Informal institutions—the shared but unwritten norms and values of a society—are a critical element of the study of international business. However, research on these institutions is theoretically and empirically challenging. For this reason, “there has been limited work on the topic, a lack of clarity on how to conceptualize and measure informal ... 阅读更多

Informal institutions—society’s unwritten codes of conduct—influence all aspects of international business, but they have received surprisingly little attention in the literature to date. Helping to fill this gap, HKUST’s Jiatao Li and co-researchers build a novel typology and framework for examining neglected aspects of informal institutions, as well as the ... 阅读更多

Over the past few decades, a substantial body of work has developed from the study of international issues relating to top management teams, particularly in relation to how firms formulate international strategies, how and where firms tend to grow their international businesses, and the performance outcomes of the choices made by them. This review provides a ... 阅读更多

Multinational enterprises (NMEs) operate in vastly different international environments. The intellectual property (IP) held by their foreign subsidiaries is thus at risk of appropriation by outsiders—sometimes even more at risk than the IP of the parent company. While legal and other external measures are obviously important to reduce such risk, Jiatao Li ... 阅读更多

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), launched in 2013, is a global development program involving more than US$1 trillion of investment in infrastructure projects to connect China to markets worldwide. The initiative has clear economic advantages for host countries, especially those lagging behind in infrastructural development. However, participating in ... 阅读更多

Business studies that probe how one factor influences another over time are often vulnerable to a subtle kind of error. Rigorous tests are therefore needed to avoid the drawing of false conclusions, as explained in a paper by HKUST’s Jiatao Li and mainland colleagues. They show how a long-standing problem in econometrics may have compromised the results of ... 阅读更多

Dynamic capability refers to an organization’s ability to purposefully create, extend, or modify its resource base. Within this framework, core competencies must be used to modify short-term competitive positions with the aim of building a longer-term competitive advantage. In the context of multinational enterprises (MNEs) that produce or deliver services ... 阅读更多

In China, start-ups with high-profile leaders are at risk of becoming victims of government expropriation, HKUST’s Jiatao Li and colleagues have found. This effect is particularly pronounced in areas where income inequality is high, and the legal system is underdeveloped. However, the authors find that entrepreneurs can protect themselves by establishing ... 阅读更多

For Chinese firms, gaining patents for innovations may be a promising way to gain influence in the international arena, according to HKUST’s Jiatao Li and a co-researcher. Such patents act as a powerful signal of technological quality and market potential for U.S. firms who seek to introduce such innovations at home. This research offers novel insights into ... 阅读更多

We have entered a new phase of business dominated by digital platforms, i.e. platforms that have a modular architecture and provide interface that facilitates multilateral transactions and exchanges among users and providers of complementary products and services (i.e., complementors). This platform-centric ecosystem allows enterprise to exploit ecosystem ... 阅读更多