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Chinese firms are winning market share from foreign multinational enterprises in domestic markets. The international business literature suggests that this is happening because these firms are developing non-traditional firm-specific advantages (FSAs). Strategic factor market (SFM) theory provides a good basis for explaining how this is happening. However, it is underdeveloped in terms of analysing unique resources and unique access to those resources by Chinese firms in their domestic markets. This paper aims to develop a framework to understand how Chinese firms have developed non-traditional FSAs.

The case study method is adopted to explore how Chinese firms develop non-traditional FSAs. Specifically, the authors compare paired case studies of a Chinese firm and a foreign multinational in each of two industries.

The authors find that Chinese firms have developed non-traditional FSAs because of more relevant experience, better adapted strategies and privileged relationships. This has enabled Chinese firms to develop non-traditional FSAs.

The authors propose a framework that conceptualises non-traditional FSA development in Chinese firms as a product of superior access to unique and valuable resources in their domestic SFMs.

This paper focuses on the British company voluntary arrangement (CVA) which is a relatively new debtor rehabilitation process particularly intended to help financially troubled small firms resolve their difficulties. Based on a survey that is the largest and most comprehensive on the subject of British CVAs, this paper has three principal objectives: (i) to outline the characteristics of CVAs; (ii) to examine the relationships between CVA success and context; and (iii) to provide managerial and policy recommendations based on these findings. Among other things, the study finds that the overwhelming majority of CVAs are employed by small firms and that they can be particularly successful as a means of recovery when the economic fundamentals of the business are sound, regardless of the line of activity of the firm. Higher levels of success might be achieved, however, if the fixed costs of CVAs were subsidised in the case of very small firms and if more time were allowed during the process.

Within academic literature, there has been a burgeoning of literature in the field of economic geography which has centred on the nature of local concentrations of economic activity, with particular interest on those which are most dynamic, variously styled as clusters (Porter, 1990; Swann, Prevezer, & Stout, 1998), innovative milieux (Camagni, 1991), industrial districts (Piore & Sable, 1984), new industrial spaces (Scott, 1988) and nodes (Amin & Thrift, 1992). Such intense interest among geographers stands in contrast to the relatively more muted impact within the management, and more specifically, the strategy field (Audretsch, 2000). What makes this particularly odd are firstly, the intense interest of policy makers that has been stimulated by the seminal work of Porter (1990), and secondly the manifest claim and implication of much of the extant literature that the existence of dynamic clusters is at once both a result of corporate strategies and also a vital consideration which should inform strategic thinking. This chapter assesses the extent to which one of the UK's most successful clusters behaves in ways which are consistent with Porter's positive statements about the nature of clusters. In doing so, the chapter will consider insights which the wider literature offers on how and when concentrations of economic activity will give rise to superior performance, at least among some of the firms located there, which do not feature prominently in Porter's thinking. In particular, it will explore Martin and Sunley's (2003) critique of Porter's clusters concept and its utility as a basis for regional development policy. It will also consider recent contributions which claim that the resource-based theory (RBT) of the firm offers a superior framework for thinking about the strategic implications of clusters for corporate strategy, rather than the more industrial organization-based lens through which Porter views this issue. This chapter concludes that a synthesis is warranted rather than an attempt to claim that one view is correct and the other wrong.

This chapter considers the processes supporting dynamic agglomeration in the British broadcasting industry. It compares and contrasts the insights offered by cultural geography and more conventionally economic approaches. It finds that culture and institutions are fundamental to the constitution of production and exchange relationships and also that they solve fundamental economic problems of coordinating resources under conditions of uncertainty and limited information. Processes at a range of spatial scales are important, from highly local to global, and conventional economics casts some light on which firms are most active and successful in both domestic and international activities.

This chapter draws together three strands of literature on clustering, entrepreneurship and international business, and examines the relationships between these three phenomena in promoting firm formation and growth within clusters. The evidence drawn on includes econometric models based on the unique International Trade in Services Film and Television dataset, an indepth interview survey and other questionnaire survey data. The key conclusions are firstly that strong clusters promote entrepreneurship, which in turn promotes cluster strength in a self-reinforcing manner. Secondly, some firms are better able than others to benefit from cluster locations due to their superior firm competencies and absorptive capacity. Thirdly, cluster strength and internationalisation are mutually reinforcing. Cluster strength contributes to the ability of entrepreneurial firms to expand overseas via export sales, licensing and FDI. Evidence is presented that indicates firms have a greater intensity of export and import activity if they have resource strengths, some of which are derived from their membership of a strong cluster. Strong clusters also attract multinational firms and in the case of the London media cluster, although those multinationals appear somewhat less embedded than non-multinational enterprises (MNEs), they are nevertheless quite strongly embedded. This means that there is a second important cluster feedback loop as spillovers from MNEs to local firms enhance cluster strength, which attracts further multinationals. The acquisition of high performing firms by overseas MNEs does not appear to have reduced either their performance or their embeddedness in a cluster. Fourthly, the nature of internationalisation strategies is conditioned by firm and industry characteristics. In particular, the extent to which tacit knowledge is embodied in a product emerges as being influential in terms of decisions on which internationalisation mode to use. Finally, the resource-based view of the firm emerges as a useful integrative framework for understanding the interplay between clusters, entrepreneurship and internationalisation strategies.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

Domestic firms are able to outcompete most foreign MNEs due to their inherent knowledge of the market, access to resources, and the ability to adapt products more quickly.

The briefing saves busy executives, strategists and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.

This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.

The research showed Chinese firms (in contrast to multinational enterprises) develop nontraditional firm-specific advantages due to more relevant experience, better adapted strategies and privileged relationships.

The briefing saves busy executives, strategists, and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy-to-digest format.

A broad range of policy evaluations below is begun in Chapter 2 by Kate Johnston, Colette Henry and Simon Gillespie in their evaluation entitled ‘Encouraging Research and Development in Ireland's Biotechnology Enterprises’. This investigation critically evaluates Irish government policy towards biotechnology development over a preceding 10-year period. In Chapter 3, Anthony Ward, Sarah Cooper, Frank Cave and William Lucas examine ‘The Effect of Industrial Experience on Entrepreneurial Intent and Self-Efficacy in UK Engineering Undergraduates’ in a large-scale study that generally produces satisfactory results in terms of raising the profile of entrepreneurship among undergraduates. Deirdre Hunt, in Chapter 4, again focuses on the evolution of strategy in Ireland, this time towards the more general topic of new firm formation with a personal contribution entitled ‘Now You See Them — Now You Don’t: Paradoxes in Enterprise Development Strategy: The Case of the Disappearing Academic Start-Ups’.