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Purpose Large multinational companies (MNCs) are strongly formalized, often standardized and complex with multiple hierarchical levels. Over the past few decades, MNCs have strengthened their coordination and control systems by creating regional headquarters (RHQs). This study aims to investigate how MNCs rearticulate control dimensions at RHQs, to coordinate and exert control over subsidiaries in the Asia-Pacific region. Design/methodology/approach Based on a survey of 86 French MNCs in the Asia-Pacific region, this study applies a structural equation model to determine RHQs’ roles in the field of regional decision-making, coordination and control. Findings Large MNCs, with a significant presence in Asia, transfer coordination and control to RHQs, in a way that leads us to propose the use of the expression “regio-centralization.” RHQs become socialization hubs, where most regional decisions are taken and where international managers meet. MNCs mobilize at the same time expatriates, short-term assignees and local managers who intensively interact at RHQs. Thus, informal control at RHQs increases, partly substituting formal control by HQs. Smaller MNCs, without RHQs, on the contrary, base their control and coordination on the formalization of HQs-subsidiary relations, especially through strong reporting, in combination with centralized decision-making at HQs. Research limitations/implications This study is based on MNCs from one specific country, France, and focuses only on the dynamic Asia-Pacific host region. Coordination and control in less dynamic regions may reveal different results. Originality/value This study leads to a better understanding of how large MNCs reorganize dispersed activities in the Asia-Pacific region by creating RHQs, where important control and coordination functions are relocated.

International audience

International audience

しごと能力研究 (Shigoto Nohryoku Kenkyu) Research on Working Competency; International audience

Pour introduire ce numéro thématique, nous proposons un diptyque. Ce format original permet de poser, sous des angles complémentaires, des éléments susceptibles d’interroger le lecteur sur un thème clé du management international. Dans un premier article, nous avançons une réflexion sur la nature et la portée du concept d’intégration en management international. Dans un deuxième article, la question de l’intégration est abordée d’un point de vue sociologique. Ce dernier article est la transcription de la communication introductive proposée par le Professeur Jean-François Chanlat lors de la conférence Atlas AFMI de 2017 à Madagascar., To introduce this special issue, we propose a diptych. This original format allows to put together, from complementary angles, elements likely to question the reader on a key theme of international management. In a first article, we analyze the nature and scope of the concept of integration in international management. In a second article, the question of integration is addressed from a sociological point of view. This last article is the transcription of Professor Jean-François Chanlat’s introductory speech proposed at the 2017 AFMI Atlas conference in Madagascar., Para introducir este número temático, le proponemos un díptico. Este formato original permite poner, bajo ángulos complementarios, elementos susceptibles que pueden interrogar al lector sobre un tema clave como la gestión internacional. En el primer artículo, adelantamos una reflexión sobre el carácter y el alcance del concepto de integración en gestión internacional. En el segundo artículo, la cuestión de la integración es planteada desde un punto de vista sociológico. Este último artículo es la transcripción de la comunicación introductoria propuesta por el Profesor Jean-Franþois Chanlat en la conferencia Atlas AFMI de 2017 en Madagascar.

As widely documented in academic literature, family businesses perform better and enjoy a sounder financial structure than non-family businesses, a trend that applies to Japan as well, which is the context of this paper. Therefore, conventional wisdom suggests that family businesses should recover better or more easily from an economic downturn and persist in their stronger performance. This study tests this hypothesis, especially in reference to the current global economic crisis, by drawing lessons from the Asian crisis of 1997, for which relevant data are available. The study pertains specifically to the case of Japanese family and non-family companies. The empirical investigation uses a matched pair methodology, which allows for strong controls of size and industry variables. The sample consists of 98 carefully selected pairs (one family and one non-family) of firms that are of the same size and from the same industry. According to the results, family businesses achieve stronger resilience both during...

According to prior literature, risk determines the international strategies firms adopt, together with cultural and geographical distance. However, the effect of distance, whether cultural or geographical, remains insufficiently tested and seemingly contradictory. To investigate the potential determinants of international firm strategies, this study draws a sample of 759 Japanese subsidiaries worldwide. Statistical analyses confirm the ambiguous effect of distance (cultural and geographical) on internationalization strategies, especially compared with the effect of risk.

Cette contribution étudie l’incidence potentielle du caractère familial ou non des entreprises sur leur valorisation boursière, dans le contexte du marché japonais. L’étude empirique porte sur 90 paires d’entreprises cotées, chaque paire étant constituée d’une entreprise familiale, l’autre non familiale, toutes deux de même taille et de même activité. Au total, le marché ne semble pas marquer de forte différence dans son évaluation entre les entreprises familiales et non familiales. Il tend même à mieux valoriser les entreprises non familiales, pour des raisons que l’article s’efforce d’identifier. 本論文は、同族会社という企業特性が日本の株式市場の評価に影響を与える可能性を検討している。同一の企業規模、業種の上場90組の同族・非同族企業を対象とした実証調査の結果、金融市場の評価には、同族・非同族会社という企業特性による違いがみられないことがわかった。むしろ、傾向としては非同族会社のほうを高く評価している。その理由については、本論文で明らかにしたい。 This paper investigates whether being a family business or not effects a company’s stock market valuation in the context of Japan. Our empirical investigation involved ninety pairs of listed companies, each pair consisting of one family and one non-family business of the same size and from the same industry. We found that there is little difference between the way family and non-family businesses are evaluated by financial markets. The tendency is even to award better valuations to non-family businesses, for reasons that this paper attempts to identify.

Recent literature suggests that multinational companies pursue regional rather than global strategies. Therefore, this study investigates regional management structures, using French multinational companies (MNCs) in the Asia–Pacific region as an empirical context, to address two research questions: first, do MNCs split Asia into subregions and, if so, what are the resulting clusters of countries and clustering criteria? Second, what kind of regional management structures do MNCs establish in Asia, and what are their roles and functions? Factors, such as MNC size, the size of host markets, or the nature of their activities, might explain some differences. The authors conducted 77 face-to-face interviews with expatriated managers in charge of the subsidiaries or regional management structures of 47 French MNCs located in 11 countries in Asia, then crossed these data with secondary sources of information. Nearly half the MNCs subdivide the Asia–Pacific region into clusters of countries, where they locate regional management centres (regional headquarters, regional offices, distribution centres, local offices) with substantial functions and roles. The main drivers of a regional Asian strategy and organisation are the overall size of the MNC and its sales in Asia; the presence of manufacturing activities does not exert any influence. This research identifies ten clusters of countries in Asia, determined by the French MNCs in our sample, on the basis of four main criteria: market orientation/economic logic, geographical and institutional proximity, cultural differences, and the MNC’s own characteristics. Smaller MNCs do not slice Asia into clusters but rather centralise regional decisions and control procedures, implementing few regional management centres in Asia and giving them limited roles and functions.

Expatriation induces high costs and huge difficulties. Therefore, MNCs also adopt localization strategies for management positions. This chapter compares Japanese and European MNCs, on the basis of a series of interviews of 17 MNCs in 8 countries in Asia. Japanese MNCs have not localized their management positions as much as European MNCs, but they are willing to do so. This chapter details the mechanisms for successful localization strategies of management positions.

European and Japanese multinational corporations (MNCs) have expanded their activities in Asia, usually through massive mobilization of various human resources from head offices, whether expatriated or on short-term assignments, and a reliance on diverse categories of local employees. Because expatriation is costly, difficult and often limited in its results, MNCs have developed localization strategies for management positions to support their regional development. This contribution addresses such a scenario by comparing Japanese and French MNCs in eight Asian countries, based on 53 interviews across subsidiaries of 17 MNCs. We find that Japanese MNCs have not localized management positions as much as French MNCs, but they have grown more willing to do so. To compensate for the lack of local capabilities without sending more expatriates, both French and Japanese MNCs frequently send experts on short-term assignments. Finally, though human resource practices vary widely across countries, even for a given M...

International audience

The internationalization strategies of family businesses versus nonfamily businesses remain a neglected area of study. This investigation uses a sample of 759 Japanese subsidiaries worldwide that can be identified as family businesses or nonfamily businesses to reveal two key results. First, family businesses establish fewer joint ventures than nonfamily businesses, in relative terms, and resort less to using Sogo Shosha, or Japanese general trading companies. This result implies family businesses prefer more to remain independent compared with nonfamily businesses. Second, expatriation policies do not differ significantly between family businesses and nonfamily businesses, contrary to a priori expectations. Differences in the strategic behavior of family businesses and nonfamily businesses therefore do not appear in every aspect of the internationalization process.

The internationalization strategies of family businesses versus non-family businesses remain a neglected area of study. We want to investigate the potential effects for a company to be a family or a non-family business on its international strategy, taking the case of Japan as the basis of this research. This investigation uses a sample of 759 Japanese subsidiaries worldwide that can be identified as family businesses or non-family businesses to reveal two key results. First, family businesses establish fewer joint ventures than non-family businesses, in relative terms, and resort less to sōgō shōsha, or Japanese general trading companies. This result implies family businesses prefer more to remain independent compared with non-family businesses, as frequently stated by the academic literature. Second, expatriation policies do not differ significantly between family businesses and non-family businesses, contrary to a priori expectations. Differences in the strategic behavior of family businesses and non-family businesses therefore do not appear in every aspect of the internationalization process., Les stratégies d'internationalisation comparées des entreprises familiales et non familiales sont un domaine d’étude peu exploré, tous pays confondus. Nous voulons étudier l’incidence potentielle du caractère familial ou non familial d’une entreprise, dans le cas des entreprises japonaises. Notre recherche est conduite sur un échantillon de 759 filiales d’entreprises japonaises à l’étranger, identifiées comme filiales d’entreprises familiales ou non familiales. Nous parvenons à deux résultats principaux. Tout d'abord, les entreprises familiales établissent moins de coentreprises que les entreprises non familiales, en termes relatifs, et ont moins recours aux sociétés de commerce général (sōgō shōsha). Les entreprises familiales ont en effet, selon la littérature, une propension plus forte à demeurer indépendantes que les entreprises non familiales. Par ailleurs, et contrairement à ce que l’on pouvait envisager a priori, les politiques d'expatriation ne diffèrent pas significativement entre les entreprises familiales et non familiales. Les différences dans le comportement stratégique des entreprises familiales et non familiales ne semblent donc pas apparaître dans tous les aspects du processus d'internationalisation., Abdellatif Mahamat, Amann Bruno, Jaussaud Jacques. Stratégie internationale des entreprises japonaises : étude de l’incidence potentielle du caractère familial. In: Ebisu, n°43, 2010. pp. 29-53.

National audience; L’activisme des actionnaires est l’expression d’un mécanisme de gouvernance des entreprises qui permet à tous les actionnaires d’exprimer leur voix (Voice au sens de Hirschman, 1973) dans de nombreux domaines et ceci, quelle que soit leur participation au capital. Ce papier étudie les manifestations de cet activisme en Espagne, aux Etats-Unis, en France et au Japon à travers l’examen des résolutions déposées en Assemblée Générale et des principaux mécanismes permettant aux actionnaires de faire entendre leur voix.

International audience; Supported by the ‘Go Global’ (or ‘Going Out’) policy promoted by the Chinese government since 1999, a number of Chinese firms have developed rapidly abroad during the last two decades. This chapter investigates whether their internationalization behaviors conform to existing theoretical frameworks, namely the Uppsala stage model (Johanson and Vahlne, 1977, 2009), the Eclectic Paradigm (Dunning, 2001, 2006), the Linkage, Leverage, Learning (LLL) model (Mathews, 2006), and the ‘Born Global’ model (McDougall et al., 1994; Cavusgil and Knight, 2015). The theoretical frameworks of these models derive from the cases of Western MNCs during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. However, currently Chinese firms develop abroad in a more trade-friendly world, and with the strong support of Chinese authorities. By thoroughly investigating the cases of 12 carefully-selected firms, this chapter identifies the peculiarities of Chinese MNCs’ international development.

During these two last decades, there has been a growing interest on factors andmechanisms which favor the corporate social responsibility (CSR). This field of research has become widespread and fuels numerous debates, specifically in the field of family firms.Research at the family firm- corporate social responsibility nexus lacks agreement about whether family firms are more or are less socially responsible than their non-family counterparts. In order to contribute to a greater understanding of the variation in companies’ CSR performance, and to add to this ongoing debate, we take the heterogeneity within the group of family firms into account. Based on the F-PEC Scale of Family Influence, we agree that the involvement of family in business through management, governance, and ownership creates a unique and distinctive attribute of family businesses.; Au cours des deux dernières décennies, on s'intéresse de plus en plus aux facteurs et mécanismes favorisant la responsabilité sociale des entreprises. Ce champ de la recherche suscite plusieurs débats et spécifiquement dans un contexte de l'entreprise familiale.Selon des recherches antérieures, les entreprises familiales et non familiales diffèrent en ce qui concerne leurs performances sociétales mais les résultats dans ce domaine manquent d'unanimité. Ces différences dans les résultats reposent principalement sur l'hétérogénéité des variables prises en compte pour identifier l'entreprise familiale et l'implication de la famille. Ainsi, et afin de contribuer à une meilleure compréhension de la performance sociétale des entreprises familiales, nous adoptons une approche basée sur l'echelle F-PEC de mesure de l'implication familiale.

International audience; This chapter focuses on the transfer of quality management in a cross-cultural context, with a specific focus on quality management in Germany and Brazil. The authors analyse a major critical incident in the Brazilian subsidiary of a German multinational, using a multi-level perspective. They develop possible solutions for overcoming cultural challenges in German-Brazilian collaboration.

International audience; This chapter introduces the theoretical framework upon which this study was based before going on to set out the methodology used and detail the main results found. It discusses results in the light of scientific literature on the issue and their managerial implications. With the internationalization of organizational structures, the development of intercultural competences was often considered a strategic benefit. Indeed, companies are sensitive to the cultural diversity of their worldwide branches and to the international competences developed by their employees. Through organizational internationalization, intercultural competences become strategic resources. Although there is no consensus regarding their definition, intercultural competences may be understood as the process of cultural sensitivity development through active exposure to cultural differences. The overlap between transversal competences and intercultural competences, highlighted by our first results, shows the lack of readability of the job market (international or classical) and confirms the lack of consensus around defining and measuring intercultural competences.

This PhD focuses on the internationalization strategies of Chinese companies, specifically those that are setting up in Europe. Through a series of empirical studies, we aim to treat several aspects with regard to the strategies employed by these Chinese companies. In our first case study, we have identified various international development paths adopted by Chinese firms in reference to existing theories. Subsequently, we conducted, through a second case study, a comparative analysis of two distinct theoretical frameworks (OLI and LLL model). This allowed us to highlight the important explanatory potential of these two theories during different times and contexts in which Chinese firms are embedded. Thirdly, we focused more specifically on partnerships between Chinese multinationals and French SMEs. This work revealed how these two types of firms may overcome various difficulties in combining their reciprocal asymmetries. In the end, according to the concept of psychic distance proposed by the Uppsala model, we addressed the impact of psychic distance in the case of Chinese multinationals. Through a quantitative study, we proposed that due to various societal evolution (advancement of information technologies, improvement of the transport, etc.)and to certain capabilities of Chinese multinationals, the psychic distance related difficulties faced by Chinese multinationals are less than those presumed by the Uppsala model.; Cette thèse porte sur les stratégies d’internationalisation des firmes chinoises, particulièrement celles qui s’implantent en Europe. À travers une série d’études empiriques nous visons à traiter plusieurs aspects au regard des stratégies employées par ces firmes chinoises. À travers une première étude de cas, nous avons identifié différents parcours internationaux adoptés par les firmes chinoises en référence avec les théories existantes. Par la suite, nous avons conduit à travers une deuxième étude de cas, une analyse comparative de deux cadres théoriques distincts (modèle OLI et LLL). Cela nous a permis de souligner le pouvoir explicatif important de ces deux théories durant des périodes et des contextes différents dans lesquels les firmes chinoises se sont situées. Troisièmement, nous avons visé plus spécifiquement les partenariats entre les multinationales chinoises et les PME françaises. Ce travail a souligné comment ces deux types de firmes, par la combinaison de leurs asymétries réciproques, peuvent surmonter diverses difficultés de leur développement respectif. Au final, selon le concept de distance psychique proposé par le modèle d’Uppsala, nous avons analysé l’impact de la distance psychique dans le cas des multinationales chinoises. Sur la base d’une étude quantitative, cette fois-ci, nous avons proposé qu’en raison de diverses évolutions sociétales (avancement des technologies d’information ; amélioration des moyens de transport, etc.) et de certaines capacités de ces firmes chinoises, les difficultés liées à la distance psychique rencontrée par ces firmes sont inférieures à celles envisagées par le modèle d’Uppsala.

This PhD focuses on the internationalization strategies of Chinese companies, specifically those that are setting up in Europe. Through a series of empirical studies, we aim to treat several aspects with regard to the strategies employed by these Chinese companies. In our first case study, we have identified various international development paths adopted by Chinese firms in reference to existing theories. Subsequently, we conducted, through a second case study, a comparative analysis of two distinct theoretical frameworks (OLI and LLL model). This allowed us to highlight the important explanatory potential of these two theories during different times and contexts in which Chinese firms are embedded. Thirdly, we focused more specifically on partnerships between Chinese multinationals and French SMEs. This work revealed how these two types of firms may overcome various difficulties in combining their reciprocal asymmetries. In the end, according to the concept of psychic distance proposed by the Uppsala model, we addressed the impact of psychic distance in the case of Chinese multinationals. Through a quantitative study, we proposed that due to various societal evolution (advancement of information technologies, improvement of the transport, etc.)and to certain capabilities of Chinese multinationals, the psychic distance related difficulties faced by Chinese multinationals are less than those presumed by the Uppsala model.; Cette thèse porte sur les stratégies d’internationalisation des firmes chinoises, particulièrement celles qui s’implantent en Europe. À travers une série d’études empiriques nous visons à traiter plusieurs aspects au regard des stratégies employées par ces firmes chinoises. À travers une première étude de cas, nous avons identifié différents parcours internationaux adoptés par les firmes chinoises en référence avec les théories existantes. Par la suite, nous avons conduit à travers une deuxième étude de cas, une analyse comparative de deux cadres théoriques distincts (modèle OLI et LLL). Cela nous a permis de souligner le pouvoir explicatif important de ces deux théories durant des périodes et des contextes différents dans lesquels les firmes chinoises se sont situées. Troisièmement, nous avons visé plus spécifiquement les partenariats entre les multinationales chinoises et les PME françaises. Ce travail a souligné comment ces deux types de firmes, par la combinaison de leurs asymétries réciproques, peuvent surmonter diverses difficultés de leur développement respectif. Au final, selon le concept de distance psychique proposé par le modèle d’Uppsala, nous avons analysé l’impact de la distance psychique dans le cas des multinationales chinoises. Sur la base d’une étude quantitative, cette fois-ci, nous avons proposé qu’en raison de diverses évolutions sociétales (avancement des technologies d’information ; amélioration des moyens de transport, etc.) et de certaines capacités de ces firmes chinoises, les difficultés liées à la distance psychique rencontrée par ces firmes sont inférieures à celles envisagées par le modèle d’Uppsala.

Chapitre 10; National audience

National audience