Employing Porter and Kramer's corporate social responsibility (CSR) framework (Harv Bus Rev 84:78-92, 2006), we explored the strategic CSR programs of two Korean and two Japanese electronics multinational enterprises (MNEs) in Indonesia. We observed that the sample MNEs engage in strategic CSR either through investment in competitive context or the transformation of value chain activities. In addition, these firms strongly favor strategic CSR over responsive CSR, not just because of the economic benefits offered by the former, but also its advantages in managing the programs and communicating with stakeholders. Furthermore, they have developed varied organizational methods and tend to manage their key CSR programs centrally to effectively link them to the competitive strategy. Lastly, the results of our analysis suggest that Korean MNEs have customized their strategic CSR programs for emerging countries more actively than Japanese MNEs. In sum, our analysis elucidates several important features of strategic CSR employed by the MNEs in emerging countries.

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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address the question of how regional diversification affects subsidiary staffing composition in multinational enterprises. Another important objective of this study is to examine the effects of institutional distance, specifically regulative and normative distances, on foreign subsidiary staffing composition. Design/methodology/approach – To estimate firm- and country-level parameters simultaneously, hierarchical linear modeling was conducted on a sample of 1,068 foreign subsidiaries of South Korean firms operating in 25 countries in 2014. Findings – The results reveal that intra-regional diversification has a positive effect, whereas inter-regional diversification has a negative effect on local staffing in foreign subsidiaries. In addition, there is a positive association between informal distance (such as normative distance) and local staffing of foreign subsidiaries, while formal distance (such as regulative distance) is negatively related to local staffing of foreign subsidiaries. Research limitations/implications – The cross-sectional nature of the data in this study may preclude examination of the relationships among institutional distance, institutional environment, and subsidiary staffing composition. The authors suggest that future researchers employ a longitudinal design to examine the effects on staffing composition of institutional distance and institutional environments over time. Originality/value – The paper contributes to the literature on international human resources management by highlighting the importance of combining multilevel parameters to improve assessment of the importance of firms’ competitive strategy and institutional environments in local staffing in foreign subsidiaries.

The person-environment fit theory posits that the term "environment" can be defined at different levels. This study delineates two environmental dimensions (strategic and organizational) and empirically examines the potential moderating effects of two strategic factors (intra-and interregional diversification) on the relationship between two organizational factors (subsidiary ownership and host-country experience) and MNE subsidiary staffing composition. The results indicate that strategic and organizational dimensions have impacts on subsidiary staffing composition. This study also finds that the interaction effects between strategic and organizational factors are significant only when there is congruence between demands from different environmental dimensions.

First, this study examines the effect of innovation on long-term performance of small knowledge-intensive firms. Second, we explore organizational factors that may mitigate the relationship between innovation and long-term performance of small firms. Design/methodology/approach: This study applies the robustness of the ordered probit models. We utilize a data set of South Korean small knowledge-intensive firms with fewer than 500 employees. The final sample consists of 2,111 firms. Findings: The results show that innovation has a positive influence on long-term performance. Our findings also suggest that top management team(TMT) departure diminishes the effect of innovation on long-term performance and that this negative impact is more pronounced as the level of technological advancement increases. Finally, the functional diversity of employees mitigates the positive effect of innovation. Research limitations/implications: Although this study considers organizational factors that may mitigate the positive effect of innovation on long-term performance, environmental factors are not considered. Further research could identify and test additional variables that would broadly capture both firm-specific and environmental drivers of innovation for small knowledge-intensive firms. Moreover, a longitudinally designed cross-validation of the findings, and more sources of data, would enable further evaluation of causality in the hypothesized relationships. Originality/value: This study implies that innovation is the process of creating knowledge-based resources that are critical for providing a sustainable competitive advantage. This study further sheds lights on the important role of TMT members as the possessor of tacit knowledge; executive members are responsible for maintaining steady-state patterns of innovation by contributing their tacit knowledge and expertise to the firm.