An acquisition or a greenfield subsidiary? The impact of knowledge on sequential establishments in a host country

PurposeEstablishment of wholly owned subsidiaries in a foreign market is central to international marketing because sole ownership and high commitment facilitate firm's marketing in the local market. Drawing on knowledge-based theory, this study extends the current understanding of firm's sequential establishments of wholly owned subsidiaries in a host country.Design/methodology/approachSwedish firms' establishments of wholly owned subsidiaries in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States were analyzed using a longitudinal approach.FindingsA firm's broad international experience is associated with an acquisition in any phase, while mode experience and value-adding experience are associated with postinitial acquisitions. There is no association between mode experience and greenfield investments.Research limitations/implicationsKnowledge-based theory explains a firm's choice of establishment mode when establishing in the same host country. Effects of marketing experiences are due to the establishment mode and different experiences explain choices for initial and postinitial establishments.Practical implicationsIn choosing between a wholly owned subsidiary in terms of an acquisition or a greenfield investment, for a foreign establishment the firm is advised to consider the impact of marketing experiences and establishment phase.Originality/valueResearch is needed on how experiences affect choices between foreign establishment modes where the firm is the sole owner. This study is the first to focus on the choice between wholly owned subsidiaries in terms of acquisitions and greenfield investments, and the impact of experience and phase of establishment in a particular host country.

Subnational differences and entry mode performance: Multinationals in east and west China

We compare the influence of entry mode choice on subsidiary performance in two developmentally-differentiated regions of a developing host country. Analysis of 113 subsidiaries located in two provinces of China indicates that wholly owned subsidiaries outperform joint ventures in the developed region, whereas joint ventures outperform wholly owned subsidiaries in the less developed region. However, the smaller performance gap between wholly owned subsidiaries and joint ventures in the developed region indicates that the magnitude of influence of entry mode choices on performance varies across subnational regions. Firms must therefore be more discriminating in formulating entry strategies to regionally heterogeneous countries.

MNEs’ Ownership Structure under Uncertainty: Explanations from TCE and Real Options Logic

How does an MNE choose its ownership structure when it enters into transition nations where the level of corruption is largely high? This paper examines how uncertainty stemming from corruption affects an MNE’s choice of governance forms using the data of 463 MNEs in 24 transition countries. Drawing on two theoretical perspectives such as TCE and real options logic, this study proposes two sets of competing hypotheses regarding firms’ selection of ownership structure. Results show that TCE predictions have a better explanatory power on the choice of governance forms over those of real options logic as a whole. In particular, this study finds that an MNE is more likely to adopt wholly owned subsidiaries in highly arbitrary environment of corruption whereas they intend to cope with a joint venture form of governance under highly pervasive corruption environment. Consistently, an MNE which has more familiar with corruption tends to adopt a joint venture form of governance.

West Teleservice

West Teleservice, a telemarketing firm, is considering going public at the end of 1996. Asks students to price the IPO. During the previous 18 months, seven other telemarketing firms have gone public. Prior to this, there were no publicly traded telemarketing firms. The industry is in flux. Historically, wholly owned subsidiaries of telephone companies, banks, and insurance companies conducted telemarketing. However, cost cutting caused many of these firms to outsource the business. Thus, although total telemarketing business isn't growing very quickly, the outsourced portion is growing 50% per year.To introduce IPO valuations; to demonstrate the use and pitfalls of valuing firms with multiples–given this is the eighth firm to go public, there are seven other potential comparable firms; to construct a rough DCF; to demonstrate what assumptions must be implicit in the multiples to arrive at the same valuation; and to discuss the idea of mispriced equity, given some evidence suggesting that the price of equity is not sustainable.