BUS613: Advanced International Business

Various countries have different market structure and prospects where the allocation of resources can vary. Therefore, country of origin and country characteristics may change the strategies of firms based on the unique political/legal and economic environments. Thus, firms originating in different countries may have varying priorities. In our study, we have not accounted for variation of the different firms' countries of origin. Further studies can investigate similar research questions taking country characteristics into consideration. The resource allocation in firms that are in the same industry could be much more similar than those firms of other industries. Also, geographical segmentation of firms could be another factor influencing international diversification. Firms' countries of domiciles that are in close proximity to other international markets may be considered as a natural advantage granted to the firms. Therefore, among other factors, these are issues to be discussed and incorporated in future studies regarding resource allocation and firm performance. The analysis is limited to three variables, which are diversification, R&D and capital expenditure, and in order to extend the understanding and to extract more insights, firm level accounting data can be pulled. As such, various asset units (investment assets, intangible assets), debt structure are among those that could be operationalized from the income statements and/or balance sheets of the firms.