IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/pal/jintbs/v40y2009i8p1359-1373.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The antecedents and consequences of successful localization

Author

Listed:
  • Kenneth S Law

    (Department of Management, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong)

  • Lynda Jiwen Song

    (Business School, Renmin University of China, Beijing, PR China)

  • Chi-Sum Wong

    (Department of Management, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, NT, Hong Kong)

  • Donghua Chen

    (Institute of Accounting and Finance, School of Business, Nanjing University, Nanjing, PR China)

Abstract

Localization in the corporate setting is the extent to which expatriate managers are replaced by local employees originally held by expatriate managers. We sampled 229 multinational enterprises (MNEs) in the People's Republic of China and investigated the antecedents of localization success based on resource dependency theory. We developed a 40-item scale to measure human resource (HR) practices determined to contribute to successful localization. We also identified parent company support and top management's commitment as two sets of factors that predicted localization success. It was the first study that found a significant relationship between localization success and top management ratings of company performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Kenneth S Law & Lynda Jiwen Song & Chi-Sum Wong & Donghua Chen, 2009. "The antecedents and consequences of successful localization," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 40(8), pages 1359-1373, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:jintbs:v:40:y:2009:i:8:p:1359-1373
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jibs/journal/v40/n8/pdf/jibs200931a.pdf
    File Function: Link to full text PDF
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/jibs/journal/v40/n8/full/jibs200931a.html
    File Function: Link to full text HTML
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Newburry, William & Gardberg, Naomi A. & Sanchez, Juan I., 2014. "Employer Attractiveness in Latin America: The Association Among Foreignness, Internationalization and Talent Recruitment," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 327-344.
    2. Hitotsuyanagi-Hansel, Azusa & Froese, Fabian Jintae & Pak, Yong Suhk, 2016. "Lessening the divide in foreign subsidiaries: The influence of localization on the organizational commitment and turnover intention of host country nationals," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 569-578.
    3. APJM Editorial Team, 2020. "Making contributions beyond theory-based studies: From the APJM editorial team," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 37(1), pages 1-6, March.
    4. I-Chieh Hsu & Yi-Ju Shih & Fan-Yun Pai, 2020. "Applying the Modified Delphi Method and DANP to Determine the Critical Selection Criteria for Local Middle and Top Management in Multinational Enterprises," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 8(9), pages 1-21, August.
    5. Marina Anna Schmitz & Fabian Jintae Froese & Anna Katharina Bader, 2018. "Organizational cynicism in multinational corporations in China," Asia Pacific Business Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(5), pages 620-637, October.
    6. Li, Chun-Sheng Joseph & Lee, Po-Yen & Liou, James J.H., 2018. "Exploring the staff localization of Taiwanese MNC subsidiaries in China: Effects of size, operation time, location, and local-market focus," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 20-27.
    7. Yan Jin & Liyun Zhang & Lu Feng, 2022. "Success Factors of Cross-Border Agricultural Investments for Opium Poppy Alternative Project under China’s Belt and Road Initiative," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(23), pages 1-16, November.
    8. Jack Pegram & Gioia Falcone & Athanasios Kolios, 2019. "Quantitative and Qualitative Assessment of Job Role Localization in the Oil and Gas Industry: Global Experiences and National Differences," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-22, March.
    9. Shad Morris & Scott Snell & Ingmar Björkman, 2016. "An architectural framework for global talent management," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 47(6), pages 723-747, August.
    10. Bebenroth, Ralf & Froese, Fabian J., 2020. "Consequences of expatriate top manager replacement on foreign subsidiary performance," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 26(2).
    11. Kunisch, Sven & Menz, Markus & Birkinshaw, Julian, 2019. "Spatially dispersed corporate headquarters: A historical analysis of their prevalence, antecedents, and consequences," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(1), pages 148-161.
    12. Geoffrey Wood & Tamer K. Darwish & Abdullah N. Alanezi & Satwinder Singh, 2020. "Indigenization of staffing in MNEs: The case of Saudi Arabia," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 37(3), pages 879-898, September.
    13. Naoki Ando, 2016. "Similarity to successful peers and the implications for subsidiary performance," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 15(2), pages 110-136, April.
    14. Sana Mumtaz & Sadia Nadeem, 2024. "Examining the distinct role of expatriates in top management teams during international assignments: a systematic review and a way forward," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 74(3), pages 1669-1693, September.
    15. Song, Sangcheol, 2020. "Actualization of growth potential in international joint ventures: The moderating effects of localization strategies," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 55(2).
    16. Nasser Alhamar Alkathiri, 2024. "Determinants of Knowledge Transfer: Expatriate Competencies and Local Staff Absorptive Capacity," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 15(3), pages 14360-14378, September.
    17. Jack Pegram & Gioia Falcone & Athanasios Kolios, 2018. "A Review of Job Role Localization in the Oil and Gas Industry," Energies, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-18, October.
    18. Bich Ngoc Le & Dirk Morschett, 2023. "Employer Attractiveness of EMNEs: The Role of CSR in Overcoming Country-of-Origin Image Constraints in Developed Host Countries," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 63(2), pages 313-346, April.
    19. Chun-Sheng Joseph Li & Tser-Yieth Chen & Phil Yihsing Yang, 2016. "Local Embeddedness, Market Focus, and Productivity: Evidence of Taiwanese Manufacturing MNE Subsidiaries in China," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(4), pages 596-611, December.
    20. Liu, Xiaohui & Gao, Lan & Lu, Jiangyong & Lioliou, Eleni, 2016. "Environmental risks, localization and the overseas subsidiary performance of MNEs from an emerging economy," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 51(3), pages 356-368.
    21. Yong Suhk Pak & Qinglu Sun & Yi Yang, 2019. "Influences of expatriate managerial styles on host-country nationals’ turnover intention," Asian Business & Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 18(4), pages 263-280, September.
    22. Li, Ying & Shou, Yongyi & Ding, Ronggui & Sun, Tao & Zhou, Qing, 2019. "Governing local sourcing practices of overseas projects for the Belt and Road Initiative: A framework and evaluation," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 212-226.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pal:jintbs:v:40:y:2009:i:8:p:1359-1373. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.