Max Stallkamp

• Stallkamp, M.; Schotter, A., (Forthcoming), "Platforms Without Borders? The International Strategies of Digital Platform Firms", Global Strategy Journal.

  Abstract: Research summary:
  Digitalization has enabled firms with so-called platform business models to emerge in many sectors of the economy. By facilitating transactions between different groups of users (e.g., buyers and sellers), platform firms are disrupting industries around the world. However, little is known about the international strategies of platform firms, as research has mostly examined platforms in single-country contexts. We address this gap by integrating insights from platform research in strategy and economics—specifically the notion of network externalities—with internalization theory. We extend the existing typology of network externalities by distinguishing between within-country and cross-country network externalities. We derive testable propositions regarding the foreign entry modes of platform firms, their international strategic posture (multidomestic vs. globally-integrated), as well as foreign market selection criteria and market exit.
  Managerial summary:
  
  Many companies in the digital economy operate platform business models, which create value by connecting different groups of users, such as buyers and sellers. We examine how network externalities—the notion that a platform becomes more valuable to each user as more users join—influence the international expansion of these firms. We show that it is important to consider the geographic scope of network externalities, i.e., whether network externalities operate across national borders or whether platform firms have to create separate user networks in each country. The distinction between within-country and cross-country network externalities affects key internationalization decisions, such as how to enter foreign markets, whether to pursue multi-domestic or global strategies, how to select foreign markets, and when to exit from a foreign market.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/gsj.1336

• Stallkamp, M.; Pinkham, B. C.; Schotter, A.; Buchel, O., 2018, "Core or Periphery? The Effects of Country-of-Origin Agglomerations on the Within-Country Expansion of MNEs", Journal of International Business Studies, October 49(8): 942 - 966.

  Abstract: We show how the initial subnational entry location of foreign multinational enterprises (MNEs) in China influences their subsequent within-country location choices and expansion speed. We distinguish between MNEs that establish their first subsidiary in co-ethnic coresdense agglomerations of other firms from the same country of originand MNEs that locate their first subsidiary in the periphery, i.e., outside of these co-ethnic cores. To identify co-ethnic cores in China, we employ a geo-visualization methodology, which draws the boundaries of cores organically and dynamically over time. We contrast our findings with the prevailing approach of using static administrative boundaries for identifying agglomerations. Our results provide evidence of path dependency, in that (a) entry through subnational locations with strong co-ethnic communities is followed by expansion into other locations where co-ethnic communities are present, and that (b) entry through co-ethnic communities accelerates the pace at which MNEs establish additional subsidiaries in China. We also find that co-ethnic community effects continue to influence within-country MNE activities over time, despite a host of economic, institutional, and investment developments.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/s41267-016-0060-x

• Schotter, A.; Stallkamp, M.; Pinkham, B. C., 2017, "MNE Headquarters Disaggregation: The Formation Antecedents of Regional Management Centers", Journal of Management Studies, December 54(8): 1144 - 1169.

  Abstract: This research examines region-bound headquarters disaggregation in multinational enterprises (MNEs). We link the formation of regional management centersboth dedicated regional headquarters (RHQs) and regional management mandates (RMMs) granted to operating subsidiariesto the complexity argument underlying organizational information processing theory. We demonstrate how different dimensions of complexity associated with the number and dispersion of an MNE’s subsidiary network in a focal region affect whether, and in which form region-bound headquarters disaggregation takes place. Additionally, we consider boundary conditions affecting RMC formation based on within-region experience, global MNE footprint, and between-region effects. Empirically, we utilize a large global dataset of Japanese MNE foreign investment for the period from 1992 to 2014, which allows us to perform longitudinal event history analyses.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/joms.12285

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