Title: Country risk, multimarket contacts and MNEs' competitive action

Authors: Yu-Ching Chiao

Addresses: Department of Business Administration, National Chung Hsing University, 250 Kuo-Kuang Rd., Taichung 402, Taiwan

Abstract: In light of the lack of empirical evidence on discussing international business issue by integrating MNEs competitive dynamics. This study investigates the moderating role that multimarket contact play in MNEs' country risk and competitive action. Examining a sample of top 20 container shipping MNEs in terms of collecting 2,117 competitive actions from Shipping Digest, this study finds that when MNEs face higher country risks, they undertake fewer competitive actions. On the other hand, this study also shows that MNEs with higher degrees of multimarket contact between MNEs weaken the negative relationship between country risk and a focal firm's competitive actions. This study extends mutual forbearance theory to international context by investigating how multimarket contact impacts the relationship between country risk and a focal firm's competitive actions. The implications of these findings for research and practice are discussed.

Keywords: country risk; competitive actions; multimarket contacts; competitive dynamics; MNEs; multinational enterprises; MNCs; multinational corporations; multinationals; container shipping.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBE.2014.064958

International Journal of Business Environment, 2014 Vol.6 No.4, pp.329 - 350

Received: 12 Jun 2013
Accepted: 15 Jul 2013
Published online: 30 Sep 2014 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article