and U-shaped in large firms. Research limitations/implications Future studies based on unlisted Chinese firms or other measurement of internationalization may provide further understanding of the internationalization–performance relationship. Practical implications Policymakers should help small firms prepare a long-term internationalization strategy, giving more support for small firms in the first and third phases of internationalization and helping them to reach the second and fourth phases. Policymakers should also pay more attention to limit the aggressive internationalization behavior of large firms. Originality/value This study provides new evidence for the internationalization–performance relationship by using the unique longitude sample from China and the unique measurement of internationalization. We also highlight the importance of firm characteristics in the examination of internationalization–performance relationship, which provides a potential explanation for previous mixed evidence.

How does corporate learning orientation enhance industrial brand equity? The roles of firm capabilities and size

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 231-243 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi Xie ◽  
Xiaoying Zheng
Keyword(s):  
Brand Equity ◽  
Firm Size ◽  
Small Firms ◽  
Learning Orientation ◽  
Innovation Capability ◽  
Marketing Capabilities ◽  
Marketing Capability ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Corporate Learning ◽  
The Impact

Purpose This paper aims to examine the role of learning orientation in building brand equity for B2B firms. The present research proposes that learning orientation contributes to the development of innovation and marketing capabilities and, in turn, leads to enhanced industrial brand equity. Furthermore, the moderating effect of firm size in these processes is investigated. Design/methodology/approach The hypotheses are tested by administering a survey with a set of managers of manufacturing firms in China. Findings Innovation capability and marketing capability serve as the mediators between learning orientation and industrial brand equity. The mediating path through innovation capability is stronger for small firms than for large firms. Research limitations/implications Learning orientation provides a cultural base for B2B firms to cultivate brand equity. Measurement of industrial brand equity and contingency of its effect requires further investigation. Practical implications To transform learning-oriented culture into brand equity, firms need to develop and manage innovation and marketing capabilities. The learning orientation–innovation capability route is more beneficial for small firms. Originality/value While a majority of prior literature ignores the impact of organizational culture in driving industrial brand equity, the present research explores learning orientation as a key cultural antecedent of industrial brand equity. A more refined industrial-brand-equity-building mechanism from learning orientation to corporate capabilities and then to brand equity is proposed and tested. The mechanism varies with firm size.

The impact of firm size on competitive intelligence activities

foresight ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (5/6) ◽  
pp. 563-577
Author(s):  
Jonathan Calof
Keyword(s):  
Firm Size ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Competitive Intelligence ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Business Analytics ◽  
Large Firms ◽  
Process Variables ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Study Results ◽  
The Impact

Purpose Given the importance of competitive intelligence (CI) to the economic performance of firms, understanding whether CI practice is impacted by firm size or by their awareness of CI maybe important when creating programs designed to improve firms’ CI performance. This paper aims to address this by examining the extent to which the CI practices of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and large firms differed using a sample of firms with knowledge/awareness of CI. Design/methodology/approach A survey was developed that included 10 CI organization questions and 67 CI process questions. The survey was sent to a sample with awareness/knowledge of CI – strategic and CI professionals (SCIP) members and individuals who had attended SCIP events T-tests were then used to compare the SME’s and large firms’ responses to the 10 CI organization and 67 CI process questions. Findings For firms with CI awareness/knowledge, the study results suggest that size has very little relationship with CI practice. Of the 10 CI organization variables, only two were significantly different between the SME’s and the large firms. Large firms had more full-time CI staff and were more likely to have a formal intelligence unit compared to the SME’s. Of the 67 CI process variables, only four were significantly different between the SME’s and the large firms. Large firms made more use of company intranet for distributing CI findings use business analytics software and use commercial databases for information than SME’s while the SME’s used social media, in particular Facebook more than large firms, in their competitive intelligence activities. Originality/value This study uses a sample frame of firms with CI awareness/knowledge in examining differences between SME’s and large firms CI practices.

Short sales and price discovery of Chinese cross-listed firms

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 408-421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun Chen ◽  
Alireza Tourani-Rad ◽  
Ronghua Yi
Keyword(s):  
Adverse Selection ◽  
Price Discovery ◽  
Short Selling ◽  
Chinese Firms ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Listed Firms ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
The Impact ◽  
A Share ◽  
H Share

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of short selling and margin trading on the price discovery and price informativeness of cross-listed firms, using a sample of Chinese firms listed on the China and Hong Kong stock exchanges. Design/methodology/approach – The sample consists of 67 Chinese cross-listed firms on A-share and H-share markets out of which 18 firms are allowed to be sold short/ traded on margin since March 2010. Using pre- and post-event period, the authors compare and contrast various market microstructure variables. The contributions of the home (A-share) and overseas (H-share) markets to the incorporation of new information into prices are calculated following the permanent-transitory approach of Gonzalo and Granger (1995) as well as the adverse selection component of Lin et al. (1995). Findings – The findings indicate that for the group of Chinese cross-listed firms that are not allowed to be sold short or bought on margin, the home (A-share) market contributes more to the price discovery process over time. However, for the group of cross-listed firms that are eligible for short selling and margin trading, the authors observe no significant difference in the contribution of either A- or H-share markets to the price discovery. The contribution of home market for these firms is even lower around the announcement of major events. The authors further find that while the short sale activities appears to be informative, measured by the adverse selection (AS) component of spread, on the whole they have not led the A-share markets to be more informative. Research limitations/implications – The sample of cross-listed Chinese firms that are allowed to be sold short or bought on margin are rather limited. Hence, the results should be read with some caution. Practical implications – The removal of short selling constraints appears to improve the contribution of the respective markets to the process price discovery, in the case for larger cross-listed firms. Originality/value – The authors shed new lights on how the introduction of short selling and margin trading impacts on the price discovery of the Chinese cross-listed firms. A further contribution of the study is the use of high frequency data, while most of the previous studies on the Chinese markets use daily data.

Industrial Research and Firm Size, Survival, and Growth in American Manufacturing, 1921–1946: An Assessment

1983 ◽  
Vol 43 (4) ◽  
pp. 953-980 ◽  
Author(s):  
David C. Mowery
Keyword(s):  
Firm Size ◽  
Small Firms ◽  
Firm Growth ◽  
Industrial Research ◽  
Large Firms ◽  
Research Activity ◽  
Growth And Survival ◽  
Survival And Growth ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

The literature on the development of American industrial research suggests that during the twentieth century large firms “dominated” industrial research, and reaped the majority of the benefits from such activity. This paper utilizes new data to analyze both the relationship between firm size and research employment and the impact of research activity on firm growth and survival during 1921–1946. The results suggest that large firms were no more research-intensive than were small firms during the 1921–1946 period. Research activity significantly enhanced the probability of firms' survival among the ranks of the 200 largest manufacturing firms during 1921–1946. Research employment also improved the growth performance of both large and small firms during 1933–1946.

Entrepreneurial marketing behaviours: impact of firm age, firm size and firm’s founder

2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pitsamorn Kilenthong ◽  
Claes M. Hultman ◽  
Gerald E. Hills
Keyword(s):  
Firm Size ◽  
Latent Variables ◽  
Small Firms ◽  
Firm Age ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Systematic Relationship ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Entrepreneurial Marketing ◽  
Large Survey ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to empirically test whether a systematic relationship exists between firms’ level of entrepreneurial marketing (EM) behaviours and firms’ characteristics, including firm age, firm size and firm’s founder. Design/methodology/approach This paper quantitatively investigates EM behaviours from data collected from 752 business owners through structured interviews. The data analysis applied was multi-group confirmatory factor analysis (multi-group CFA). Findings Results from the analysis show that not all of the firms’ characteristics determine firms’ level of EM practice. The level of EM behaviours has a systematic relationship with firms’ age but not with the founding status of the firms’ manager. The impact of firm size on the level of EM behaviours is evident only when the firms’ age is taken into account. Research limitations/implications This paper concludes that relationships between EM behaviours and firm characteristics are more complicated than anticipated. Firms’ characteristics alone may not be a good measure for identifying the level of a firm’s EM. EM cannot be conceptualized solely in relation to the activities of small firms, young firms or founder-operated firms. Originality/value This paper examines EM behaviours in a large survey and uses multi-group CFA to examine firms’ EM practice through latent variables, instead of observed variables. The findings should complement knowledge regarding the EM concept generated from existing literature.

Collaboration, product innovation, and sales: an empirical study of Chinese firms

2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-55 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Louis Troilo
Keyword(s):  
Firm Size ◽  
Product Innovation ◽  
Statistical Significance ◽  
Economic Effect ◽  
Ordinary Least Squares ◽  
Chinese Firms ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Chinese Companies ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Domestic Collaboration

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the role that collaborations, both foreign and domestic, play on product innovation, sales mix, and sales revenue for Chinese firms. Both statistical correlations and marginal (economic) effects of collaborations feature in the analysis. Design/methodology/approach – This study includes 2,700 Chinese firms across 15 industry sectors and 25 cities from a World Bank survey conducted in 2012; the data are stratified by firm size. Given the different types of dependent variables to be estimated, several methodologies are employed: logistic regression, Poisson regression, and ordinary least squares. The marginal effects of key variables are then calculated to demonstrate their economic impact. Findings – Regarding the likelihood of product innovation, collaboration with domestic (Chinese) companies is significant for Chinese micro, medium, and large enterprises. Being a foreign subsidiary is significant for the proportion of new products in the sales mix for small, medium, and large firms. Domestic collaboration can boost the sales of innovating small firms and innovating medium companies by nearly 113 and 140 percent, respectively. Originality/value – This study builds on the current literature by examining the impact of foreign vs domestic collaboration on Chinese firms, whereas most research examines foreign players only. It offers a more nuanced analysis by stratifying estimates according to firm size, and it goes beyond statistical significance to quantify the real economic effect of collaborations on Chinese companies.

Stock price discreteness and clustering: decimals and ordered probit model

2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-60
Author(s):  
Haksoon Kim
Keyword(s):  
Firm Size ◽  
Stock Price ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Small Firms ◽  
Probit Model ◽  
Ordered Probit ◽  
Ordered Probit Model ◽  
Large Firms ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Explanatory Variables

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to revisit the ordered probit model of Hausman et al. after the NYSE decimalization. Design/methodology/approach – The changed ordered probit model. Findings – The model can somewhat capture the different impact of trading-related “explanatory” variables on price changes among three different decimals but does not explain much about price discreteness and irregular transaction intervals among the existing models of stock price discreteness. Overall 1/16th and 1/24th range of the dependent variable is better explained by trading-related explanatory variables than 1/8th range of the dependent variable for small firms and there is not much difference in large firms among three decimals. The results imply that finer specification in decimalization and smaller firm size matters in trading after the decimalization project. Originality/value – First paper to revisit the ordered probit model of Hausman et al. after the NYSE decimalization.

scholarly journals Management-employee relations, firm size and job satisfaction

2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (8) ◽  
pp. 1260-1275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aysit Tansel ◽  
Şaziye Gazîoğlu
Keyword(s):  
Job Satisfaction ◽  
Maximum Likelihood ◽  
Firm Size ◽  
Small Firms ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Employee Relations ◽  
Large Firms ◽  
Employee Survey ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Employee Relationships

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the job satisfaction in relation to managerial attitudes towards employees and firm size using the linked employer-employee survey results in Britain. Design/methodology/approach – The authors first investigate the management-employee relationships and the firm size using maximum likelihood probit estimation. Next various measures of job satisfaction are related to the management-employee relations via maximum likelihood ordered probit estimates. Four measures of job satisfaction that have not been used often are considered. They are satisfaction with influence over job; satisfaction with amount of pay; satisfaction with sense of achievement and satisfaction with respect from supervisors. Findings – Main findings indicate that management-employee relationships are less satisfactory in the large firms than in the small firms. Job satisfaction levels are lower in large firms. Less satisfactory management-employee relationships in the large firms may be a major source of the observed lower level of job satisfaction in them. Practical implications – These results have important policy implications from the point of view of the firm management while achieving the aims of their organizations in particular in the large firms in the area of management-employee relationships. Improving the management-employee relations in large firms will increase employee satisfaction in many respects as well as increase productivity and reduce turnover. Originality/value – The nature of the management-employee relations with firm size and job satisfaction has not been investigated before.

Does ERP integration foster Cross-Functional Awareness? Challenging conventional wisdom for SMEs and large French firms

2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 865-886 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rolande Marciniak ◽  
Redouane E.L. Amrani ◽  
Frantz Rowe ◽  
Frédéric Adam
Keyword(s):  
Firm Size ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Implementation Strategies ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Large Firms ◽  
Erp Implementation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Indirect Relationship ◽  
The Impact

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of Cross-Functional Awareness (CFA) and to question how firm size influences the impact of ERP implementation strategies on CFA. Specifically, the paper questions whether size moderates the capability of the firm to achieve CFA. Design/methodology/approach – The authors developed and empirically tested a conceptual framework using the partial least squares structural equation modeling approach. This study gathered data from a sample of 45 French SMEs and 55 French large firms. Findings – The results show that ERP implementation strategies (flexibility, organizational vision, Business Process Re-Engineering, speed of implementation, and focus on core modules) have a direct positive relationship and, in large firms, an indirect relationship (via data quality improvement) with the emergence of CFA. The study also suggests that firm size moderates the resulting emergence of ERP-enabled CFA. The findings will help researchers understand the factors associated with ERP implementation and use that promote or inhibit successful use of ERP systems. Research limitations/implications – Similar to many published ERP surveys, the sample size is small. In addition, the authors examined CFA in the survey from the perspective of a single respondent per firm. Finally, there may be a cultural limitation linked to the respondents all being French firms. Practical implications – The findings will promote a better understanding of the concept of CFA and its benefits amongst managers, leading to increased productivity and efficiency with ERP. In particular, they will help practitioners identify and manage the right factors during ERP implementations. Originality/value – In the expanding world of Enterprise System research, this paper is significant in that it studies the effect of ERP implementation on CFA rather than investigating the factors affecting ERP implementation or the outcomes of ERP implementations. To the best of the knowledge, this is one of the few papers that theoretically articulates and empirically explores the concept of CFA, and tests the relationship between implementation strategy factors and CFA, including the moderating role of size in the context of ERP. The contribution shows that the firm size effect should be examined at the level of SMEs and larger firms separately, rather than at an overall level.

scholarly journals The Missing “Missing Middle”

2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 89-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chang-Tai Hsieh ◽  
Benjamin A. Olken
Keyword(s):  
Developing Countries ◽  
Informal Sector ◽  
Firm Size ◽  
Small Firms ◽  
Firm Growth ◽  
Bimodal Distribution ◽  
Manufacturing Firms ◽  
Large Firms ◽  
Missing Middle

Although a large literature seeks to explain the “missing middle” of mid-sized firms in developing countries, there is surprisingly little empirical backing for existence of the missing middle. Using microdata on the full distribution of both formal and informal sector manufacturing firms in India, Indonesia, and Mexico, we document three facts. First, while there are a very large number of small firms, there is no “missing middle” in the sense of a bimodal distribution: mid-sized firms are missing, but large firms are missing too, and the fraction of firms of a given size is smoothly declining in firm size. Second, we show that the distribution of average products of capital and labor is unimodal, and that large firms, not small firms, have higher average products. This is inconsistent with many models explaining “the missing middle” in which small firms with high returns are constrained from expanding. Third, we examine regulatory and tax notches in India, Indonesia, and Mexico of the sort often thought to discourage firm growth and find no economically meaningful bunching of firms near the notch points. We show that existing beliefs about the missing middle are largely due to arbitrary transformations that were made to the data in previous studies.

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