Literature that compares the advantages of financial hedging and operational flexibility as instruments to manage exchange-rate uncertainty presents inconsistent results. This study addresses such inconsistencies in two ways. First, it clarifies that the effects of financial hedging and operational flexibility are asymmetric. Financial hedging helps an MNC to reduce a negative effect of exchange-rate uncertainty on firm value, whereas operational flexibility allows an MNC to enhance a positive effect of exchange-rate uncertainty on firm value. Second, the study demonstrates that these effects are contextual to the MNC's subsidiary network. Depending on whether exchange-rate correlation in the subsidiary network is positive or negative, either financial hedging or operational flexibility is more effective than the other. Regressions on a sample of U.S. manufacturing firms support the predictions.

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金融对冲和运营灵活性作为管理跨国公司汇率不确定性的工具

比较金融对冲和操作灵活性作为管理汇率不确定性的工具的优势的文献呈现出不一致的结果。这项研究以两种方式解决了这种不一致。首先，它阐明了金融对冲和操作灵活性的影响是不对称的。金融套期保值有助于跨国公司减少汇率不确定性对公司价值的负面影响，而运营灵活性允许跨国公司增强汇率不确定性对公司价值的积极影响。其次，研究表明这些影响与跨国公司的子公司网络有关。根据子公司网络中的汇率相关性是正还是负，财务对冲或运营灵活性比另一个更有效。