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Multinationality and Performance Literature: A Critical Review and Future Research Agenda

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Abstract

The literature on the relationship between the degree of multinationality (M) and performance (P) in the context of multinational enterprises (MNEs) has attracted a large volume of research in the past 50 years. Yet, the theoretical foundations and the empirical conclusions concerning the nature of M–P relationship vary greatly, thus call for a critical review and assessment. We examine 135 articles in 39 leading scholarly journals and classic books published during the period 1960–2015. We use an inductive approach and a qualitative content analysis methodology for our comprehensive and critical review of the literature. We incorporate international business, finance, and accounting perspectives in our analysis. We review the conceptualization and measurement of M, P, the findings on M–P relationships, methodologies, and geographic focus. We identify six key inconsistencies in the existing research, which cause ambiguity in the relevant findings. We make eight recommendations for future research to address these inconsistencies. Thus, our study contributes to the central debate in this research field.

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Acknowledgments

We are very grateful to Professor Joachim Wolf for his helpful guidance. We really appreciate constructive feedback and comments from two anonymous reviewers. In particular, we would like to thank the reviewer 1 for her helpful suggestions, which significantly improved this paper.

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    Quyen T. K. Nguyen

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Nguyen, Q.T.K. Multinationality and Performance Literature: A Critical Review and Future Research Agenda. Manag Int Rev 57, 311–347 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11575-016-0290-y

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