Vittoria G. Scalera

University of Amsterdam | UVA · Amsterdam Business School

We explore how knowledge-based connections to domestic and foreign locations affect the technological scope of firm innovations. Inspired by a blend of Economic Geography and International Business perspectives, we propose a theoretical framework that distinguishes between domestic subnational differences and cross-national spatial heterogeneity. F...

We study innovation networks in emerging markets, where foreign actors have been identified as key sources of knowledge spillovers as well as progenitors of industry clusters. Focusing on connectivity as a channel for international knowledge sourcing, we widen our lens beyond MNEs to include critical innovative actors such as research institutions...

Industrial clusters are a critical component of the competitive viability of economies around the world. However, clusters are not static but evolve in response to technology and competition. This process has garnered interest from scholars and from practitioners, with the focus primarily on local linkages and networks. Although global knowledge ti...

In this work, we study the strategies driving cross-border sovereign wealth fund (SWF) investments worldwide. In particular, we investigate how SWFs internationalize their activities, studying whether the use of investment vehicles as signal of passive investment approach to access foreign markets is influenced by SWF- and deal-specific characteris...

We test whether born-to-be-green represents a signal toward potential venture capital (VC) investors on a sample of Italian, independent, unlisted, high-tech entrepreneurial firms. We employ several identification strategies by controlling for the major potential signals, and the alleged selection bias between green and non-green entrepreneurs. We...

Research Summary Drawing on institutional economics and the legitimacy‐based view of political risk, we investigate the factors determining the realization of cross‐border investments by sovereign wealth funds (SWFs), whose investments often suffer from a lack of legitimacy in host countries. Using matching models on all the realized and potential...

Adopting a microfoundations approach to the analysis of intra-multinational enterprise (MNE) knowledge integration, we focus on mobile inventors and their boundary-spanning experience. Using inventor-patent data on US-based MNEs, we show that intra-organizational cross-border mobility and inter-organizational mobility have respectively a positive a...

Bridging perspectives from complementary research streams, this chapter offers an overview of the cross-border innovation phenomenon and argues that in recent decades it has not only increased in intensity, but also changed qualitatively. The authors submit that a comprehensive understanding of these profound transformations calls for a renewed res...

Over the last three decades cross-border innovation has profoundly changed. The global fragmentation of global value chains, increased global connectedness, and pervasive digitalization have contributed to shaping innovation processes that increasingly span country borders. This process of change has involved a wide array of actors (players) in a v...

In this Editorial, we begin by sketching out two areas that we believe will prove promising for researchers in international entrepreneurship in the foreseeable future: (i) asymmetric information leading to adverse selection; and (ii) the adoption of emerging digital technologies, including social media, aimed at reducing asymmetric information, vi...

Global value chains (GVCs) have revolutionized production processes and many companies no longer produce goods and services entirely in one single country or within their own organizational boundaries. Through offshoring and outsourcing, value chains are sliced up and activities are dispersed to locations and actors where they can be produced or ex...

Our understanding of the link between women managers and firm-level innovation remains incomplete. Building on recent research on gender and leadership styles, we argue that there is a positive association between women managers and firm innovation. We highlight the selection process of women managers as an important underlying mechanism and discus...

Research summary International connectivity is a multidimensional construct that plays a pivotal role in attracting the activities of multinational enterprises (MNEs) by facilitating intra-firm coordination and access to external resources. We conceptualize how the different dimensions of international connectivity determine the location of MNEs' k...

Sourcing technological knowledge from abroad is becoming a popular strategy among emerging market firms (EMFs). Combining the Knowledge-Based View and the Resource Dependence Theory, we argue that augmenting technological knowledge through foreign licensing enables EMFs to access state-of-the-art technological knowledge, reduce operational costs an...

Geographically dispersed reservoirs of knowledge represent significant opportunities for multinational enterprises (MNEs), both in terms of feeding the firm's innovation process, as well as adapting technology to new markets. They face serious challenges in accomplishing these tasks, due to the well-known barriers associated with the transfer of kn...

Drawing on the comparative ownership framework, we perform a comparative analysis of Chinese and Indian multinational enterprises (MNEs)’ ownership strategies in knowledge-intensive cross-border acquisitions (CBAs). Specifically, we claim that due to their lower comparative ownership advantage, and the consequent higher information asymmetry, Chine...

We investigate the influence of public R&D subsidies on a firm’s likelihood to form technological collaborations. Using signaling theory, we conceptualize the award of a subsidy as a pointing signal (i.e., indicating a quality attribute that distinguishes the signaler from its competitors), and the monetary amount raised through a subsidy as an act...

Governing offshoring has become a major challenge for firms that run operations outside the home country. International business (IB) and supply chain management (SCM) literature offer different insights on the topic, focusing especially on possible governance modes and the drivers of this choice, with different perspectives. Grounding the discussi...

The open innovation (OI) paradigm emphasizes the importance of integrating inbound and outbound flows of technology to increase a firm's innovation performance. While the synergies between technology inflows and outflows have been discussed in conceptual OI articles, the majority of empirical studies have typically focused on either the inward or t...

Over the second half of the 20th century, Indian pharmaceutical firms were nudged by government policies to focus on import substitution. To this end, they were encouraged to produce generic variants of foreign MNEs’ branded drugs. In response, MNE strategies in India became strongly focused on intellectual property (IP) protection, most typically...

In this work we investigate the determinants of sovereign wealth fund (SWF) investments' stock prices. We focus on the location of the investment (domestic versus cross-border investments) and on the target industry (strategic versus non-strategic). We use a new dataset on SWF investments and stock prices, whose number of transactions is comparable...

The phenomenon of Emerging Economy Multinational Enterprises (EMNEs) and their internationalization process have sparked the debate over the appropriateness of International Business theories to study EMNEs’ internationalization processes. The literature has extensively investigated what distinguishes EMNEs from Advanced Country Multinational Enter...

Concerted efforts at innovation and research and development have placed the Indian pharmaceutical industry on a trajectory of expansive growth

To investigate the impact of knowledge-intensive FDI in the Chinese pharmaceutical industry, this study analyzes the activity of foreign MNEs operating in this context by exploring their innovative background, the organizational arrangements they use for local knowledge creation and the performance of their local innovative processes. Based on the...

We study innovation processes in emerging markets, where foreign actors that have been identified as key sources of knowledge spillovers as well as progenitors of industry clusters. We argue that in order to reconcile the location-centric imperative of innovation catch-up and the organization-centric objective of competence creation, we must widen...

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to provide insights into the innovation trajectory, and knowledge pipelines of mature industry multinational enterprises (MNEs). The ability to innovate constantly amidst a turbulent and competitive environment is often the key force behind MNE survival and dominance. Design/methodology/approach – This stud...

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