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Paul Beamish has authored over 60 books and 144 journal 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 36 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 over a dozen countries for such organizations as Boeing, Canadian Foreign Service Institute, Cisco, Dupont, Harvard Institute for International Development, Hayes-Dana, Labatt/Interbrew, 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 146 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: This study aims to bridge the research on the internationalization of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with that on initial public offerings (IPOs). It investigates how IPOs affect SMEs’ foreign investment decisions as they internationalize. We argue that IPOs enable SMEs to engage in a period of accelerated foreign expansion, resulting in a wave-like pattern as suggested by Håkanson and Kappen’s (2017) ‘Casino model’ of internationalization. We also propose that there will be a post-IPO shift in SMEs entering less familiar locations and towards taking higher ownership stakes in new subsidiaries. We use a difference-in-differences design combined with coarsened exact matching to isolate the effects of IPOs. Our analysis of overseas investments by a matched sample of newly listed Japanese manufacturing SMEs and their private counterparts provides strong evidence that SMEs accelerate the pace of establishing new foreign subsidiaries after going public. The results also reveal nuanced changes in the location and ownership patterns in the post-IPO period. This study identifies the IPO as a significant antecedent to SME foreign expansion and offers a new explanation for intertemporal variance in the pace, direction, and commitment of the SME internationalization process.
Abstract: Research summary: Rare events and other non-error outliers (such as the COVID-19 pandemic) are important phenomena in global strategy contexts. Despite their salience, however, they have hardly been studied systematically in our field (or organizational research at large). We suggest that this is due to a dominance of the Gaussian paradigm, which (often unrealistically) assumes linearity and independence of observations. Moreover, case-based qualitative studies which offer contextualization have been underrepresented. We thus call on researchers to abolish the practice of habitually discarding outliers, reflect on non-normal distributions, and pursue more qualitative studies. Journal editors and reviewers should widen their assumptions regarding “acceptable” papers and reflect on the requirement of contributing to big “T” theories. Finally, PhD training should juxtapose fundamental paradigms and associated implications for epistemological choices.
Managerial summary: Extreme occurrences, such as organizational crises, recessions, or pandemics, are challenges most practitioners deal with and worry about. Understanding their determinants, characteristics, and dynamics allows for heightened vigilance, preparedness, and ultimately performance. Yet, much of global strategy research (and organizational research at large) has focused on “average” phenomena, based on methodologies that assume bell-shaped distributions and independent observations. In this note, we argue that this is not a realistic way to think about most social phenomena. In fact, most are characterized by their high degree of interdependence among elements, as well as a relative commonness of “rare” events and outliers. As a result of embracing the reality of non-normality, scholars will be able to offer more relevant guidance to practitioners.
Abstract: We investigate the relationship between multinational enterprise parent-subsidiary governance (MNEPSG), host country governance quality (HCGQ), and foreign subsidiary survival. We draw upon agency theory, MNEPSG literature, and institutional theory to develop a holistic conceptual model. We test our hypotheses using a large longitudinal sample of 1,711 MNEs and 13,398 subsidiaries in 63 countries from 1990-2013. We find that key MNEPSG mechanisms (Ownership, Expatriates, and Regional Headquarters) positively impact foreign subsidiary survival, whereas HCGQ negatively impacts it; and that increasing Ownership and Expatriates is more effective in high HCGQ contexts. We discuss important implications for research and practice.
Abstract: The resource-based view (RBV) has evolved into a pre-eminent theory of strategic management. It is widely used by IB scholars, since there is considerable synergy in core research questions pursued by international business (IB) and strategy researchers. However, in research on multinational enterprise (MNE) behavior, the use of RBV remains limited, relative to other influential perspectives such as the eclectic paradigm, the Uppsala model, and institutional theory. This is not surprising since the RBV was developed to explain performance differentials between country-centric firms with dominant product businesses, rather than large MNEs with an expansive product-geographic scope. We describe how these limitations arise from the wider range of outcomes and explanatory variables, multiple levels of analysis, and the spatial, economic, and institutional barriers that are relevant to MNEs. We discuss the application of RBV to MNE research by the first author and other IB scholars. We then provide directions on how future research could use RBV more fruitfully to examine MNE performance and sources of competitive advantage in several areas. These include diversified corporations, subsidiary agglomeration, emerging market MNE internationalization, subsidiary autonomy, international joint ventures and alliances, and corporate social responsibility. Drawing upon teaching case examples from the first author’s work, we also point to the effectiveness of RBV in teaching with business cases, given its focus on firm performance (strategy).
Abstract: This study seeks to advance a fine-grained understanding of the relationship between host-country institutions and foreign subsidiary survival by unbundling host-country institutions into contracting institutions and property rights institutions as well as engaging subsidiary-level heterogeneity. We argue that the adverse effects of weak contracting institutions are stronger for market-seeking subsidiaries than resource-seeking subsidiaries. In contrast, we contend that weak property rights institutions are more detrimental to the survival of resource-seeking subsidiaries. Data from a longitudinal, paired-sample design of Japanese foreign subsidiaries operating across 46 countries provide support for these arguments. These results (a) contribute to gaining a more fine-grained understanding of whether and how institutions relate to subsidiary survival and (b) underscore the need to better understand institutional diversity as well as subsidiary heterogeneity.
Abstract: Host country tax considerations are critical to multinational enterprise (MNE) foreign direct investment decisions, but understudied in international business (IB) research. We address this gap by examining the relationship between host country corporate income tax rates (HCCITRs) and foreign subsidiary survival. We develop our hypothesis drawing upon location/country-specific advantage theory and international tax literature. Our longitudinal sample (1990–2013) comprises 13,468 MNE subsidiaries in 78 countries. Results indicate a one standard deviation (7.7 %) decrease in HCCITR increases subsidiary survival probability (at any given time) by 33 %. This effect is stronger compared to several well studied explanatory variables in IB survival analysis.
Abstract: Corporate anti-corruption initiatives can make a substantial contribution towards curtailing corruption and advancing efforts to achieve the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. However, researchers have observed that underdeveloped assumptions with respect to the conceptualization of corruption and how firms respond to corruption have impeded the efficacy of anti-corruption programs. We investigate the relationship between the perceived level of corruption in foreign host countries and the organizational structure of subsidiary operations established by multinational corporations (MNCs). Foreign host market corruption is disaggregated into two components – private and public corruption. We employ an uncertainty-based perspective grounded in transaction cost theory to focus upon the distinct mechanisms through which private and public corruption can each be expected to impact a foreign subsidiary’s organizational structure (whollyowned subsidiary (WOS) or a joint venture (JV) with a local partner). We expect that each type of corruption fosters a different type of uncertainty (environmental or behavioral) which predominates in shaping the MNC’s choice of foreign subsidiary investment structure. Hypotheses are developed and tested with a sample of 187 entries into 19 foreign host markets. Each type of corruption was found to exert a distinct effect upon the organizational structure of foreign subsidiaries. More precisely, while heightened perceived levels of public corruption were found to motivate MNCs to invest through a JV with a local partner rather than a WOS, more pronounced private corruption precipitated the opposite outcome.
Abstract: Multinational firms often make multiple investments over time in a concentrated set of countries, accumulating superior knowledge and capabilities in these environments. Researchers have nonetheless uncovered factors that can lead firms to deviate from strategic trajectories defined by their prior investments. In a statistical analysis of country entry decisions by Japanese manufacturing firms over a 35-year period, we found that firms’ tendencies to re-invest in the same host countries were smaller for horizontal (i.e. market-seeking) investments but greater for vertical (i.e. efficiency-seeking) investments. We also found that organizational capabilities influence the geographic trajectory of international expansion: firms with stronger marketing and production capabilities were less likely to be influenced by the locations of prior entries and were more likely to invest in new countries.
Research summary: This study examines strategic and resource contingencies that shape MNEs’ country location choices. Our analysis of overseas production investments by Japanese firms (19712006) finds that differences in investment motives (i.e. horizontal and vertical investment) and corporate capabilities (i.e. marketing and production capabilities) moderate how prior entries into a host country affect subsequent entry decisions. In general, the positive impact of prior entries on investment in a country is weaker for horizontal investments and stronger for vertical investments. A more nuanced relationship emerges when entry decisions are analyzed in conjunction with heterogeneous corporate marketing and production capabilities. The study illustrates the novel insights to be gained from analyzing the joint impact of path dependence, managerial intentions, and corporate capabilities on country location decisions.
Abstract: Extant research has found that more pronounced levels of corruption in foreign host emerging markets increase the likelihood that subsidiaries established by multinational enterprises (MNEs) from developed countries will exit. We synthesize insights from the organizational perspective of corruption and the integration-responsiveness paradigm to propose that integration-oriented strategies will weaken the positive relationship between corruption and the likelihood of exit at high levels of host market corruption. We develop and test hypotheses pertaining to the main effect of corruption on the likelihood of subsidiary exit, as well as the moderating impacts of a firm’s equity ownership strategy and its expatriate staffing strategy upon this relationship. We theorize that uncertainty operates as the mechanism that underpins the corruption-market exit relationship, and that an MNE’s strategic choices with respect to its subsidiary investments contribute to reducing this uncertainty. We find that an increase in the foreign-investing MNE’s equity ownership share negatively moderates the positive relationship between corruption and the likelihood that foreign subsidiaries established by developed market MNEs will exit host emerging markets when corruption is high. However, the marginal effects results do not support the expatriate staffing strategy hypothesis. Our work provides theoretically-grounded and empirically-supported guidance to developed country MNEs that seek insights with respect to the utility of strategies that might be implemented in host emerging markets characterized by more pronounced levels of corruption.
Abstract: This essay specifically focuses on the transference of a business education practice common in the West – the use of the case method – to the East (specifically China). It is based on my 15 years as Executive Director of Ivey Publishing (IP), the world's second largest producer and distributor of business case studies, and my efforts to internationalize IP, as well as my 30 years teaching in the West, 30 years of annual visits to China, and my experience writing over 40 published teaching cases which deal with business in China. Many of these cases were written with Chinese co‐authors.
It is framed according to Rogers’ ‘Diffusion of Innovation’ model which was published in 1962. This model explains how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology are spread through cultures. Rogers’ original model follows a bell shaped idea/technology adoption approach. It begins with the innovators. The early adopters then increase the traction of the innovation. From here early majority adopters lift the innovation into the mainstream, before the late majority and the laggards jump on at the peak and tail‐end of the adoption curve. This essay will argue that China is now about halfway through the process of adopting a teaching model with which it had negligible modern day experience.
Abstract: IB research has made significant contributions in understanding MNEs, yet examples of scholarship that have had a demonstrable impact on practice and policy are rare. This article presents research we conducted in the wake of the 2007 global product safety crisis as one such example. We reflect on it to suggest that IB research can enhance its impact by focusing attention on issues that affect both MNEs and societies, and by using available data to arrive at even basic explanations and solutions to inform practice and prompt further academic research.
Abstract: This study examines how the composition of subsidiaries’ mandates affects their survival, by investigating the configurational characteristics of mandate portfolios. Examining data from 1991 to 2017 on 14,952 foreign subsidiaries of 4,877 Japanese multinational enterprises reveals that while having a mandate portfolio with greater scope in relation to same-parent subsidiaries enhances the survivability of foreign subsidiaries, the effect is weakened when the portfolio has a higher degree of overlap with those of other same-parent subsidiaries. Conversely, when a subsidiary’s mandate portfolio puts a greater emphasis on the multinational enterprise’s (MNE) global value-chain activities, its effect on subsidiary survival is strengthened.
Abstract: We examine how organizational ecology and the strategic choice perspective can be combined to provide more contextualized insights into how multinational corporations (MNCs) can better counter environmental pressures with evolving subnational FDI legitimacy and improve the survival likelihood of their subsidiaries. We consider three organizational identity-based strategic choices, i.e., country-of-origin (COO) agglomeration, expatriate staffing level and subsidiary ownership level. We hypothesize a U-shaped relationship between FDI legitimacy and subsidiary mortality, and that this relationship will be moderated by the level of COO agglomeration at a subnational level. We also hypothesize that with improving FDI legitimacy, the use of higher levels of expatriates and ownership will jeopardize the survival of larger subsidiaries. A longitudinal dataset (2001–2016) for 3,025 subsidiaries formed by 1,147 Japanese MNCs in China was used in hypothesis testing. Results largely supported our hypotheses. We discuss how an identity-centered approach can contribute to theory and practice.
Abstract: This study investigates how Japanese MNEs are adapting their ownership choices to accommodate China’s economic liberalization. Drawing upon the institution-based view of the firm, we propose an institutional response model that is simultaneously based on the progress of economic liberalization and the accumulation of subsidiary experience. This model suggests that Japanese MNEs increasingly adopt higher ownership levels in their subsidiaries because of the combined effects of deepening deregulation on foreign investments, declining pure uncertainty, and increasing contingent uncertainty during economic liberalization. It also suggests that the progress of economic liberalization continuously changes the combination of the two types of institutional uncertainty (pure and contingent), contextualizing the influence of subsidiary experience on Japanese MNEs’ ownership choices. Using data for Japanese investments in China between 1991 and 2013, we construct a latent growth-curve model to provide empirical evidence for the proposed institutional response model.
Abstract: MNEs use the regional aggregation and integration of their FDIs as an important part of their internationalization. However, little work has focused on explaining the extent of this regional integration. We develop and test new hypotheses about MNEs’ general international experience and international geographic scope (i.e., institutional diversity and international dispersion) as predictors of their extent of regional integration. The results from a sample of Japanese MNEs validate these effects, suggesting these MNE level variables are important for regional influences on their internationalization decisions. The results further our understanding of how MNEs organize their internationalization and strategic geographic foci.
In 2021, Professor Beamish received the Case Centre's "Outstanding Contribution to the Came Method Award".
Professor Beamish received the International Management Eminent Scholar Award 2017 and Outstanding Educator Award 2012, from the Academy of Management.
He has received best research paper awards from the Academy of Management, the Academy of International Business (AIB), and the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada (ASAC).
In 2017, he was recognized by Journal of International Business Studies as the fifth most published author in the history of the journal, in 2014 by Management International Review as the fifth most prolific contributor to the IB literature between 1995-2011, in 2010 by International Business Review as the second most productive I.B. scholar in the 1996-2008 period.
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.
