Governments as owners: State-owned multinational companies

Abstract

The globalization of state-owned multinational companies (SOMNCs) has become an important phenomenon in international business (IB), yet it has received scant attention in the literature. We explain how the analysis of SOMNCs can help advance the literature by extending our understanding of state-owned firms (SOEs) and multinational companies (MNCs) in at least two ways. First, we cross-fertilize the IB and SOEs literatures in their analysis of foreign investment behavior and introduce two arguments: the extraterritoriality argument, which helps explain how the MNC dimension of SOMNCs extends the SOE literature, and the non-business internationalization argument, which helps explain how the SOE dimension of SOMNCs extends the MNC literature. Second, we analyze how the study of SOMNCs can help develop new insights of theories of firm behavior. In this respect, we introduce five arguments: the triple agency conflict argument in agency theory; the owner risk argument in transaction costs economics; the advantage and disadvantage of ownership argument in the resource-based view (RBV); the power escape argument in resource dependence theory; and the illegitimate ownership argument in neoinstitutional theory. After our analysis, we introduce the papers in the special issue that, collectively, reflect diverse and sophisticated research interest in the topic of SOMNCs.

International business responses to institutional voids

“…Multinational firms from such contexts can adopt strategies that mitigate the negative effects of these home-based voids in their host environments. Indeed, while there is evidence that firms invest abroad to escape voids in their home country (Cuervo-Cazurra, Inkpen, Musacchio, & Ramaswamy, 2014), they also face liability of origin that reduces challenges as to their legitimacy (Pant & Ramachandran, 2012). Table 1 summarizes the types of institutional voids and firm responses examined in each article included in this special issue.…”

Home country institutions and the internationalization of state owned enterprises: A cross-country analysis

“…Moreover, we focus on the internationalization of listed SOEs, a phenomenon on the rise (Bruton et al, 2015;Cuervo-Cazurra et al, 2014;UNCTAD 2014). Our analysis of the institutional conditions that propel or discourage SOEs from internationalizing challenges conventional theories that assume a profit motive underlying firms' quest for profitable business opportunities.…”

Pesquisa Em Administração: Em Busca De Impacto Social E Outros Impactos

“…O exemplo anterior das pesquisas identificando as implicações estratégicas para empresas localizadas em países com instituições mais fracas ilustra bem esse ponto. Com o avanço dos países emergentes e os seus enormes desafios, até mesmo acadêmicos nos eixos de pesquisa tradicionais passaram a se interessar por fenômenos como a prevalência de grupos diversificados (Wan & Hoskisson, 2003), a presença do Estado como acionista (Cuervo-Cazurra, Inkpen, Musacchio, & Ramaswamy, 2014), os efeitos da corrupção (Jeong & Weiner, 2012), modelos de negócios desenhados para atender consumidores na base da pirâmide (Prahalad, 2004), entre vários outros. (Ouchi, 1980) e que, mais recentemente, passou a atuar com gestão educacional (Ouchi, 2008).…”