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Structured AbstractPurpose: The paper aims to provide an assessment of how the widespread adoption of new digital technologies (i.e. the internet of things, big data and analytics, robotic systems, and additive manufacturing) might affect the location and organisation of activities within global value chains (GVCs).Approach: The approach in this paper is to review various sources about the potential adoption and impact of the new digital technologies (commonly known collectively as Industry 4.0), to contrast these technologies with existing technologies, and to consider how the new technologies might lead to new configurations involving suppliers, firms and customers.Findings: We report that the new digital technologies have considerable potential to disrupt how and where activities are located and organized within GVCs), and who captures the value-added within those chains. We also report that Industry 4.0 is still in its infancy, but that its effects are already having an impact upon the nature of competition and corporate strategies in many industries.Implications: In particular, we draw attention to the potential cyber-risks and implications for the privacy of individuals, and hence the need for regulation. Originality/value: This is the first published paper to consider the likely separate and joint impacts of the new digital technologies on the practice and theory of international business.

Previous studies emphasise that the foreign direct investment (FDI) strategies of firms from newly industrialised economies (NIEs) are different from the FDI strategies of firms from developed economies. It has also been shown that NIE firms are often controlled by founding families who make key strategic decisions, and that they rely heavily on network linkages when developing their FDI strategies. What is less clear, however, is how the corporate governance factors in NIEs, the risk preferences of the main shareholder constituencies, and the network-based business culture affect the decision to undertake FDI in emerging markets. This paper explores the entry mode and location choices of firms from an Asian NIE (Taiwan) in an emerging market (the People's Republic of China). It shows that the choice of equity stake in an affiliate depends upon the extent of family and institutional share ownerships in the parent company. High-commitment entry is found to be positively associated with the affiliate being located in areas with strong economic, cultural and historic links with the parent company. Furthermore, the entry mode and location decisions appear to be interrelated, with the parent's equity stake in the affiliate depending inter alia upon the location within China, and the favoured location depending inter alia upon the equity stake. Journal of International Business Studies (2007) 38, 556–572. doi:10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400279

We advance a two-stage theoretical model which contends that the export performance of emerging economy firms (EEFs) will depend both upon their firm-specific capabilities and their home institutional environments. Specifically, we argue that EEFs will be more likely to export when facing more uncertainty at home from greater political instability, substantial informal competition, and high corruption. Furthermore, we hypothesize that firmsÕ export intensities will be contingent upon specialized internal capabilities such as a skilled workforce, top managerial experience, and access to external technologies. We test these hypotheses using a dataset of more than 16,000 firms from the four BRIC economies (i.e., Brazil, Russia, China and India). Our results confirm that political instability and informal competition have robust effects on the export propensity of EEFs, whilst export intensity is contingent upon the availability of skilled workers and access to external technologies via licensing.

Additional information:Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Recent years have witnessed substantial outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) from many emerging economies. Should the governments of these economies encourage OFDI in order to promote domestic innovation? Much OFDI by emerging economy multinational enterprises (EMNEs) has been undertaken to acquire strategic assets overseas, but do these acquisitions bring innovation benefits at home? The empirical analysis presented in this paper considers the effects of OFDI on regional innovation performance, using a panel of Chinese provinces, and finds that OFDI has a very significant impact on domestic innovation. Furthermore, we also identify three contingent factors -absorptive capacity, foreign presence, and the competition intensity of the local market -that moderate the impact of OFDI on innovation performance. 1 IntroductionMuch has been written about the positive impact of inward foreign direct investment (IFDI) on the innovation performance of host economies (Ben Hamida, 2013;Ben Hamida & Gugler, 2009;Buckley, et al., 2002;Dunning & Lundan, 2008;Fu, 2012;García, et al., 2013;Iwasaki & Tokunaga, 2014;Ouyang & Fu, 2012;Xu & Sheng, 2012). In contrast, very few studies have considered the impact of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) on the innovation performance of home economies, especially in the context of investments made by multinational enterprises based in emerging economies (EMNEs) (Deng, 2007;Liu, et al., 2005;Xia, et al., 2014). Yet China is predicted to exceed US$ 5 trillion US dollars by 2020 (He, et al., 2012).3 Furthermore, there is considerable evidence to suggest that many Chinese MNEs are active seekers of strategic assets (Chen & Young, 2010;Deng, 2012;Edamura, et al., 2014;Ning & Sutherland, 2012;Ramasamy, et al., 2012;Rugman & Li, 2007;Williamson & Yin, 2012)