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In 2013, China launched its ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a large portfolio of infrastructure projects across 71 countries intended to link Eurasian markets by rail and sea. The state-led nature of the Initiative combined with its transformative geopolitical implications have conditioned the type of engagement that many governments and firms in host and third countries are willing to take in Chinese-funded BRI projects. Building on two theoretical streams that have originated in international political economy but have received growing attention in international business, varieties of capitalism and geopolitics, this perspective shows how a greater understanding of the institutional and geopolitical context surrounding BRI helps decipher the selection of host-country firms and third-country MNEs in Chinese-funded BRI projects. We portray firm selection in a BRI project as the outcome of a one-tier bargaining game between China and a host country. We show how institutions and geopolitics influence both the legitimacy gap of Chinese SOEs in a host country and the host country’s relative bargaining power, affecting the likelihood that host firms and third-country MNEs are selected in BRI projects. We also discuss the geopolitical jockeying strategies that these firms can adopt to influence the outcome of the bargaining game.

Engaging the debate regarding the appropriate level of geographic diversification for multinational enterprises (MNEs), we examine a critical, yet unresolved, question: How is performance impacted by the MNE's level of intra-and inter-regional diversification versus the total level of geographic diversification? Using data from 123 U.S.-based MNEs over a seven-year period and leveraging both sales-based and subsidiary-based measures for diversification, we find that performance increases at an increasingly higher rate as firms concentrate more heavily on intra-regional diversification. Regarding inter-regional diversification and total geographic diversification, we find inverted-U relationships to exist between firm performance and the level of geographic diversification. Different from recent research on multinationality, our robustness checks indicate no evidence of a sigmoidal relationship between the degree of regional diversification and performance.

Entrepreneurs’ new ventures pursue different strategies in international markets; some are more committed to the foreign markets than others. Existing international management studies largely use entrepreneurs’ conscious rationale, such as profitability, risks, resource limitations, country-specific knowledge, and personal values, to explain the commitment diversities. Drawing from achievement motivation theory and cognition theory, this study adds entrepreneurs’ unconscious motives and differentiates between implicit and explicit achievement motivation as important forces driving the diversities of the commitment. Evidence collected in this study suggests that both conscious and unconscious achievement motives are related to the commitment but the relationships are moderated curvilinearly by overseas operation complexity and overseas competition intensity respectively. The findings of this study have important implications for entrepreneurs managing international business.

This paper investigates the profitability determinants of small- and medium-sized enterprises in high-tech industries. Literature review suggests that innovator position, market awareness, niche operation, and internationalization should have positive impacts on SMTEs' profitability. However, the empirical results partially agree with, and partially dissent from, the propositions.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the strategic intentions of strategic alliances in technology industries. Design/methodology/approach This paper mainly uses case studies as its methodology. Findings This paper depicts how the possibilities of firms sharing resources, costs and risks decrease when industry changes grow frequently and unpredictably. More importantly, this study suggests that in technology industries, firms use strategic alliances to keep their existing marketing strategies intact. Research limitations/implications For future studies, the authors will develop and test hypotheses based on the arguments of this paper. Practical implications Findings of this paper contradict business executives’ common sense but have important implications for them to manage their strategic alliances. Originality/value Findings of this paper contradict the traditional belief of strategic alliances and thus advance the knowledge on strategic alliances.

The extraction of titanium-bearing components in the form of CaTiO3 is an efficient utilization of blast furnace slag. The photocatalytic performance of this obtained CaTiO3 (MM-CaTiO3) as a catalyst for methylene blue (MB) degradation was evaluated in this study. The analyses indicated that the MM-CaTiO3 had a completed structure with a special length–diameter ratio. Furthermore, the oxygen vacancy was easier to generate on a MM-CaTiO3(110) plane during the photocatalytic process, contributing to improving photocatalytic activity. Compared with traditional catalysts, MM-CaTiO3 has a narrower optical band gap and visible-light responsive performance. The degradation experiments further confirmed that the photocatalytic degradation efficiency of pollutants by using MM-CaTiO3 was 3.2 times that of pristine CaTiO3 in optimized conditions. Combined with molecular simulation, the degradation mechanism clarified that acridine of MB molecular was stepwise destroyed by using MM-CaTiO3 in short times, which is different from demethylation and methylenedioxy ring degradation by using TiO2. This study provided a promising routine for using solid waste to obtain catalysts with excellent photocatalytic activity and was found to be in keeping with sustainable environmental development.

The release of valuable minerals from the associated gangues is called liberation. Good liberation is essential to the subsequent separation stage. Selective liberation is advantageous to improve the degree of liberation. Oolitic hematite is one of the typical refractory iron ores in China, and its resources are abundant. However, owing to its fine dissemination and complex mineralogical texture, the conventional grinding processes are inefficient in improving the selective liberation of oolitic hematite. In this study, microwave processing and acid leaching were used to assist the liberation of oolitic hematite. The assisted liberation of the oolitic hematite mechanisms of microwave processing and acid leaching were studied by using scanning electron microscope (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), BET specific surface area detection method (BET) and the transflective microscope method. The results indicated that microwave processing can reduce the mechanical strength of oolitic hematite and improve the liberation of hematite, and acid leaching can improve the microwave-assisted liberation efficiency and reduce the content of phosphorus in the grinding product. Compared to direct grinding, the liberation of hematite increased by 54.80% in the grinding product, and especially, the fractions of −0.038-mm and 0.05–0.074 mm increased significantly; however, there was no obvious change in other grain sizes, and the dephosphorization ratio reached 47.20% after microwave processing and acid leaching. After the two stages, the iron grade and recovery of the magnetic separation product increased by 14.26% and 34.62%, respectively, and the dephosphorization ratio reached 88.59%. It is demonstrated that microwave processing and acid leaching comprise an efficient method to improve the liberation of hematite and the dephosphorization ratio of oolitic hematite. The two-stage treatment can achieve selective liberation of oolitic hematite, which is beneficial to the following magnetic separation.

We replicate and extend Mohr et al.’s work (Journal of International Business Studies 47: 408–426, 2016), which hypothesized that increased state participation in the equity of international joint ventures (IJVs) decreased dissolution likelihoods, as tested with a sample of 623 Sino–foreign IJVs in the 1985–2009 period. Given the rapid developments in China’s economy and its institutional environment, we ask the question of whether the effects in Mohr et al. (2016) can be observed over a long period of time. We examine the generalizability of their findings (1) by replicating their study with a larger sample from the same data source, and over a longer period (1985–2017), and (2) by studying a sample of 803 IJVs from the same population but from another data source (the Annual Census of Chinese Industrial Enterprises) in the 2000–2017 period. We find that state equity can benefit IJV survival from favorable regulatory support, but it can also lead to lower survival rates due to unfavorable governmental intervention. Overall, we advocate a two-sided effect of state equity that leads to a curvilinear relationship between state equity and IJV dissolution, where time is an important boundary condition.

IB scholars have long studied the multinational enterprise (MNE) and now recognize that its ability to capture value stems from its control of bottleneck assets. In contrast, economic geographers and regional scientists have largely focused their attention on the locations within which economic and business systems operate. In this article, we draw on both these literatures. We emphasize that the MNE’s integration of upstream and downstream strategic considerations to maximize its control of bottleneck assets implies an optimal geographic footprint. This optimal footprint is typically asymmetric, with a spatial scale that varies dramatically across the different activities of the value chain. Upstream innovation processes are likely to be based on highly local considerations like the availability of specialized resources and collocation advantages. In contrast, downstream sales and marketing processes are likely to driven by imperatives of high volume and global reach. Further, in the current fast clockspeed business environment, the location and nature of bottleneck assets are likely to change rapidly and unpredictably, making organizational flexibility a crucial MNE capability.