Andreas P.J. Schotter

• Andrews, D.; Mathias, B.; Kumaraswamy, A.; Schotter, A., 2024, "Trouble brewing: Craft ventures during market disruption", Journal of Business Venturing, November 39(6)
  Abstract: Prior studies of craft-based categories have emphasized member ventures' prototypical features of smallness and innovativeness, collaboration and cohesiveness norms, and a perception of shared fate forging their strong oppositional identity vis-a-vis industrialized producers. However, our study of craft breweries reveals the potential pitfalls of rigidly adhering to these features and norms during market disruptions. As consumer behaviors changed during the COVID-19 crisis, smallness and innovativeness became liabilities while scale and familiarity became indispensable, favoring larger breweries over prototypical members. This shift exposed hidden divisions within the category, challenging long-held beliefs in shared fate and entrenching heterogeneity among members. The consequent realignment within the category demonstrates how market disruptions can reshape craft-based ventures and categories. Our study advances a theoretical understanding of the dynamic nature of prototypical features and norms: An adherence to category prototypes can become a source of vulnerability during times of significant upheaval.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2024.106433

• Vasconcellos, S.; Parente, R. C.; Schotter, A.; Garrido, I. L.; Goncalo, C. R., (Forthcoming), "Organizational creativity: A microfoundation of the international business competence and performance link", Journal of International Management
  Abstract: We investigate the role of organizational creativity as a microfoundation underlying international business competence (IBC) and its impact on international performance in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Based on recent studies emphasizing the importance of creativity as an antecedent of valuable capabilities, we develop a model showing how organizational creativity manifests itself in diverse nuances in the connection between individual and organizational levels. We test our model with data from SMEs using established scales for organizational creativity and IBC. Our results demonstrate the role of organizational creativity as a nuanced, significant driver for developing IBC and that fostering a creative organizational environment that facilitates transforming individual creativity into an organizational resource leads to superior international performance.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.intman.2024.101203

• Li, A.; Beamish, P. W.; Schotter, A., (Forthcoming), "General manager succession dynamics in MNE foreign subsidiaries", Journal of International Business Studies
  Abstract: Subsidiary general manager (GM) succession selection is a critical process in multinational enterprises (MNEs). Previous research, grounded in organizational learning and routines, has suggested that GM succession dynamics typically follow either an acceleration or a deceleration momentum. However, as we investigated succession decision-making heuristics through interviews with MNE managers, we observed neither acceleration nor deceleration. Instead, we found some consistent succession dynamics. Within this consistency, we found variations in decision-making models among subsidiaries—some adopting a rule-based approach with a short succession dynamic, some adopting a goal-based approach with a moderate succession dynamic, and others adopting a people-based approach with a long succession dynamic. Underlying these models were bounded rationality, bounded reliability, and their unexpected interactions. Our study sheds light on the critical role of managers in subsidiary management, enriches international business theorizing on the subsidiary GM succession process, and refines the boundary conditions of organizational learning. The central message is that looking solely at GM succession dynamics through an organizational learning lens may risk overlooking relevant causal mechanisms. To make the theorizing on the dynamics of subsidiary management more fertile, the behavioral model should account for the idiosyncrasies of decision-making as well as the heuristics of decision-makers.

  Link(s) to publication:

  https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41267-024-00717-3

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/s41267-024-00717-3

• Lv, D. D.; Schotter, A., (Forthcoming), "The Dark Side of Powerful Platform Owners: Aspiration Adaptations of Digital Firms", Academy of Management Perspectives
  Abstract: This study provides a timely and critical perspective on the negative influences of powerful platform owners (PPOs) on the strategy aspiration adaptations of digital firms operating on these platforms. Contrary to the tenets of the behavioral theory of the firm, the aspiration adaptation of digital firms is largely influenced by PPOs rather than autonomously based on market- and competition-based referents. We call this Faustian bargain—the trade-off between the utility and advantages offered by PPOs’ technology affordance and the loss of aspiration adaptation control of independent digital firms—the “dark side” of powerful platforms. Drawing on resource-dependency logic and illustrative cases, we uncover how PPO characteristics, structural mechanisms, and the use of undesirable tactics manifest this phenomenon. In addition to uncovering the dynamics of an increasingly critical managerial and scholarly phenomenon, we provide much-needed implications for PPO governance practices and policies. Further, we advocate the formation of new institutions that can match the dynamic development of the digital platform economy with adaptive regulations and enforcement, superseding existing but ineffective antitrust laws mainly based on the pre-digital world.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amp.2022.0169

• Li, L.; Schotter, A.; Beamish, P. W., 2024, "The origin and nationality of general manager successors in local-market-seeking MNE subsidiaries", International Business Review, June 33(3): 102272 - 102272.
  Abstract: The extant literature suggests that it is sensible to deploy a host-country national (HCN) general manager (GM) successor in the local-market-seeking subsidiaries of multinational enterprises. However, limited attention has been paid to whether subsidiary GMs come from outside or inside an organization. By simultaneously considering the nationality and origin of subsidiary GM successors, our case-based study provides a sharper theory of succession decision-making in the context of local-market-seeking subsidiaries. We demonstrated that the use of HCN GMs is not always the best strategy, and can even be the worst option because ex post opportunism may arise for HCN GM successors promoted from within the subsidiary. Using HCNs from outside the subsidiary can limit ex post opportunism but may entail a new bounded reliability issue resulting from identity-based discordance. Our interview data revealed a managerial safeguard, which we term ex ante socialization, to address this issue.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ibusrev.2024.102272

• Delios, A.; Li, J.; Schotter, A.; Vrontis, D., 2024, "Challenging the orthodoxy in international business research: Directions for “new” research areas", Journal of World Business, June 59(4)
  Abstract: A strong critique of the international business field is that it has been “running out of steam” because IB scholars have failed to engage with emerging paradigm shifts in IB practice and management theory. IB research requires rejuvenation with timely, unique, controversial, and challenging new research questions. IB scholars need to move beyond incremental improvements to existing research agendas and focus on questions that are fundamentally new to the field. With this essay, we address four pressing topics (Buckley, Doh, & Benischke, 2017), namely: (1) the resurgence of populism, decoupling, and globalization; (2) disruptive technologies and digitalization; (3) sustainable development goals; and (4) the changing power relationships between firms, and between firms and governments. Our aim is to provide direct avenues for relevant new research that challenges the existing orthodoxy across the IB field. As part of this process, we introduce the papers in this special issue.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2024.101552

• Andrews, D. S.; Fainshmidt, S. F.; Schotter, A.; Gaur, A., 2024, "Formal Institutional Context in Global Strategy Research: A Layer Cake Perspective", Global Strategy Journal, February 14(1): 3 - 24.
  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.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/gsj.1455

• Andrews, D. S.; Nell, P.; Schotter, A.; Laamanen, T., 2023, "And the subsidiary lives on: Harnessing complex realities in the contemporary MNE", Journal of International Business Studies, April 54: 538 - 549.
  Abstract: Managing multinational enterprise (MNE) subsidiaries is a core facet of international business (IB) research. A shifting reality on the ground has triggered concerns around the waning relevance of the subsidiary because the MNE and its structure and processes have become increasingly complex. Consequently, more decentralized, responsive, and fluid organizational designs are now at the core of IB research. Juxtaposing recent arguments questioning subsidiary research altogether, we argue that IB scholars can explore and explain complex realities in the contemporary MNE without unnecessarily restricting the breadth of the field and giving up links to established research and theory. We reframe conversations around inward- and outward-looking perspectives, providing a path forward that emphasizes the importance of embracing the subsidiary concept in research reflecting today’s complex business environment.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/s41267-022-00552-4

• Schotter, A.; Stallkamp, M.; Hunt, R. A., 2022, "Scaling, fast and slow: The internationalization of digital ventures", Journal of Business Research, July 146: 95 - 106.
  Abstract: At first glance, digital business ventures appear to face few impediments to international expansion. Since digital products and services can be delivered over the internet almost instantly to any country in the world, digital business models may seem to sweep away many traditional obstacles to internationalization. In reality, however, the timing and extent of internationalization among digital ventures is highly heterogeneous. What explains this variance among firms that might otherwise be expected to pursue global markets from inception? In answering this question, we extend and enhance emerging work on the internationalization of digital ventures through an investigation of 169 US-based firms that completed IPOs from 2010 to 2019. Our work contributes fresh perspectives and empirical evidence on why some digital firms find it easier to achieve international scale than others.

  Link(s) to publication:

  https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296322003071

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.03.070

• Schotter, A., 2021, "Resilient or Not: Boundary-Spanning in Innovation Focused MNEs During Global Crises", Critical Perspectives on International Business, May 17(2): 342 - 358.
  Abstract: The fundamental standstill of global business travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic has—at least for the time being—physically immobilized the most effective vehicle for collaboration in multinational enterprises (MNE), the global boundary spanner (e.g. Schotter, Mudambi, Doz, & Gaur, 2017). The objective of this article is to provide a critical perspective to the question, ‘whether the boundary-spanning model is crisis resilient or not.’ I specifically focus on the capacity of the boundary-spanning model to adapt to, renew or sustain itself in a global crisis.

  Link(s) to publication:

  https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/cpoib-05-2020-0037/full/html

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/cpoib-05-2020-0037

• Stallkamp, M.; Schotter, A., 2021, "Platforms Without Borders? The International Strategies of Digital Platform Firms", Global Strategy Journal, February 11(1): 58 - 80.
  Abstract: Research summary: Digitalization has enabled firms with so-called platform business models to emerge in many sectors of the economy. By facilitating transactions between different groups of users (e.g., buyers and sellers), platform firms are disrupting industries around the world. However, little is known about the international strategies of platform firms, as research has mostly examined platforms in single-country contexts. We address this gap by integrating insights from platform research in strategy and economics—specifically the notion of network externalities—with internalization theory. We extend the existing typology of network externalities by distinguishing between within-country and cross-country network externalities. We derive testable propositions regarding the foreign entry modes of platform firms, their international strategic posture (multidomestic vs. globally-integrated), as well as foreign market selection criteria and market exit. Managerial summary: Many companies in the digital economy operate platform business models, which create value by connecting different groups of users, such as buyers and sellers. We examine how network externalities—the notion that a platform becomes more valuable to each user as more users join—influence the international expansion of these firms. We show that it is important to consider the geographic scope of network externalities, i.e., whether network externalities operate across national borders or whether platform firms have to create separate user networks in each country. The distinction between within-country and cross-country network externalities affects key internationalization decisions, such as how to enter foreign markets, whether to pursue multi-domestic or global strategies, how to select foreign markets, and when to exit from a foreign market.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/gsj.1336

• Schotter, A.; Meyer, K. E.; Wood, G., 2021, "Organizational and comparative institutionalism in international HRM: Toward an integrative research agenda", Human Resource Management, January 60(1): 205 - 227.
  Abstract: Over the past two decades, a growing body of research on human resource management (HRM) has analyzed the relationship between international HRM and institutions. This work has primarily been informed by two leading streams of theory—organizational institutionalism and comparative institutionalism. However, these two dominant streams have seen much juxtaposition, but little logical integration. Moreover, scholars have paid little attention to the dynamics of contextualization (more specifically, institutional development and evolution), which limits the relevance of extant research. In this article, we review the extant literatures and their intellectual origins and develop an integrative research agenda that emphasizes the multilevel nature of HRM and evolution under external institutional change.

  Link(s) to publication:

  https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/hrm.22053

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/hrm.22053

• Schotter, A.; Stallkamp, M., 2021, "Why Don't They Venture Abroad? Digital Ventures and Foreign Markets", Frontiers of Entrepreneurship Research: 279 - 284.
  Abstract: New ventures formed around purely digital products, face seemingly low barriers to international expansion. Their products are highly scalable and can be made available globally over the internet. But not all digital ventures pursue international opportunities right away; in fact, early evidence indicates highly heterogeneous internationalization trajectories. We develop and test (using IPO data from 169 digital ventures) a theoretical framework to explain this variation, emphasizing potential constraints resulting from (1) limited resource fungibility due to cross-border demand heterogeneity and (2) the need for non-digital complementary resources, which are often less easily scalable than a ventures core digital assets.

  Link(s) to publication:

  https://web.s.ebscohost.com/abstract?direct=true&profile=ehost&scope=site&authtype=crawler&jrnl=07407416&AN=159769651&h=vi1srg2mE91EZtFbb0qOuIcKZVCrZl9Xhhf8OkNxvnrOi6yHBdBJlMCXEfOI26Vkm9oEnQq8l6QWlH%2bP7MthDg%3d%3d&crl=c&resultNs=AdminWebAuth&resultLocal=ErrCrlNotAuth&crlhashurl=login.aspx%3fdirect%3dtrue%26profile%3dehost%26scope%3dsite%26authtype%3dcrawler%26jrnl%3d07407416%26AN%3d159769651

• Lorenzen, M.; Mudambi, R.; Schotter, A., 2020, "International connectedness and local disconnectedness: MNE strategy, city regions and disruption", Journal of International Business Studies, October 51: 1199 - 1222.
  Abstract: Much of the rising international connectedness of city-regions has developed from MNEs’ replacing local connections with (superior) international ones. This often creates local disconnectedness that energizes the current populist backlash against MNE activities. We develop approaches to new IB theory addressing the interdependencies of MNEs and city-regions that we propose as a crucial avenue for future research. We contrast two generic MNE strategies. The first is the traditional one: the ‘global orchestration’ of resources and markets. We argue that it exacerbates local disconnectedness. The second, that we call ‘local spawning,’ involves engaging with the local entrepreneurial eco-system to create and renew local connectedness, diffusing populist responses. Some MNEs are better able to implement the local spawning strategy, due to industry factors like innovation clock-speed, and firm characteristics like organizational path dependency. Finally, we distinguish between disconnection, which is an outcome of MNE strategy, and global disruptions, like the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which are primarily stochastic events. Addressing disconnections requires MNEs to reorient their strategies while dealing with disruptions requires undertaking risk mitigation. We present empirical evidence from city-regions around the world to illustrate our theory.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/s41267-020-00339-5

• Meyer, K. E.; Li, C.; Schotter, A., 2020, "Managing the MNE subsidiary: Advancing a multi-level and dynamic research agenda", Journal of International Business Studies, June 51: 538 - 576.
  Abstract: Multinational enterprise (MNE) subsidiaries abroad are important organizations in their own right. They typically hold some of the MNE's most critical resources, and operate at the forefront of complex international environments. In this review, we identify and organize theoretical and empirical research on subsidiary management based on over 600 articles in leading academic journals. We develop a conceptual framework that integrates complementary streams of theoretical and empirical research with the subsidiary as its focal unit of analysis. In particular, we review six lines of research on subsidiary scope, practices, knowledge management, engagement with local market and nonmarket actors, performance, and individuals within subsidiaries. We highlight theoretical perspectives that have contributed to, and been advanced by, research on MNE subsidiaries. Based on the review, we explore future research agendas, linking the contemporary research themes with two main thrusts. First, subsidiary management is a multi-level phenomenon that would benefit from more microfoundational research. Second, subsidiary management operates at key interfaces of technology paradigm shifts, and of disruptions in the political and institutional environment. Research into the dynamics of subsidiary management would, thus, enhance our understanding of international business in a volatile global economy.

  Link(s) to publication:

  http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/s41267-020-00318-w

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