What drives the outward foreign direct investments (OFDIs) by emerging market firms (EMFs)? Drawing on a strategy tripod framework, this article proposes a theoretical model to predict OFDI by EMFs from China. Specifically, we use institution-and industry-based views to examine two facets of home country environment, namely the supportiveness from home government and unfavorableness from home industry, as important determinants of OFDI, and compare the relative strength of these effects. Further, we use resource-based view to argue that the effect of the home country environment is contingent on the international experience portfolios of EMFs.

This article offers an overview of entrepreneurship in China to complement this special issue of International Small Business Journal: 'Exploring Entrepreneurial Activity and Small Business Issues in the Chinese Economy'. A broad review of entrepreneurship research is provided and linked to the context of research in China with several principal topics summarised. These include an examination of recent research on entrepreneurial firms in China, the attributes of Chinese entrepreneurs and the challenges they face. Finally, future research avenues are suggested.

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This study advances the institution-based view of strategy by integrating it with firmspecific capability considerations. In particular, we investigate the integrative influence of subnational-level home country institutional environments and firm-level political capital, as an important way to seek resources, on emerging economy entrepreneurial firms' internationalization. With data from Chinese entrepreneurial firms, we find that the development of subnational institutional environments in the home country is related to firms' degree of internationalization. Furthermore, while political capital with low-level governments enhances the effect of subnational institutions on internationalization, political capital with high levels of government has no such moderation effect. Theoretical and empirical contributions and implications are discussed.

Despite the important role of angel investors as critical financial providers for new ventures, little is known regarding how institutions make their investment decisions. While angels make decisions based on selection criteria during the first stage, they are also embedded within and affected by different institutional settings and as a result weight these criteria differently than other investors. We compare angel investors' selection criteria in China and Denmark using the comparative institutional perspective. We use a policy capturing approach and hierarchy linear modeling, revealing that since Chinese angels are embedded within relationship-based institutional settings they tend to reply more on strong ties such as family and friends in management team, as well as weighting risks less compared to Danish angels operating within more rule-based institutional contexts.

History, Organizational learning, World War I, Interwar period, Military,

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to integrate the resource-based view (RBV) with organisational learning theory by investigating the role of the RBV mechanism in the preceding performance-current performance linkage. The authors further examine the role of the decision-making approach on the RBV-prior-current performance paradigm. Using China as the research setting, they empirically test the theoretical model based on 229 firms selected from a nation-wide survey. Design/methodology/approach This study has used China as the research setting. The authors empirically test the theoretical model based on 229 firms selected from a nation-wide survey. Findings This study reveals that prior export performance is a key determinant of current export performance, and this effect is enhanced by product certification (an internal RBV mechanism) and the intention to make an initial public offering (and external RBV mechanism). Moreover, the internal RBV-prior-current performance paradigm is positively moderated by the delegated decision-making approach, while the external RBV-prior-current performance paradigm is negatively moderated by this decision-making approach. Research limitations/implications The results related to RBV and prior organisational learning also extends the extant literature and offer implications in two important ways. One, this research advances existing research that has only considered the direct effect of organisational learning on current performance ( Lages et al., 2008 ). In addition to its direct effect, this study suggests that the interplay of organisational learning and resource commitment also provides important determinants of export performance. These new results imply that future research should not only explore the effect of organisational learning theory but also that of firm resource in the research on the prior-current performance dyad ( Lages et al., 2008 ). Two, this study also advances the theoretical development of the export venture resource and management commitment research by revealing two new factors ( Cavusgil and Zou, 1994 ). As a result, when conducting exporting activity from an emerging economy, exporting firms should consider committing their resources on acquiring international certification and seeking external funding. These new findings provide new guidance on the choice of the type of resource commitments and their roles in the prior-current performance conceptualisation when operating in the emerging markets. Practical implications The results also contribute to the conceptualisation of the decision-making literature in the context of emerging economies ( Garnier, 1982 ; Kao, 1993 ; Redding, 1993 ; Solberg, 2000 ), where an owner decision-making approach is associated with a number of negative effects ( Kao, 1993 ; Redding, 1993 ). This study suggests that an owner decision-making approach can actually help firms to implement the effect of external RBV’s influence in the prior-current performance framework. As a result, the findings imply that researchers and managers of EMEFs should now consider including the effect of decision-making governance when exploring the interactive effect of RBV and organisational learning in export performance research ( Lages et al., 2008 ). Originality/value This three-way interaction results have implications for the development of organisational learning theory, the RBV, decision-making, export performance and emerging market literature.