Dean of the Fellows of the Academy of International Business
Director, International Business Institute
Canada Research Chair in International Management
Profile
Paul Beamish holds the Canada Research Chair in International Management at Ivey. He is the author or co-author of over 55 books and 125 refereed articles. His books are in the areas of International Management, Strategic Management, and Joint Ventures and Alliances. His articles have appeared in Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS), and elsewhere. He served as Editor-in- Chief of JIBS from 1993-97 and is on numerous editorial boards. He is a Research Fellow of the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada.
Professor Beamish has supervised 32 PhD dissertations, many involving International Joint Ventures and Alliances. His consulting, management training, and joint venture facilitation activities have been in both the public and private sector. These have taken place in Australia, Canada, China, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Portugal, Sweden and the United States for such organizations as Boeing, Canadian Foreign Service Institute, Cisco, Dupont, Harvard Institute for International Development, Hayes-Dana, Labatt/Interbrew, Nortel, Schneider, and Valmet. He worked for Procter and Gamble and Wilfrid Laurier University before joining Ivey's faculty in 1987. He is the founder of The 39 Country Initiative.
Beamish has authored over 135 case studies, primarily in the international management area. These have appeared in Asian Case Research Journal, Case Research Journal, and in over 120 books. His cases have been among Ivey's top external sellers in each of the past ten years. He is recipient of best case writing awards from the European Foundation for Management Development, AIB, and ASAC.
Professor Beamish (Bao Ming Xin in Chinese) has worked on Asia-specific issues for many years. He has written case studies and/or conducted research involving China, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan and Vietnam. He has served as a consultant to The World Bank on technology transfer to China, provided training programs in Asia for Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, and co-edited a series of casebooks published in Chinese by Tsinghua University Press. He is series editor for 16 volumes of cases for the China market available in both English and Chinese and 10 volumes in Taiwan. His Asia-related books include Japanese Subsidiaries in the New Global Economy (Edward Elgar), Cooperative Strategies: Asian-Pacific Perspectives (published by The New Lexington Press), and Japanese Multinationals in the Global Economy (Edward Elgar).
He was the founding Director at Ivey of both the Asian Management Institute (1997) and the Engaging Emerging Markets Research Centre (2005). These were both folded into the International Business Institute (2016).
Teaching
International Management Theory and Research (PhD)
International Joint Ventures and Alliances (MSc)
Strategic Management/Business Policy (MBA and Undergraduate)
Multinational Enterprise Strategies/International Business (Executive MBA, HK EMBA, MBA and Undergraduate)
Abstract: When war occurs in a country, some foreign MNEs stay on, while others flee. We argue that MNE responses to external threats depend on the firm’s vulnerability, which we decompose into exposure (proximity to threat), at-risk resources (potential for loss), and resilience (capacity for coping). We test the independent and interactive effects of these dimensions using a geo-referenced sample of 1,162 MNE subsidiaries in 20 war-afflicted countries over 1987–2006. We find that highly valuable resources can become liabilities when exposed to harm, and the best way to cope with external threats may be to exit. Our findings extend the resource based view and real options theory by demonstrating the bounded value of resources and options in the face of environmental contingencies.
Abstract: This study contributes to the literature on global boundary spanning by taking a learning perspective that positions the boundary spanner as an active change agent. Grounded in a practice-based theory of knowledge, it considers boundary spanning as the negotiation of knowledge and relationships across fields of practice. We argue that global boundary spanning is a long-term commitment to help internal members become aware of foreign knowledge practices, see these practices as valuable, and adopt them internally. We frame the activities of the boundary spanner within a scaffolding framework that theorizes boundary spanning as a combination of ability, persistent willingness, and opportunity. Here scaffolding refers to the cognitive, relational, and material supports enacted by boundary spanners that facilitate organization members’ engagement in practices that allow for the awareness, capacity building, and commitment to adoption of foreign practices. We draw on interviews from international returnee managers employed in large Korean financial firms.
Abstract: This study examines how the decision to enter African markets relates to the exit probability of MNE subsidiaries. Using a longitudinal, paired-sample design of Japanese foreign subsidiaries operating in Africa and OECD countries, we find that entry to Africa increases the hazard rate of subsidiaries, but that subsidiaries entering with more diverse investment purposes and greater market-seeking orientation have a better survival likelihood. Consistent with the institutional-based theory of corporate diversification, our findings introduce purpose diversity and market-seeking orientation as potential mechanisms to mitigate the hazards of institutional voids/instability. Also, by looking at the phenomenon of within-subsidiary diversity (of purposes) and its interaction with institutional conditions, we advance the notion of subsidiary scope and its implications.
Abstract: In multinational enterprises (MNEs), regional management centres (RMCs) most frequently take the form of either dedicated regional headquarters (RHQs) or regional management mandates (RMMs) assigned to operating subsidiaries. We identify a series of critical differences in characteristics and performance between RHQs and RMMs, using a longitudinal sample of 855 Japanese RMCs across 41 countries. We also investigate parent-level differences between MNEs with distinct RMC configurations. We propose a structural complement to regional strategy extensions of the integration-responsiveness framework, and provide an important large sample baseline, aiding new theoretical and empirical research into MNE regional management strategy and structure.
Abstract: International business research is only beginning to develop theory and evidence highlighting the importance of supranational regional institutions to explain firm internationalization. In this context, we offer new theory and evidence regarding the effect of a region’s “institutional complexity” on FDI decisions by multinational enterprises (MNEs). We define a region’s institutional complexity using two components, regional institutional diversity and number of countries. We explore the unique relationships of both components with MNEs’ decisions to internationalize into countries within the region. Drawing on semiglobalization and regionalization research and institutional theory, we posit an inverted U-shaped relationship between a region’s institutional diversity and MNE internationalization: extremely low or high regional institutional diversity has negative effects on internationalization, but moderate diversity has a positive effect on internationalization. Larger numbers of countries within the region reduces MNE internationalization in a linear fashion. We find support for these predicted relationships in multi-level analyses of 698 Japanese MNEs operating in 49 countries within nine regions. Regional institutional complexity is both a challenge and an opportunity for MNEs seeking advantages through the aggregation and arbitrage of individual country factors.
Abstract: Drawing on internalization theory and economic geography research, we examine how the spatial structure of MNE subsidiaries in supranational regions affects subsidiary location choices. Our analysis of foreign production investments by Japanese manufacturing firms from 1971-2006 supports our theoretical predictions: firms were more likely to establish new production subsidiaries in countries geographically more proximate to existing production subsidiaries, but not to trading subsidiaries, in the same region. The proximity effect diminished for production subsidiaries engaged in accessing natural resources or R&D.
Performance of production subsidiaries was also stronger for those closer to other production subsidiaries in the same region.
Abstract: Consistent with the knowledge-based view of the firm, capability augmentation in the multinational corporation (MNC) entails the adaptation and diffusion of knowledge within a network of globally dispersed subsidiaries. We used case study methodology to examine the transfer of knowledge practices within four MNCs in order to identify specific mechanisms through which social context impacts efficiency and effectiveness of transfer, as well as the resulting development of associated capabilities. The primary findings of this study are the identification of mechanisms that headquarters can use to create mutual interdependencies among subsidiaries, which in turn hasten capability development and enhance knowledge flow; and the mutually constructive roles of knowledge transfer and shared context, through promotion of organizational knowledge use, and the facilitating role of communication technologies. The manner in which these coordination and control mechanisms are implemented facilitates the integration of different units within the networked MNC.
Abstract: Over the past 50 years, cooperative forms of governance such as equity joint ventures and other strategic alliances have received tremendous attention in international business and management research. This article traces the history of this research over these past five decades with particular emphasis on the critical role that (Columbia) Journal of World Business has played in disseminating scholarly and managerial expertise on the successful management of cross-border, inter-firm collaboration. We highlight the evolution of interest in different contexts, phenomena, theories, and methodologies, along with the factors that have driven interest in these topics. Several suggestions for future research are also provided.
Abstract: Using a sample of Japanese–US dyads, we find that the time required to travel between geographically separated locations affects subsidiary performance and survival. Longer travel time harms financial performance, and poor performers face higher closure rates. While distant subsidiaries perform poorly, they also survive longer. This is because remediation attention is focused on easier-to-access subsidiaries, there are increased information processing complexities, and parents more often change managers to address deteriorating performance. Further, distant subsidiaries are more likely to be relocated. By measuring travel time instead of geographic distance, we provide validation for the assumption that there are costs to being geographically distant.
Abstract: The literature on innovation offshoring has focused on the dichotomous choice between two distinct investment strategies – captive offshoring and outsourced offshoring. We use the concept of organizational control to investigate how differences in the informal institutions that prevail in the home and host countries influence MNE strategy (or, the organizational control decision) with respect to subsidiaries established to offshore innovation. While the relationship between formal institutions and MNE strategy has been the subject of considerable academic scrutiny, less is known about the role of informal institutions. We propose that the type of uncertainty precipitated by informal institutions is critical to understanding the strategic behavior of foreign-investing MNEs. We hypothesize that an MNE’s organizational control over a subsidiary will be contingent upon the type of informal institutional uncertainty encountered by the subsidiary. More specifically, we disaggregate the informal institutions construct and develop three new, more explicit, latent constructs – behaviorally-oriented informal institutions (BOII), technology-oriented informal institutions (TOII) and demandoriented informal institutions (DOII). Our theory posits that while an increase in BOII distance will precipitate a preference for greater organizational control, heightened TOII and DOII distances will induce the opposite outcome – a preference for lower levels of organizational control. We test our hypotheses with a sample of subsidiaries established in 14 emerging markets between 1995 and 2009 to offshore innovation.
Abstract: MNEs can learn from the foreign investment experiences of other firms when evaluating their own foreign entry strategies. We argue that other firms’ experiences reduce investment barriers arising from formal and informal institutional environments in host countries that are dissimilar from an MNE’s home country, thereby encouraging new entry. Our empirical analysis of foreign entries by Japanese public manufacturing firms over more than a thirty-year period indicates that the prior experiences of other firms in a host country mitigate the negative effect of formal and informal institutional distance on entry decisions: as other firms’ experiences in a host country increase, a firm is less deterred by greater institutional distance from entering the country. We also find that the distance-mitigating effect of other firms’ experiences in different industries is less significant when a larger body of same-industry firm experience exists in a country, implying a substitution effect between different types of vicarious experience.
Abstract: This study examines the interaction of formal and informal cross-border knowledge-sharing practices of four large multinational corporations (MNCs) in aerospace, software, IT services and telecommunications industries. The goal was to determine the manner in which coordination and control mechanisms facilitated knowledge transfer. The primary finding of this study is that knowledge transfer mechanisms arise as a result of both formal and informal structures of the MNC. Formal structures which create either mutual dependencies or occasions for knowledge exchange facilitate transfer. Formal structure which inhibits knowledge transfer can be overcome by knowledge brokers and evaluation metrics. These findings suggest that knowledge transfer is more informal than formal, but that MNC headquarters does play a role, intended or not, through shaping the interdependencies among geographically distributed units. Managers should be mindful of both the manner in which tasks and the organization are structured, as these have an indirect impact on the development of knowledge channels.
Abstract: This paper examines the role which the long term orientation (LTO) dimension of host country culture plays in transforming multinational corporations' (MNCs') focus from transaction cost to transaction value in the context of MNC subsidiary ownership and survival. We used a sample of 10,236 overseas subsidiaries established by 1,291 Japanese MNCs in 29 host countries with varying levels of LTO to test our hypotheses. Results first showed that LTO has a direct positive effect on ownership levels. Second, we observed that there were positive interactions between LTO and cultural distance, and between LTO and geographic distance, on ownership levels. Third, we found that there were positive interactions between LTO and subsidiary ownership level, and between LTO and cultural distance, on subsidiary survival. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed in terms of the vital role LTO plays in determining whether transaction value or transaction cost considerations prevail in MNCs' ownership strategies, and how MNCs can better take advantage of host country LTO and improve the survival likelihood of their subsidiaries.
Professor Beamish received the International Management Outstanding Educator Award 2012, from the Academy of Management.
He has received best research awards from the Academy of Management, the Academy of International Business (AIB), and the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada (ASAC).
In 1997 and 2003 he was recognized in the Journal of International Management as one of the top three contributors worldwide to the international strategic management literature in the previous decade, by International Business Review in 2010 as the second most productive I.B. scholar in the 1996-2008 period, and by Management International Review in 2014 as the fifth largest contributor to the IB literature between 1995-2011.
Experience
Full Professor, since 1996; Tenured, 1990; Associate Professor, effective July 1989; Assistant Professor, July 1987-June 1989.
Assistant Professor, School of Business and Economics, Wilfrid Laurier University, Dec. 1984-June 1987; Lecturer, July 1982-Dec. 1984.
Proprietor - Nomad Trading Company, 1977-90.
Manager, Comptroller’s Division - The Procter and Gamble Company of Canada Ltd., 1976-1979.
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