Multinational enterprises (MNEs) in the information technology and business process outsourcing (IT/BPO) sector are at the forefront of technological disruption and change, which necessitates firms to remain agile and continuously innovate their business models. This paper investigates the investments made by IT/BPO MNEs in intangible assets and the role of encouraging management and leadership practices that supports the core tenets of strategic agility at a time when the global financial crisis (GFC) occurred. Using a two phase mixed methodology, that tests three key a priori themes, first, we examine to what extent the investments in intangible assets led to the development of strategic agility (SA), which in turn led to greater technological performance over the longitudinal period 2007–2017. Second, we further shed light on the positive relationship between intangible assets and strategic agility by identifying which Indian IT/BPO groups (based on location and firm age) show greater technological performance and, third, how such groups translate deliberate investments in intangible assets that lead to SA and greater technological performance, as compared to other groups over time. Overall, our findings provide evidence that IT/BPO MNEs' past sustained investments in intangible assets paved the way for the IT/BPO MNEs to respond in an agile manner when the GFC hit.

The sustained growth and importance of Asia as a hub of economic, social and political activity has attracted significant foreign direct investment and opportunities for economies from the West and other parts of the world to invest in this fast growing region. Regional headquarters and global innovation hubs of large multinational corporations (MNCs) are evidence of an Asian century phenomenon. The proliferation of tax havens in the region or the use of tax havens by firms in the Asian region is no surprise. This is evidenced through a complex and systematic policy choice by power coalitions, to facilitate their interests as well as trade and growth in the region. This proliferation has also had an impact on the changing identity of Asian MNCs in Asia. In this paper, we highlight this new and pervasive trend by presenting findings from recent research in the region on the topic of tax havens and identities of Asian MNCs.

This paper investigates and explores the link between the resilience of organisations, its human capital and firm performance. We base our analysis on the resource based view of the firm, cluster strategy and conservation of resources theories. Our contribution is contextualized by comparing the performance of business clusters across two observational periods, namely pre‐recession (2005‐2007) and recession (2008‐2009) period. We identify six relevant indicators from the extant literature that capture economic dynamism, human capital and financial viability of firms in order to capture the performance across clusters and capture resilience to the global financial crisis. We contribute by identifying organisations in business clusters that perform better due to being more resilient, particularly during challenging times. Through triangulation we find overwhelming evidence of the overarching role and importance of human capital (people) in driving more successful organisations in business clusters as they possess greater resilience during challenging times such as the recent global financial crises. We show that strong clusters not only improve regional employment and turnover growth over time, but improve resilience of regional economies to downturns through resource gain and crossover processes. We further illustrate that understanding the impact of resource reservoirs, resource passageways and crossover provides a framework for further research and intervention to promote resilience in organisations. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.