Resource Relatedness and Its Effect on the Performance of Parent Firm and Foreign Subsidiary

The parent-subsidiary relation is attracting increasing academic interest. However, prior studies on the parent-subsidiary relatedness did not clearly demonstrate the effect of resource relatedness between the parent firm and its subsidiaries on the performance of parent and foreign subsidiaries. Building on resource-based and knowledge-based views, we investigated the effect of resource relatedness on the performance of parent firm and foreign subsidiary. We discussed the theoretical foundations and main accomplishments of prior studies. We developed a conceptual framework and hypothesis in order to close the existing research gap in the topic of interest. We claimed that resource relatedness has a positive impact on the performance of foreign subsidiary, while its effect on the performance of the parent firm can be both positive and negative.

Retail Regulation in South Korea: The NoBrand Case

This study examines how NoBrand has faced legal regulations in Korea, and NoBrand’s transition to the franchise system to respond to regulatory changes (examined with a case analysis). In 2015, Emart, a Korean retail giant, launched its private brand (PB), NoBrand, to address stagnant sales. With advantages in price and quality due to supply chain management (SCM), NoBrand not only established a successful foothold, but also gained success in the market. Despite the rapid growth of NoBrand, it has faced government regulations that restrict its operations. To respond to these regulations, NoBrand changed its direct operating system to a franchise system that allows an individual owner to run his or her own NoBrand store. However, the transition triggered conflicts with both local stakeholders and other branches of its parent firm, Emart. By analyzing these conflicts, this study finds that Korean retail policy did not effectively protect small business owners as primarily aimed.

Silicon Valley Imperialists Create New Model Villages as Smart Cities in Their Own Image

In her study of ‘Surveillance Capitalism’, Shoshana Zuboff cites Google’s parent firm Alphabet’s legal customer-purchase agreement for the parent firm’s Nest thermostats. These impose ‘oppressive privacy and security consequences’ requiring sensitive information to be shared through ‘Internet-of-Things’ (IoT) networks with other domestic and external devices, unnamed functionaries and various third parties. This is for data harvesting, analytics, processing, manipulation and transformation through digital re-sale to the same and other consumers in the form of unwanted, targeted advertising. The point of this identity ‘rendition’ is to massively augment corporate profits. It is but a short step from trapping the unwitting consumer in a ‘smart home’ to planning a similarly mediated ‘smart city’ aimed at further massively augmenting corporate profits. This is happening, as founders of digital media from Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon and Tesla either commission or become beneficiaries of ‘smart city’ planning. However, there is evidence that such imperiousness is increasingly countered by emerging democratic critique of these new ‘model villages’ or ‘company towns’.