International Business

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SNHU is one of only a few universities to offer a complete program in international business, encompassing the undergraduate, graduate and doctoral levels. Faculty integrate research and professional experience into an innovative curriculum.

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Changes in capital structure of listed emerging market firms in the aftermath of the 2007 – 2008 global financial crisis
(Southern New Hampshire University, 2017-01-18) An, Botao; Aybar, Bulent; Samii, Massood; Dhakar, Tej; Ficici, Aysun
The 2007 – 2008 global financial crisis led to one of the worst recessions in history and created enormous adverse impacts on global demand, equity and debt markets around the world. Globalization increases competition for emerging-market (EM) firms both inside and outside their domestic market. One of the key challenges that they have is how to finance their growth opportunities, especially under these adverse circumstances. The impacts on most developed-country (DC) firms were devastating while EM companies experienced different levels of effects due to the aftermath of the crisis. In this study, I explore how patterns of EM firms’ corporate financing decisions have changed in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. Using data from 10,860 listed firms from 22 emerging markets, which were classified by MSCI between 2000 and 2014, results show that EM listed firms with more growth options, have less profitability, larger size, more tangible assets, higher business risk, higher tax payments, higher degree of internationalization, can carry more debt. I then analyze the changing dynamic of EM listed firms’ leverage choices; results suggest capital structure determinants have different impacts on leverage prior to, during, and after global financial crisis. There is a delayed effect of impacts of the global financial crisis on EM firms’ leverage policy; creditors only took precautions on the adverse environment during the crisis period (2007 – 2009). Nevertheless, there is a changing pattern on EM firms’ capital structure determinants during recent decades. In the 1990s, EM firms’ debt usage decisions were dominated by institutional factors, and impacts of institutional factors on firms’ debt usages gradually transfer to firm-specific factors after the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Previous studies suggested EM firms’ leverage policies can be explained by the “pecking-order theory” and the “agency theory” before the 2007 – 2008 global financial crisis (Fan et al., 2014; Fernanedes, 2011). In this paper, I found that the “pecking-order theory” maintains its effectiveness in EM firms’ leverage policies, and the “trade-off theory” gradually shows its effectiveness throughout the sample period. Unlike EM firms in the whole sample, internationalized EM firms also follow different changing patterns in leverage policy determinants during the sample period, and they experienced the impact of the global financial crisis immediately. Due to additional risk exposure of internationalization, internationalized EM firms’ leverage policies show support to the “pecking-order theory,” but the “trade-off theory” and the “agency theory” are also supported in sub-sample periods. (Author abstract)
Climate change and sustainability strategy: MNCs performance assessment - impact of climate change on business sector
(Southern New Hampshire University, 2018-11) AL Ghunaim, Mashari S; Samii, Massood; Dhakar, Tej; Aybar, Bulent; Lightfoot, William; Zilch, Kathleen
Climate change poses many challenges for business operations worldwide. The study evaluated multinational companies (MNCs) and the implications of climate change on their business operational activities. Moreover, the study adopted a mixed-methods research design in a bid to evaluate sustainability strategies embraced by these business organizations purposely to counter climate change risks. Two methods were adopted for this research. First, this study utilized the quantitative method where the Natural-Resource-Based View (NRBV) concept was adopted to investigate whether companies are complying with the implementation of strategies geared towards reducing its impact on climate change compared to their competitors whose strategies are less proactive. This study also embraced, the Return on Assets (ROA) and Asset Turnover (AST) for assessment purposes given their distinctive nature as financial parameters. The criteria used to select companies for this study was based on their best practices that met the requirements of the MSCI ESG Global Indexes, like, Climate Index, Environment Index, Pollution Index, Clean Technology, and Sustainability Index. The companies for this study were selected from industries located in the United States, Japan, ٍand some European and Asian countries. Findings for the first part of the study reveals that, United States companies, the proactive MNC’s financial parameter (mean AST) was significantly lower than the less proactive MNC’s. While, in the Japanese, Europe, and the Global group samples of the proactive MNC’s, financial parameter (mean ROA) was significantly higher than less proactive MNCs. Remaining Asian group sample show, no significant differences in mean ROA or the mean AST across proactive and less proactive MNC’S. Second, the study also utilized a qualitative method where research participants shared their different experiences, viewpoints, ideas, and thoughts on climate change were sought. The methodology also entailed the selection of 108 companies to help understand the impact of climate change on business and the sustainability strategies adopted to cope climate change risks. Data collection was conducted through self-administered open-ended questions with data analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively through thematic and descriptive methods respectively. In this part it was found that slightly more than half of the subjects were awareness of on climate change while the rest had no idea on climate change or were uncertain about the concept. By contrast, about three quarters of the subjects were not aware about the difference between climate change adaptation and mitigation; a quarter of them had some knowledge on the difference while only about a tenth of them were well versed with the differences. 45.37% of the subjects agreed that their companies were proactive in climate change adaptation, 28.70% strongly in agreed, 14.81% were uncertain and 10.19% disagreed. Only 1.85% of the subjects strongly disagreed. Moreover, 60.19% of the subjects disagreed that climate change affects business while 40.74% supported the idea. 56% of the companies did not have the climate change adaptation plan versus 44% that had. Additionally, 72.22% of the companies did not have the sustainability strategy for climate change versus 27.78% that had. Regarding knowledge sharing on mitigation and adaptation with partners, slightly more than one third of the companies shared their knowledge with partners compared to slightly more than half of the companies that did not. The study recommended future research to explore on factors contributing to this practice in order to facilitate effective climate change management. (Author abstract)
Investor heterogeneity: Price momentum and trading volume reactions of foreign listed firms
(Southern New Hampshire University, 2018-09-27) Zhang, Yan; Aybar, Bulent; Samii, Massood; Ficici, Aysun; Dhakar, Tej
Investor homogeneity is an important assumption in the efficient market hypothesis. However, viewing the financial markets from the eye of a professional trader, they are never efficient. Financial markets are composed of heterogeneous investors with the aims of speculation. Due to the large gap between theory and reality, many anomalies often occur. Price momentum as one of the commonly seen anomalies attracts the most attention from both scholars and practitioners. Prior finance literature documents that momentum is caused by investors’ differential beliefs or investor heterogeneity. Recognizing the importance of investor heterogeneity prompts scholars to incorporate it into asset pricing models, but they face a series of challenges. The objective of this study is to address the current challenges of quantifying and testing predictions on investor heterogeneity. By analyzing investors’ compositions, I argue that foreign listed firms are natural habitats of diverse investors. Compared with pure US firms, foreign listed firms provide perfect market venues to study investor heterogeneity. Using stock data of 2,200 NYSE and NASDAQ firms from 2000 to 2017, I classified them into higher/low order foreign listed firms and pure US firms. Momentum is tested by the Winner and Loser strategy, while trading volume is modeled by a regression of absolute return on volume turnover. This study finds that the three groups of firms have long term momentum in decreasing order, and investor heterogeneity plays an important role in price momentum. From phenomenon to essence, this study constructs a novel paradigm to quantify and forecast investor heterogeneity. It is also the first study to investigate the microstructural explanation of momentum and trading volume, and to state the relationship between liquidity and heterogeneity. The “Two Period Order Flow Model” and the “Heterogeneous Market Hypothesis(HMH)” also have important implications and contributions in both academics and industry. The conclusions of this research can benefit professional traders and option strategists in designing their trading strategies; it can help researchers avoid using proxied variables to quantify investor heterogeneity, build heterogeneous asset pricing models and create theoretical foundations for technical analysis; the HMH is also an alternative theory in challenging the EMH; and it can also help regulators better understand the financial markets. (Author abstract)
Knowledge transfer in multinational enterprises: intra-firm and inter-firm perspectives
(Southern New Hampshire University, 2016-05-17) Wang, Lingling; Samii, Massood; Ficici, Aysun; Aybar, Bulent; Collins, J. Stephanie
This dissertation aims to explore one of the most important aspects of knowledge management, knowledge transfer in multinational enterprises (MNEs). It examines this knowledge transfer process from two distinct perspectives: intra-firm and inter-firm. Intra-firm transfer of knowledge refers to the knowledge flow between headquarters and subsidiaries and inter-firm transfer is defined as the knowledge transfer between partners in international joint-ventures (IJV). Specifically, it attempts to investigate the factors that influence the intra-firm knowledge transfer process and the willingness to share knowledge between partners in IJVs, in order to improve the performance of MNEs. Since willingness to share knowledge between partners is more complex than that between parent and subsidiary due to the difference in ownership structure, if MNEs are able to manage the willingness to share knowledge in IJVs, then dealing with it between parent and a subsidiary should be much easier. To examine intra-firm knowledge transfer, system dynamics (SD) modelling is adopted and simulations demonstrate that both the transmission willingness and capacity, and absorptive willingness and capacity are important for MNEs to enhance its performance, since knowledge transfer is a two-way communication process. In order to reach a win-win situation, both headquarters and subsidiaries should be willing to share knowledge and learn from each other. To improve the effectiveness of knowledge transfer, ways to enhance transmission willingness and absorptive capacity, and cultural factors that influence cross-border communication are explored and discussed. In inter-firm knowledge transfer, most of the research literature examines at the absorptive capacity of recipients of knowledge, but does not examine the willingness to share knowledge. In fact, knowledge will not be effectively and efficiently transferred between partners if only capacity is involved. Therefore, the willingness to share knowledge is equally important in the knowledge transfer process. After a survey of literature, several factors that may influence willingness to share knowledge between partners in IJVs are identified. Then questionnaire was sent out and based on the responses of the survey, three case studies are employed to verify those factors that determine the willingness to share knowledge in IJVs in China. This dissertation attempts to get a better understanding of the intra-firm and inter-firm knowledge transfer in academia and provide some useful insights to practitioners in order to effectively and efficiently manage knowledge in MNEs and enhance firms’ performance, since knowledge is the most important strategic asset that firms possess and is closely related to their sustainable competitive advantage. (Author abstract)
Links amongst innovation, corporate social responsibility, sustainability, and internationalization processes of emerging market multinationals: the case of Turkish business groups
(Southern New Hampshire University, 2018-03-07) Ar, Anil Yasin; Ficici, Aysun; Samii, Massood; Dhakar, Tej; Samii, Leila
The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the Emerging Market Manufacturing Business Groups’ innovation processes through their internationalization activities and the interplay between innovation, corporate social responsibility, and sustainability. This study focuses on the business dynamics of manufacturing Turkish Business Groups (TBGs), namely Turkish Holding Companies. It gives a clear illustration of how manufacturing can be innovative, responsible, and sustainable while internationalizing and exceling the firms’ competitive advantage through utilizing both foreign and domestic resources. The study comprises Turkish manufacturing multinationals that operate in the continent of Europe. It examines 15 parent firms and 72 subsidiaries that conduct manufacturing operations in the European countries. The study employs explanatory case study approach. The results demonstrate that manufacturing operations of TBGs can be innovative, social responsible, and environmentally sustainable while internationalizing into advanced countries. (Author abstract)
Overinvestment of free cash flow in emerging market firms: An empirical analysis
(Southern New Hampshire University, 2018-12-15) Hruban, Nicole; Aybar, Bulent; Chugh, Lal; Dhakar, Tej; Samii, Massood
Free cash flow overinvestment stemming from agency conflicts and moderators of this relationship have been empirically confirmed in several studies for developed markets. Research on emerging market firms has however produced less coherent results. While it can be argued that these incongruities are a consequence of the samples analyzed and the methodologies applied, they might also be rooted in the theoretical underpinnings: Agency theory originates from developed market research, consequently assuming an institutional environment as well as firm characteristics different from those observed in emerging market companies. This study empirically evaluates the investment behavior of a sample of emerging market firms with a methodology that specifically allows a test of the agency-based explanation of excess investment. The findings support overinvestment as a function of free cash flow, thereby confirming the free cash flow hypothesis in emerging market firms. Additionally, the results propose that this relationship can be negatively moderated by corporate governance mechanisms as well as ownership concentration; suggesting (similar to developed market firms) a principal -agent conflict motivated overinvestment. Debt as a “traditional” way to mend this agency problem can however not be confirmed. Furthermore, the study provides empirical evidence for a moderating effect of the institutional environment on the free cash flow overinvestment relationship via its interaction with firm characteristics. This proposes that the two are interrelated and that agency theory might not be invariant to the specific institutional setting. (Author abstract)
A study of EMNEs serving the base of the pyramid in South Asia: innovative products from EMNEs
(Southern New Hampshire University, 2017-04-26) Rayamajhi, Suman; Samii, Massood; Dhakar, Tej; Nugent, Nicholas; Ficici, Aysun
The study explores that emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs) are serving the base of the pyramid (BOP) in their home market and beyond. EMNEs are growingly recognizing the benefits of serving BOP consumers in other markets, which are not dissimilar to their home market. Appropriate innovations from EMNEs are instrumental in serving BOP consumers in their home market and other similar markets. The study draws upon multiple theories in the areas of innovation, BOP, and internationalization. The study primarily uses a conceptual framework, case studies of Indian EMNEs along with a descriptive statistics model that applies data from the survey performed in South Asia. This study analyzes the trade interaction of EMNEs and product demand of BOP consumers. The theory of product innovation applied to EMNEs points to market similarities, including product affordability, product quality, and product usefulness, among others, as the driving forces of demand for these markets. EMNEs’ products features, targeted towards BOP market are well suited to the demand of the BOP consumers. The findings suggest that EMNEs are largely serving the BOP consumers in their home market and similar markets abroad compared to MNEs from the developed economies. The findings from the research indicate that BOP product elements are directly associated with the consumers’ acceptability of innovative BOP products. The data collected from the field survey strongly supports the findings that the BOP product elements (affordability, multipurpose, simplicity, and usefulness) are important factors in building innovative products to serve the consumer segment. The findings from the research also contribute to the BOP product study by providing insights of innovative BOP product strategies that firms need to implement in serving BOP consumers. (Author abstract)

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