International Establishment Mode Choice: Past, Present and Future

Abstract

Despite over three decades of research focusing on the choice multinational enterprises make between establishing foreign operations through either cross-border acquisitions or greenfield start-ups our understanding of the issues that impact this choice and the performance outcomes of making this decision is still unclear. To help improve knowledge in this area we provide a comprehensive review of the empirical studies on international establishment mode choice published between 1980 and 2015. Through this method we gain a greater understanding of the theories used, the variables employed, and the empirical results. In this way we can detect inconsistencies and offer suggestions for future research. We identify a number of issues that future studies need to address: changes to the models, introducing new theories or combining theories, applying new or better methods, and most importantly linking this choice to performance. Hence, our study consolidates knowledge in this area and highlights several ways to improve our understanding of the international establishment mode decision.

Five decades of research on foreign direct investment by MNEs: An overview and research agenda

“…We deployed the process of a structured systematic literature review followed in widely cited review articles (Keupp & Gassmann, 2009;Canabal & White, 2008;Rosad-Serrano et .al, 2018). Our starting point was a content analysis of prior reviews of the FDI literature on different sub-themes (i.e., Meyer, 2003;Blonigen, 2005;Buckley & Casson, 2009;Chan et al, 2006;Fetscherin et al, 2010;Dikova & Brouthers, 2016;Paul & Singh, 2017). Next, we performed a keyword search across selected online databases, including Business Source Premier, JSTOR, ScienceDirect, ProQuest, and Google Scholar for the articles on FDI published during the last five decades.…”

Acquisition or greenfield entry into Africa? Responding to institutional dynamics in an emerging continent

“…The choice of establishment mode for foreign market entry has been a central topic in international business research, where theoretical and empirical challenges and questions remain (see Dikova and Brouthers, , for a comprehensive review). Given the complexity of foreign market environments, a growing number of studies have focused on the importance of country‐level factors in the choice of establishment mode by firms.…”

Which Resources Matter How and Where? A Meta‐Analysis on Firms’ Foreign Establishment Mode Choice

“… A recent literature review by Dikova and Brouthers () identifies additional frequently examined firm‐level predictors of the establishment mode choice like firm size or other types of resources (than those described in this section) such as financial strength (see Appendix 1). However, the authors indicate that ‘[a] large number of firm‐level variables [included in Appendix 1] are included as controls […] without any specific theoretical relationship to establishment mode choice’ (p. 12).…”