The nasty face of the liability of foreignness: MNCs and rent extraction

Purpose This study aims to clarify the factors that act as a buffer to rent extraction from multi-national corporations (MNCs) in exchange relationships with the host country’s political actors. Design/methodology/approach This study proposes a conceptual model of the factors that determine rent extraction by host country political actors from MNCs. The model identifies the sources of power the MNC can use to alleviate the power imbalance relative to the political actor to decrease rent extraction. Additionally, it identifies the factors that constrain the power-advantaged political actor, thus moderating the relationship between power imbalance and rent extraction. Findings This conceptual paper’s propositions remain for future empirical validation. Originality/value This study integrates insights from the international business literature and resource dependence theory (RDT) to identify the determinants of firm-specific rent extraction risk for MNCs. First, the model sheds light on the heterogeneity among MNCs in their susceptibility to rent extraction and their ability to manage their liability of foreignness in the host country. Second, by integrating the horizontal and vertical distribution of power in the political environment to analyze the power-dependence relationship between the MNC and host country political actors, the framework addresses a shortcoming of RDT and accounts for the dynamics of the external environment for MNCs managing their dependencies. This study also provides a basis for discussing the rent extraction MNCs face worldwide and lays the foundation for future empirical works.

Does Information Asymmetry Influence Hi-tech Entrepreneurial Financing?

Exploring the effective ways of start-up financing is an important and practical issue to technological innovation and economic development. This paper aims to investigate the impacts of information asymmetry on the high-tech start-up financing preference, and whether an entrepreneur’s internationality features moderate the main effects. A sample of 500 high-tech start-ups and new ventures was collected at Shenzhen, China. Regression models are designated for testing both the main effects predicted in research hypotheses and the predicted moderating role of an entrepreneur’s internationality features. Our test results lead to 3 findings: firstly, in the high-tech industries, the information asymmetry mitigated by disclosing intellectual properties can significantly increase the start-up preference for external financing. This finding can be explained by the reduction of agency costs of debts. Secondly, the lessened information asymmetry can shorten the life cycle of start-up financing under the pecking order hypothesis. Lastly, the liability of foreignness is observed to have a significant positive moderating role on the main effects under the investigation. It can be concluded that the information asymmetry and the liability of foreignness are crucial factors influencing start-up financing decisions.This conclusion implies that reducing the information asymmetry by adequately disclosing technological strength and tacit knowledge can benefit the entrepreneurial financing for the high-tech start-ups and new ventures at the early stages, as well as provide an effective shortcut to the start-up financing cycle. Furthermore, the introduction of overseas technologies, funds, knowledge, experiences, and entrepreneurship into the high-tech start-ups does not create the liability of foreignness, and on the contrary, it is an “asset” that can help improve entrepreneurial financing decisions.

Corporate social responsibility, organisational reputation and liability of foreignness

Purpose: This study aimed to test the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and its subdivision dimensions on the liability of foreignness (LOF), as well as the mediating effect of organisational reputation.Methodology: A total of 301 observations from 43 branches and subsidiaries of China’s four major banks in 23 host countries from 2012 to 2018 were selected as samples to examine the impact of CSR and its segmented dimensions on the LOF. The mediating role of the parent company’s organisational reputation in the relationship between CSR and LOF was also examined. After controlling for the possible influence of firm age, firm size, economic distance, regulatory distance, and cultural distance on the model, three regression models were built.Findings: Liability of foreignness can be reduced by increasing CSR; and increasing technical CSR is especially effective in this regard. Organisational reputation plays a mediating role in the relationship between CSR and LOF.Practical Implications: Fulfilling CSR can help reduce the LOF.Originality: This research comprehensively explains the different views of current scholars on CSR and enriches the existing research on overcoming the LOF from the perspective of non-market mechanisms. It also provides new insight into the mediating effect of organisational reputation on CSR and its indirect effect on the LOF.

Foreignness research in international business: Major streams and future directions

Foreignness has long been a central construct in international business research, with research streams examining its conceptualizations, manifestations, and consequences. Researchers started by taking foreignness to be a liability, then later considered the possibility of its being an asset. A still more recent view is that foreignness is an organizational identity that a firm can purposefully manage. Broadly conceived, foreignness is an umbrella construct that directly or tangentially covers research on country of origin, institutional distance, firm-specific advantages, and the ownership–location–internalization eclectic paradigm. We review the body of research on foreignness and track the evolution of its four streams, liability of foreignness, asset of foreignness, drivers of foreignness, and firm responses to foreignness. We call for a clearer conceptualization and a sounder theoretical grounding of the foreignness construct, more integration of the liability of foreignness and the asset of foreignness research streams, greater attention to the multiple strategies firms use to manage foreignness, and the extension of the field to less-explored contexts such as emerging economies, digitalization, and de-globalization.

Are Foreign Banks Disadvantaged Vis-À-Vis Domestic Banks in China?

Do foreign banks enjoy a competitive edge in the Chinese banking market or are they disadvantaged vis-à-vis domestic banks? This is the question that the present paper seeks to answer. The issue is important since on the one hand, these banks face the challenges the liability of foreignness brings, but at the same time, they have bank-specific advantages. We examine this issue in light of the literature of the liability of foreignness. In our path-breaking study, we found that due to the cost of foreignness, foreign banks’ performance was not as good as that of the local banks. Furthermore, despite the same amount of location- and bank-specific advantages, they performed badly as compared to their local counterparts. It was found that the cost of location-based disadvantages outweighed the cost of bank-specific disadvantages for foreign banks, and recent policy changes may help them overcome some of the cost of foreignness.

IS FOREIGNNESS A SOURCE OF COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN THE BRAZILIAN PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY?

During the first decade of the 21st century, the accelerated growth of the pharmaceutical market in Brazil attracted investments from multinational pharmaceutical companies. National companies followed this investment trend, and the industry matured, and competition intensified. However, companies that operate in a foreign, new environment, driven by unfamiliar competitive forces encounter additional costs to operate. Using data from 2011 to 2016, this study employs panel data methodology with fixed effects using a sample of twenty-two pharmaceutical companies, eleven Brazilian subsidiaries of multinationals and eleven national companies, with the objective to investigate whether foreign companies operating in Brazil incur a liability of foreignness (LOF), which refers to these additional operating costs. This study contributes to the literature by evaluating the impact of Liability of Foreignness on working capital and profitability in the pharmaceutical sector. Our findings suggest that MNEs have a competitive disadvantage in inventory management compared to local companies.

Impact of the liability of foreignness, domicile of incorporation and an institutional change on reverse merger firms’ capital-raising performance

Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine how the liability of foreignness (LOF), choice of incorporation and an institutional change independently and jointly affect a reverse merger (RM) firm’s capital-raising performance. Design/methodology/approach The study draws on the data of shell reverse merger transactions in the USA from 2007 to 2016. Findings This paper finds that LOF and the choice of incorporation as a signal have a significant effect on RM firms’ capital-raising performance. In addition, this study finds that the effectiveness of the signaling can be affected by LOF. Finally, this paper finds that an institutional change that lowers the entry barrier to the initial public offering (which is a superior alternate to an RM) affects the impacts of LOF and signaling on RM firms’ capital-raising performance. Originality/value The study contributes to the international business literature by examining the RM (which has been an under-researched topic in the literature) by drawing on the LOF framework. The study finds that LOF and the choice of state for incorporation affect RM firms’ capital-raising performance; moreover, these relationships are affected by an institutional change.