Rakesh B. Sambharya

Purpose: We test whether six individual components of corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures in the form of environmental, employee, anticorruption, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), health and human rights are converging (global), diverging (regional) or crossverging (hybrid) on a sample of 335 multinational enterprises (MNEs) from 31 countries from three regions of the world: Europe, Anglo-Saxon cluster and Asia and the emerging markets.Design/methodology/approach: We use an analysis of variance (ANOVA) and multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) analysis to test for differences between the six components of CSR on a sample of 335 MNEs from 310 countries for three regions of the world.Findings: The effect of one-way ANOVA was significant for each of the six dependent variables separately on the differences between MNEs from the three regions. Taken together clearly the MANCOVA analysis indicates that there are signs of crossvergence between MNEs from Asia and the emerging markets and those from the Anglo-Saxon and European subsamples due to the hybrid nature of the findings.Research limitations/implications: The results of the present study support the regional nature of CSR practices and disclosures and on many of the individual components CSR disclosures are a reflection of their home environments.Originality/value: The study sheds light on the ongoing debate on whether CSR practices are converging, diverging or crossverging on a sample of 335 MNEs from the three regions of the world. Clear evidence of divergence was seen in that in all six dimensions of CSR, there were differences between MNEs from Europe and those from the Anglo-Saxon region reinforcing the implicit and explicit nature of the phenomena. There were significant differences between MNEs from Asia and emerging markets and Europe on four out of the six dimensions of CSR indicating mostly divergence. There were also significant differences between MNEs from Asia and emerging markets and those from the Anglo-Saxon region on three out of the six dimensions of CSR indicating the presence of divergence.

Multinational enterprises (MNEs) face increasing institutional complexity as they expand internationally, which has a significant effect on their corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy. In this study, we investigate an under‐explored difference between MNEs' employee and environmental CSR disclosure quality concerning the extent to which CSR reports are indicative of substantive activities. We propose that as international diversification increases institutional complexity, MNEs lower the disclosure quality of environmental CSR yet improve the disclosure quality of employee CSR due to their different institutional implications. In addition, we examine the effect of MNEs' home country cultural differences regarding uncertainty avoidance on the relationship between international diversification and employee and environmental disclosure quality. Based on a sample of 335 global MNEs from 31 countries, we found general support for our hypotheses.

Drawing on institutional theory, we investigate the effect of international diversification strategies of multinational corporations (MNCs) on CSR disclosure quality, the extent to which CSR report...

Purpose: There is considerable variation in the extent of globalization across industries. The authors attempt to identify the structural conditions of the industry that lead to these variations.Design/methodology/approach: Based on a sample of 33 manufacturing industries over the nine-year period from 2007 to 2016, the authors test for antecedents of industry globalization.Findings: The authors find that industry globalization is positively affected by medium levels of barriers to entry, industry competition, industry assistance, low and mediums levels of capital intensity, industry concentration and industry regulation and negatively affected by low levels of technological change and industry assistance. In addition, the life cycle stage of the industry has an impact on the level of globalization with the growth stage having the highest level of globalization.Research limitations/implications: First, the major limitation of the paper is that the authors rely entirely on trade data to measure the level of industry globalization. The authors did not have a choice because foreign direct investment (FDI) data are available only at the country level. Second, given that globalization can occur at the country, industry and firm levels, the focus on industry-level structural characteristics alone may be seen as a limitation.Practical implications: The results of the study can provide guidance to practicing managers to apply industry analysis for predicting the potential for and direction of globalization of their industries. This will enable them to formulate appropriate strategies to cope with global competition.Social implications: The study has important public policy implications. National governments have many levers at their command that can be used to influence the structural characteristics of industries, such as industry regulation, industry assistance and industry concentration. They can selectively use these levers to either facilitate or impede globalization.Originality/value: Much of the empirical focus of prior research on globalization has been on countries, rather than industries, as the unit of analysis. There is clearly variation in the extent of globalization across industries with some industries highly integrated while others remain primarily local or regional. Based on a novel approach to measure the extent of globalization at the industry level, the authors identify its antecedents. The value of the paper lies in the fact that the analysis of 33 manufacturing industries over a ten-year period shows that the structural characteristics of the industries drive their extent of globalization.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) has a significant impact on international business activities due to its actions and decisions that set the rules of int

Research Summary: We study antecedents of innovation performance for the subsidiaries of multinational enterprises (MNEs) using the microfoundations approach. Based on the upper echelon perspective, we argue that managers’ characteristics, such as prior MNE work experience and industry experience, affect subsidiary innovation. We tested our hypotheses on a sample of 228 MNE subsidiaries from 11 countries. Results indicate that managers’ industry experience serves as an external boundary‐spanning capability and, therefore, it has a greater effect on autonomous subsidiaries. In contrast, managers’ prior MNE work experience functions as an internal boundary‐spanning capability and, therefore, it has a smaller effect on subsidiaries that are less autonomous or engage in R&D. Managerial Summary: The success of an MNE now increasingly depends on its ability to generate knowledge anywhere in the world. Thus, the ability of foreign subsidiaries to generate innovation plays an increasingly important role in enhancing the performance of MNEs. In this regard, what factors determine the innovativeness of foreign subsidiaries is an important question for managers. Our study suggests that the international experience of the top management team (TMT) of a subsidiary and its CEO’s industry experience positively affect subsidiary innovation. Furthermore, the TMT’s international experience has a greater effect on the innovativeness of subsidiaries that remain dependent on their headquarters for knowledge transfer. In contrast, the CEO’s industry experience has a greater effect on the innovativeness of autonomous subsidiaries.