Stav Fainshmidt

• Andrews, D. S.; Fainshmidt, S.; Ambos, T.; Haensel, K., (Forthcoming), "The Attention-based View and the Multinational Corporation: Review and Research Agenda", Journal of World Business
  Abstract: Prior research increasingly recognizes the role of managers’ attention within the multinational corporation (MNC). However, literature has been fragmented, focusing on diverse aspects of attention allocation and drawing on distinct conceptualizations of attention and its antecedents and outcomes. To address these lacunae, we systematically review attention-relevant MNC research. We compile a nomological network of attention and identify pertinent tensions in existing research. Leveraging our findings, we propose future research avenues to de-fragment the body of research and advance a more coherent attention-based view of the MNC and its subsidiaries.
• Andrews, D. S.; Fainshmidt, S.; Schotter, A.; Gaur, A., (Forthcoming), "Formal Institutional Context in Global Strategy Research: A Layer Cake Perspective", Global Strategy Journal
  Abstract: We offer a novel view of formal institutions as a layer cake, suggesting a structural relationship between higher-level and lower-level institutions. In this context, inter-layer conflict imposes complex pressures on multinational corporations (MNCs). These tensions have become more rife amid the growth in global connectedness and the commensurate increase in the importance of within-country differences. Drawing on political science and economic geography research, we introduce regime type and the distribution of economic resources as conditions under which inter-layer conflict is most likely to arise. We leverage two caselets to illustrate inter-layer conflict and the novel response options MNCs can deploy. Our perspective advances the theoretical understanding of intra-national institutional diversity, laying the groundwork for future research at the nexus of institutional theory and global strategy.
• Witt, M. A.; Fainshmidt, S.; Aguilera, R. V., 2022, "Our Board, Our Rules: Nonconformity to Global Corporate Governance Norms", Administrative Science Quarterly, March 67(1): 131 - 166.
  Abstract: What drives organizational nonconformity to global corporate governance norms? Despite the prevalence of such norms and attendant conformity pressures, many firms do not adhere to them. We build on a political view of corporate governance to explore how different national institutional contexts and organizational conditions combine to produce over- and underconformity to global board independence norms. Using configurational analyses and data from banks in OECD countries, we identify multiple equifinal combinations of conditions associated with over- and underconformity. We also find that over- and underconformity have different drivers. We conjecture that while overconformity is associated with a shareholder–management coalition in liberal market economies, underconformity results from multiple complex combinations of national and organizational conditions that often include dominant blockholders, strong labor rights, and small organizational size. We leverage these findings to abduct theoretical insights on nonconformity to global corporate governance norms. Doing so sheds light on the role of power in conditioning the adoption of global practices and contributes to research on international corporate governance by informing discourse surrounding the globalization of markets.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00018392211022726

• Mallon, M. R.; Fainshmidt, S., 2022, "Who’s Hiding in the Shadows? Organized Crime and Informal Entrepreneurship in 39 Economies", Journal of Management, January 48(1): 211 - 237.
  Abstract: Informal entrepreneurship represents a common mode of business formation globally and entails starting and operating a business without registering it with legal authorities. Despite the size of the informal sector in many countries, the motivations for entrepreneurs to operate nonregistered ventures are not well understood. Although formal institutions play an important role, we argue that the decision to operate a nonregistered new venture is influenced by a pervasive informal institution around the world: the practice of extortion payments to organized crime. Because criminal organizations foster the development of norms and beliefs cementing extortion payments as an institution, we posit that entrepreneurs will use nonregistration as a buffer to avoid extortion costs preemptively. We further explicate that this choice is contingent upon founders’ access to resources and ventures’ product-market strategy, which shape visibility to organized crime and the ability to resist extortion and, thus, alter the need for nonregistration as a buffer against institutionalized extortion. Our analysis of over 8,000 new ventures operating in 39 economies largely supports these arguments. This study identifies a novel causal mechanism in the nomological network of informal entrepreneurship, namely, the prevalence of organized crime, and informs a multilevel theory of how entrepreneurs choose the type of organizational form for their ventures. Finally, it illuminates the importance of shadow institutions—illegal and not widely accepted practices—which may operate as unique but often overlooked types of institutions that shape entrepreneurial and organizational decisions.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0149206320978821

• Andrews, D. S.; Fainshmidt, S.; Gaur, A.; Parente, R., (Forthcoming), "Configuring knowledge connectivity and strategy conditions for foreign subsidiary innovation", Long Range Planning
  Abstract: We argue that product innovation by foreign subsidiaries of multinational corporations is a complex undertaking requiring a theoretical understanding of how managers combine subsidiary structural arrangements, knowledge connectivity, and contextual conditions into configurations that yield innovative products. Accordingly, we integrate relevant conditions from interrelated literature streams and explore their complementarities and substitutions in relation to subsidiary product innovation. Using a neo-configurational approach and data on 183 foreign subsidiaries operating in Europe, we identify six equifinal configurations associated with subsidiary product innovation. We leverage the configurational patterns to elaborate theory of how subsidiary product innovation is primarily driven by the interrelations among the relevant conditions, thus contributing novel insights to research on subsidiary management and global innovation.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lrp.2021.102089

• Fainshmidt, S.; Smith, A. W.; Aguilera, R. V., 2021, "Where Do Born Globals Come from? A Neoconfigurational Institutional Theory", Organization Science
  Abstract: Born globals, recently established firms that obtain a substantial share of their revenue from foreign markets, can help strengthen countries’ economic vitality and increase innovation levels. The extent of born global formation varies considerably across countries, yet it is unclear why this is the case. Drawing on the neoconfigurational institutional perspective, we develop a typology of institutional contexts associated with high born global formation rates. We posit that high rates of born global formation occur where institutional features favorable to border-spanning activities complement institutional features conducive to entrepreneurial activity, thus forming an institutional configuration that enables, equips, and motivates more societal members to launch born globals. Accordingly, we hypothesize a primary institutional configuration where international transaction facilitators, entrepreneurial educational capital, and entrepreneurial norms combine to propel born global formation. Further, we draw on the internationalization literature to propose two alternative types of institutional configurations conducive to born global formation. These two types provide functional substitutes for the primary type and are distinctly propelled by (1) escapism from low-quality public governance institutions or (2) immigrant entrepreneurship. Fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis on data from 66 countries supports our typology and illustrates why born global activity may thrive even in contexts with institutional weaknesses. Our study develops a neoconfigurational model to advance a holistic understanding of the born global phenomenon’s theoretical drivers, contributing to research on comparative capitalism and international entrepreneurship.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2021.1497

• Fainshmidt, S.; Andrews, D. S.; Gaur, A.; Schotter, A., 2021, "Recalibrating Management Research for the post-COVID Scientific Enterprise", Journal of Management Studies, July 58(5): 1416 - 1420.
  Abstract: Scientific experts have traditionally enjoyed high public trust, but their stock of social capital is eroding (Jacobs, 2020). This is particularly the case for management researchers, who are already viewed as elites disconnected from practice and the public. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated lingering concerns about using public resources for university education and social sciences that yield questionable social returns with obfuscated outputs, lack of timeliness and accessibility, and fragmentation, but it has also “changed science forever” (Yong, 2020): The post-COVID scientific enterprise demands responsible use of societal resources through fast-paced research, social embeddedness, and coordination. Management research is everything but. For management scholars, this means recalibrating how research is conducted, evaluated, and disseminated to society. This commentary briefly outlines some tangible pathways toward that end.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/joms.12702

• Geleilate, J. M. G.; Andrews, D. S.; Fainshmidt, S., 2020, "Subsidiary autonomy and subsidiary performance: A meta-analysis", Journal of World Business, June 55(4): 101049 - 101049.
  Abstract: Although research shows that subsidiary decision-making autonomy may improve subsidiary performance in some contexts, the conditions under which autonomy is beneficial to subsidiary performance remain unclear. Accordingly, we review the literature and develop an initial framework of possible contingencies to the autonomy-performance relationship. We then meta-analyze 94 studies encompassing 23,337 foreign subsidiaries and identify moderators of the performance outcomes of autonomy related to institutional and industry contexts and to the headquarters-subsidiary relationship. We discuss the implications of these moderation patterns for subsidiary management research and propose a theory-based roadmap for future research on the outcomes of subsidiary autonomy.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2019.101049

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