Michael Ryan - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Michael Ryan

Journal of Marketing Analytics

This paper answers how changes in social media activity influence customers to visit nationally k... more This paper answers how changes in social media activity influence customers to visit nationally known, brick-and-mortar retail stores. We consider seven measures of social media activity within a Social Impact Theory framework and test under what context does online chatter about a brand lead to higher foot traffic to those brand stores. We use hierarchical linear regression to account for the random effects of brand and store heterogeneity, which is superior to ordinary linear regression. Despite wide variation, when brand mentions increase by one standard deviation-either in likes or disagreement-then next-day foot traffic to stores of that brand will increase by 0.04 standard deviations (3-4%). This modest but meaningful effect, however, fully dissipates within 1 week. The weak cross-brand effects show that social media has distinct and larger influence on brands individually rather than universally. Our approach is novel due to (1) the large scale of data, (2) the breadth of analysis, (3) the multi-level specification, and (4) in estimating global elasticities between changes in electronic word-of-mouth (WoM) communication about brands and changes in store visits of those brands.

Review of World Economics, 2008

This paper uses a proportional hazard model to study foreign direct investment by Japanese manufa... more This paper uses a proportional hazard model to study foreign direct investment by Japanese manufacturers in Europe between 1970 and 1994. We divide each firm's investment total into a sequence of individual investment decisions and analyze how firm-specific characteristics affect each decision. We find that total factor productivity is a significant determinant of a firm's initial and subsequent investments. Parent-firm size does not have a significant influence on the initial decision to invest. Large firms simply have more investments than smaller firms. Other firm-specific characteristics, such as the R&D intensity, export share and keiretsu membership, also play a role in the investment process.

The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, 2004

and-conditions-of-access.pdf This article may be used for research, teaching and private study pu... more and-conditions-of-access.pdf This article may be used for research, teaching and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution , reselling , loan or sub-licensing, systematic supply or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.

Review of International Economics, 2010

In an earlier paper, we showed that bilateral exchange rates are important determinants of multin... more In an earlier paper, we showed that bilateral exchange rates are important determinants of multinational activity of both the US and Japan and that increases in the bilateral and third-country exchange rates exert opposing effects on bilateral multinational activity. Furthermore, the signs of the exchange rate coefficients differ between Japan and the US. In this paper, we formulate a three-country model with coexisting exporters and multinational firms that engage in Cournot competition to rationalize these effects. In this model, we identify two counteracting effects which govern the bilateral and third-country effects of an exchange rate increase on bilateral multinational activity. Our theoretical framework is flexible enough to explain the Japanese as well as the US patterns of exchange rate effects and it allows us to identify those factors that are responsible for the respective differences.

Journal of Economic Integration, 2005

Japan and the World Economy, 2009

We extend and generalize the model of international trade and FDI proposed by Helpman et al. (200... more We extend and generalize the model of international trade and FDI proposed by Helpman et al. (2004) that builds on the Melitz (2003) framework with heterogenous firms by allowing for various types of horizontal FDI that may differ in terms of the degree of foreign ownership. First, we assume that a firm servicing a foreign market can choose not only between exporting and the wholly-owned FDI (Helpman et al., 2004) but may also form a joint venture with an indigenous firm in the foreign country to share the investment cost. This increases the range of productivity levels for which FDI should be observed compared to exporting. Second, we divide joint ventures into the three categories: minority, equal share and majority joint ventures. Then we test the predictions of the theory using Kolmogorov-Smirnov stochastic dominance tests and the Japanese individual dataset for firms that made horizontal FDI in 20 OECD countries during the period 1985-2001. The empirical results indicate that joint ventures are always stochastically dominated by the wholly-owned subsidiaries and joint ventures always dominate both exporters and non-exporters. The split of joint ventures into particular categories demonstrates that this result is driven by the majority joint ventures.

International Journal of Industrial Organization, 2009

This paper studies why multinational firms often share ownership of a foreign affiliate with a lo... more This paper studies why multinational firms often share ownership of a foreign affiliate with a local partner even in the absence of government restrictions on ownership. We show that shared ownership may arise, if (i) the partner owns assets that are potentially important for the investment project, and (ii) the value of these assets is private information. In this context shared ownership acts as a screening device. Our model predicts that the multinational's ownership share is increasing in its productivity, with the most productive multinationals choosing not to rely on a foreign partner at all. This prediction is shown to be consistent with data on the ownership choices of Japanese multinationals.

This paper examines the link between a firm's ownership of productive assets and its choice of fo... more This paper examines the link between a firm's ownership of productive assets and its choice of foreign-market entry strategy. We find that, controlling for industry-and country-specific characteristics, the most productive firms (i.e., those owning the most assets) will enter through greenfield investment, less productive ones will choose M&A, and the least productive ones will export. In addition, the most productive firms are shown to prefer whole ownership to a joint venture. These predictions are confirmed in an econometric analysis of Japanese firm-level data.

Asian Economic Journal, 2009

As foreign direct investment (FDI) often originates from multinational enterprises (MNEs) with no... more As foreign direct investment (FDI) often originates from multinational enterprises (MNEs) with non-core activities and not single-product firms, as MNE theory typically suggests, we hypothesize that such firms are more productive than MNEs without non-core activities as well as non-MNE firms. We test this hypothesis using Kolmogorov-Smirnov stochastic dominance Tests and Japanese firm-level productivity and FDI data for the period 1985-2001. We find that both manufacturing and service multinational firms with non-core foreign investments stochastically dominate firms without non-core activities. We also find cost-complementarities between certain core and non-core FDI activities that span both manufacturing and service affiliates.

Europe since the beginning of the region's transition. The use of rm level data on Japanese forei... more Europe since the beginning of the region's transition. The use of rm level data on Japanese foreign direct investment (FDI) in the region allows us to focus on the industry, location and timing of af liate establishment at a level of detail previously unexamined. This enables us to compare Japanese investment with overall regional inward investment as well as investigate country specialisation patterns within the region. We also characterise the type of investing parent, and determine how investments in CEE t into the European-wide investment patterns for these rms. Finally, we investigate the entry mode choices of investing rms, nding a shift from minority-owned joint ventures and limited participation in the region in favour of wholly-owned subsidiaries and larger involvement in the region.