Table Of ContentJournal of International Business
Special
Issue
1/2003
Management
International Review
Editorial
Bent Petersen (Guest Editor)
International Management and the Internet -
Post-hype
Guest Editor's Introduction
Bent Petersen/Lawrence S. Welch
International Business Development and the Internet
Rajesh Chakrabarti/Barry Scholnick
Frictions in International E-Commerce
Thomas C. Lawton/Steven M. McGuire
Governing E-Commerce
Steven Globerman
E-Business and Global Sourcing
Denice E. WelchNerner Worm/Marilyn Fenwick
Are Virtual International Assignments Feasible?
Volker Mahnke/Markus Venzin
Internationalization of Digital Information Good Providers
GABLER
D 21247
ISBN 978-3-409-12389-1 ISBN 978-3-663-01562-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-663-01562-8
EDITORIAL BOARD
Profes or Raj Aggarwal. Kent State University. Kent-U.S.A.
Professor Jeffrey S. Arpan. University of South Carolina. Columbia- .S.A.
Professor Daniel van Den Bulcke. Univcrsitcit Antwerpen- Belgium
Professor John A. Cantwell. Univer ity of Reading- United Kingdom
Profe . sor S. Tamer Cavu gil. Michigan State Univer ity, East Lansing- U.S.A.
Professor Frederick D.S. Choi. New York University- .S.A.
Professor Farok Contractor. Rutgers University. Newark-U.S.A.
Professor John D. Daniels, University of Miami, Coral Gables- U.S.A.
Professor Peter J. Dowling. University of Canberra- Australia
Profe .. or Santiago Garda Echevarria. Univer idad de Alcala de Henare . Madrid- Spain
Professor Lawrence A. Gordon, University of Maryland. College Park- U.S.A.
Professor Sidney J. Gray. Uni\•ersity of ew South Wales. Sydney-Australia
Profe or Geir Grip rud. Norwegian School of Management. Sandvika- orway
Professor Jean-Fran~ois Hennan. Til burg University- The Netherlands
a
Professor George Hirsch. Centre Franco-Viemamien de Fonnation Ia gestion, Paris-France
Professor eil Hood. Univer ity of Strathclyde. Gla gow-United J(jngdom
Profes or Andrew lnkpen, Thunderbird, The American Graduate School of International
Management. Glendale- U.S.A.
Profe or Eugene D. Jaffe. Bar-llan Univer ity. Rarnat-Gan-Israel
Professor Erdener Kaynak. Pennsylvania State University, Middletown- U.S.A.
Profe sor Yui J(jmura. University of Tsukuba, Tokyo-Japan
Professor Michael Kut chker. Katholi che Univer itat Eich tlitt. lngolstadt-Gennany
Professor Rcijo Luostarinen. Helsinki School of Economics - Finland
Profe or Klau Macharzina. Universitat Hohenheim. Stuttgart-Germany
Professor Roger Man field. Cardiff Bu ine School-United Kingdom
Professor Mark Mendenhall, University of Tennessee. Chauanooga- U.S.A.
Professor Rolf Mirus. University of Alberta. Edmonton-Canada
Profes. or Michael H. Moffeu, American Graduate School. Phoenix-U.S.A.
Profe sor Krzy ztof Y. Obloj. University of Warsaw- Poland
Professor Lars Oxelheim. Lund Univer ity-Sweden
Profe sor Ki-An Park. Kyung Hee University. Seoul-Korea
Professor Robert D. Pearce. University of Reading- United J(jngdom
Profe. or Lee Radebaugh. Brigham Young University. Provo-U.S.A.
Professor Wolf Reitsperger. Universitlit Hamburg- Germany
Profe sor Edwin Riihli, Universitat Zurich- Switzerland
Professor Alan M. Rugman. Indiana University. Bloomington. U.S.A.
Profe . or Rake h B. Sambharya. Rutgers Univer ity. Camden. U.S.A.
Professor Reinhart Schmidt, Universitat Halle-Willen berg- Germany
Profe or Han Schollhammer. University of California. Lo Angeles- U.S.A.
Profe or Oded Shenkar. The Ohio State Univer ity, Columbu -U.S.A.
Profe sor Vi tor Corado Simoes, Universidade Tecnica de Lisboa- Portugal
Profe or John Stopford. 6 Chalcot Square. London NWI 8YB- United J(jngdom
Profes or Daniel P. Sullivan. Univer ity of Delaware. ewark- U.S.A.
Professor orihiko Suzuki, International Christian University. Tokyo- Japan
Profe . or Stephen Bruce Tall mann. Univer ity of Utah. Salt Lake City-U.S.A.
Professor George Tesar. Ume6 University. Ume:\- Sweden
Profe or Jo e de Ia Torre. Florida international University. Miami-U.S.A.
Professor Ro~alie L. Tung. Simon Fra er Univer ity. Burnaby. BC-Canada
Professor Jean-Claude Usunier. Univer ity of Lou anne, Lousanne- Dorigny- Switzerland
Profcs or Alain Charles Verbeke. Vrije Universiteit Brussel- Belgium
Professor Lawrence S. Welch. Mt Eliza Busines School. Melbourne, Australia
Profes or Martin K. Welge. Universitat Dortmund- Germany
Professor Bernard Yin Yeung. ew York University- U.S.A.
Professor Masaru Yoshimori. Yokohama ational University-Japan
BOOK REVIEW EDITOR
Profes. or Dr. Johann Engelhard. Universitat Bamberg- Germany
EDITOR
MANAGEMENT INTER ATIONAL REVTEW. Professor Dr. Profs. h. c. Dr: h.c. Klaus Maclrar~ina.
Vni1•ermiit Hohenheim (510 £). Sch/oss-Osthof-Ost. D-70599Stllltgart. Germany. Tel. (07 1 I ).159-29 08.
Fax (07 1I ) 459-3288. £-mail: [email protected], lntemet: hllp://wwll:trni-hohenheim.del-mir
Assistant Editors: Professor Dr. Michae/-Jorg Oesterle, Universitiit Bremen. Germany. Professor Dr:
Jnadrim Wal(. Uni•·enitiit Kiel, Germany. Editorial office: Mrs. Sylvia Ludll'ig
•
m1r
Management
International Review
© Gabler Verlag 2003
VOLUME 43 · SPECIAL ISSUE · 2003/1
CONTENTS
Guest Editor's Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Bent Petersen/Lawrence S. Welch
International Business Development and the Internet, Post-hype 7
Rajesh Chakrabarti/Barry Scholnick
Frictions in International E-Commerce 31
Thomas C. Lawton/Steven M. McGuire
Governing the Electronic Market Space: Appraising the Apparent
Global Consensus on E-Commerce Self-regulation . . . . 51
Steven Globerman
E-Business and Global Sourcing - Inferences from Securities
Exchanges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Denice E. Welch/Verner Worm/Marilyn Fenwick
Are Virtual International Assignments Feasible? 95
Volker Mahnke/Markus Venzin
The Internationalization Process of Digital Information
Good Providers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
mlr vol. 43 · Special Issue · 2003/1 1
GUIDELINE FOR AUTHORS
mlr
welcomes articles on original theoretical contributions, empirical research, state-of
the-art surveys or reports on recent developments in the areas of
a) International Business b) Transnational Corporations c) Intercultural Management d) Stra
tegic Management e) Business Policy.
Manuscripts are reviewed with the understanding that they are substantially new, have not
been previously published in whole (including book chapters) or in part (including exhibits),
have not been previously accepted for publication, are not under consideration by any other
publisher, and will not be submitted elsewhere until a decision is reached regarding their
publication in mir. The only exception is papers in conference proceedings, which we treat
as work-in-progress.
Contributions should be submitted in English language in a Microsoft or compatible format
by e-mail to the Editor at [email protected]. The complete text including the
references, tables and figures should as a rule not exceed 25 pages in a usual setting (ap
proximately 7000 words). Reply papers should normally not exceed 1500 words. The title
page should include the following elements: Author(s) name, Heading of the article, Abstract
(two sections of about 30 words each), Key Results (20 words), Author's line (author's
name, academic title, position and affiliation) and on the bottom a proposal for an abbrevi
ated heading on the front cover of the journal.
Submitted papers must be written according to mir's formal guidelines. Only those manu
scripts can enter the reviewing process which adhere to our guidelines. Authors are requested
to
- use endnotes for clarification sparingly. References to the literature are indicated in the
text by author's name and year of publication in parentheses, e.g. (Reitsperger/Daniel1990,
p. 210, Eiteman 1989). The references should be listed in alphabetical order at the end
of the text. They should include full bibliographical details and be cited in the following
manner: e.g.
Reitsperger, W. D./Daniel, S. J., Dynamic Manufacturing: A Comparison of Attitudes
in the U.S. and Japan, Management International Review, 30, 1990, pp. 203-216.
Eiteman, D. K., Financial Sourcing, in Macharzina, K./Welge, M. K. (eds.), Hand
worterbuch Export und Internationale Unternehmung, Stuttgart: Poeschel 1989,
pp. 602-621.
Stopford, J. M./Wells, L. T. Jr., Managing the Multinational Enterprise, New York:
Basic Books 1972.
- avoid terms that may be interpreted denigrating to ethnic or other groups.
- be especially careful in dealing with gender. Traditional customs such as" ... the manager
wishes that his interest ..." can favor the acceptance of inequality were none exist. The
use of plural pronouns is preferred. If this is impossible, the term "he or she" or "he/she"
can be used.
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•
1111r
Editorial
Management
International Review
© Gabler Verlag 2003
Guest Editor's Introduction
"International Management and the Internet-Post-hype" is the title of this spe
cial issue of mir. Three years after the burst of the dot-com bubble in the stock
exchange markets some mir readers might find that a special issue on the Inter
net and international management exposes a sense of timing just slightly better
than delivering on-line ordered Christmas merchandise after New Year's Eve.
Some might suspect that the timing is explained by an extremely long review pro
cess. The inclusion of the word "post-hype" in the title, however, should obviate
such thoughts inasmuch as it indicates that even though Internet business (includ
ing e-business) no longer makes headlines, the Internet does affect the manage
ment of international business operations in ways that to a large extent remain un
resolved. Hence, it seems due time to reflect on the basis of the empirical evi
dence of the last 7-8 years during which firms have pursued the commercial op
portunities of the Internet. Thee-business hype of the 1990s generated a wealth
of predictions about how the new information and communication technology
(I&CT) would change the organisational forms and the ways business transac
tions would be conducted. In particular, international business was expected to un
dergo a dramatic transformation, even to the extent where the words "internatio
nal" and "localisation" would disappear from business managers' vocabulary
replaced by terms like "the borderless market space" and "the global digital net
work". Clearly, reality has not matched the hype. But the Internet transformation
of international business management may still be significant. In other words, in
ternational management scholars and practitioners alike have a genuine interest in
reassessing where the Internet "revolution" has taken international business man
agement so far. The aim of this special issue is to contribute to this reassessment.
The call for papers prompted submission of sixteen papers (this, somewhat
modest response, may in itself indicate that the e-business hype is a phenomenon
nr vol. 43 · Special Issue · 2003/1 3
Editorial
of the past). Of the papers received, eight passed a first screening by the guest
editor and were subsequently made subject to a more thorough review strictly fol
lowing the mir procedure (2-3 double-blind, peer-reviews). The review process
resulted in five manuscripts accepted for publication in this special issue. All five
manuscripts include empirical evidence to varying degrees. In addition to these
high-quality manuscripts I have scrupulously utilised my guest editor privilege
and included a conceptual paper of my own co-authored with Lawrence Welch. In
this paper we aim to give an overview of the effects of the I & CT advances - and
the Internet in particular - on firms' internationalisation capacities and patterns.
By a firm's internationalisation capacity we refer to the impetus and capability of
the firm to undertake international business operations, and by a firm's interna
tionalisationpattern we allude to the what?, where?, when?, and how? questions
of internationalisation. The paper does not attempt to be a state-of-the-art ofl & CT
advances and international management, however, it is meant to be an "extended
introduction" to the topic - with references to the other papers of the special is
sue.
In the second article of the special issue Rajesh Chakrabarti and Barry Schol
nick provide an empirical test of one of the suppositions that followed the proli
feration of Internet users, namely "the law of one price". "The law of one price"
constitutes a key element of the assumed "frictionless cyberspace" approxima
ting the perfect, transparent market place. The authors use an impressive data base
on online book prices in USA and Canada to test "the law of one price".
The article by Thomas Lawton and Steven McGuire explores the developing
regulatory regime for e-commerce. The authors examine firm-government inter
actions in both the US and the EU to establish whether companies succeed in get
ting their regulatory preferences adopted. In order to determine this the authors
have conducted a large number of interviews with key informants of private
sector groups and high-level representatives from business, government, interna
tional organisations and NGOs.
Steven Globerman in his article sets out a conceptual model that describes
how separate geographical markets might change as "global portal markets"
emerge as an Internet phenomenon. The author then discuss the inferences of his
conceptual model in relation to the securities market including regional and
national stock exchanges. Although the Internet technology enables global
"gateways" and portals challenging local markets, institutional factors obviously
provides a certain conservation of the existing market separation.
Denice E. Welch, Verner Worm, and Marilyn Fenwick in their article focus on
a human resource management aspect of the Internet use, namely virtual assign
ments. The authors examine the virtual assignments as an alternative to traditio
nal international staffing. Their empirical point of departure is Pricewaterhouse
Coopers' periodic surveys of international firms operating in Europe which show
a growing use of virtual assignments. The authors supplement the survey findings
4 mlr vol. 43 · Special Issue · 2003/1
Editorial
with Australian and Danish evidence of expert informants and HR managers, re
spectively. The Australian study, including five expert informants, uses a Delphi
type research design. In addition to eleven in-depth interviews with HR managers
the Danish study reports the findings of a survey of 141 potential expatriates, as
well as a pilot study of an IT multinational subsidiary.
In the last article, Volker Mahnke and Markus Venzin develop a number of
thought-provoking propositions as to how digital information good characteristics
may modify and extend existing internationalisation theory. An explorative, yet
s,
very comprehensive study of the high-profile, dot-com company, eBay inter
nationalisation process serves to illustrate the need for theory development.
Taken together, the studies reported in the special issue - although of differ
ent nature in terms of research methods and questions addressed - indicate that
spatial, national, and cultural factors very much determine the way companies are
using the Internet in international business operations. This is the view shared by
the authors and expressed in the conclusions of the articles. However, the studies
also indicate that the Internet unambiguously contributes to the expansion of geo
graphic markets relevant to the individual firm. In addition, we might expect the
Internet technology to surprise us with new, unforeseen international business
applications in the years to come.
I am very grateful to those colleagues who were prepared to invest time and
effort to review the papers submitted to this special issue. Their contribution has
been a vital necessity of this mir issue. The reviewers were (in alphabetical or
der): Otto Andersen, Agder University College (Norway), Svante Andersson,
Halmstad University (Sweden), Ulf Andersson, Uppsala University (Sweden), Jim
Bell, University of Ulster (UK), Sylvie Chetty, Massey University (New Zealand),
Jerome Davies, Roskilde University (Denmark), Henrik Glimstadt, Stockholm
School of Economics (Sweden), Gary Knight, Florida State University (USA),
Jette Steen Knudsen, Centre for European Policy Studies (Belgium), Peter Liesch,
University of Queensland (Australia), Kim Oestergaard, University of California,
Berkley (USA), Murali Patibandla, Copenhagen Business School (Denmark), Re
becca Marchan Pikkari, Swedish School of Economics (Finland), Marja Tahva
nainen, Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration (Finland),
Jan-Erik Vahlne, Goteborg University (Sweden), and Clas Wihlborg, Copenha
gen Business School (Denmark).
Also, I would like to thank Rudolf Hastenteufel from mir's Editorial Office
for his expedite and careful preparation of the manuscripts in order to make them
camera-ready.
Finally, I want to acknowledge Assistant Editor of mir, Michael-J. Oesterle,
for taking initiative to this special issue, and I thank him for his never-failing en
thusiasm and support during the time of preparation for this special issue.
BENT PETERSEN
llllr vol. 43 · Special Issue · 200311 5
mir Edition
GABLER
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