Sustainability management is a prime topic for multinational corporations. Achieving ambitious sustainability goals, however, is affected by how employees use sustainability information within their decision-making. Little is yet known about the use of sustainability information at multinational corporations. This study therefore empirically addresses this gap and elaborates the main influencing factors of sustainability information use. The findings have important implications for researchers and practitioners such as top executives, sustainability managers and management accountants at multinational corporations.

Critics and defenders of multinational corporations often agree on at least one thing: that the activities of multinationals are creating an overwhelmingly powerful global market that is quickly rendering national borders obsolete. The authors of this book, however, argue that such expectations commonly rest on a myth. They examine key activities of multinational corporations in the United States, Japan, and Europe and explore the relationship between corporate behavior and national institutions and cultures. They demonstrate that the world's leading multinationals continue to be shaped decisively by the policies and values of their home countries and that their core operations are not converging to create a seamless global market.

With a wealth of fresh evidence, the authors show that Japanese and German multinationals, in particular, remain only weakly committed to laissez-faire policy orientations and continue to exhibit strong allegiance to national goals in such areas as investment and employment. They also bring to light the consequences of enduring differences in government policies on, for example, industrial cartels, capital markets, and research and development.

The authors agree that the world economy is becoming more complex and integrated as overt barriers to trade and investment fall away. But they conclude that the extent of this integration is decisively limited by structural divergence at the level of the firm. The book will be essential reading for those seeking to understand the growing interdependence of still-distinctive industrial societies and the wellsprings of the true global economy.

Reflecting on the evolving organisation of multinational enterprises (MNEs) and their growing presence in international business, this book focuses on value creation by subsidiaries in transition economies, and uses Poland as an example. Drawing on internalisation and business network theory, the author analyses the role of the subsidiary with the aim of explaining the mechanisms of subsidiary functional specialisation and its operationalisation. The book presents an innovative model illustrating the determinants of the functional responsibilities of subsidiaries, whilst providing an empirical analysis of foreign subsidiaries in Poland. Addressing a vital topic in international business and management studies, this Palgrave Pivot will be useful for researchers, students and practitioners.

Cost accounting traditions differ across countries, especially between Germany and the US/UK. Consequently, multinational companies often face cross-national differences in the design of their subunits' cost accounting systems. To improve comparability and facilitate control, multinational companies seek to globally align these systems. In this respect, they have to balance the needs of the headquarters and the subunits. By the means of a mixed-method approach, this study analyses the design of cost accounting systems from both perspectives. It finds empirical evidence for cross-case and cross-country differences in the complexity and standardization of cost accounting systems in subunits of German multinational companies and identifies important determinants and success factors. The findings have implications for researchers and practitioners in the field of management accounting.

The challenges faced by Latin American multinational companies, or multilatinas, often require unique strategies tailored to a demanding global environment. This book studies the strategies of internationalism exercised by large multilatinas, offering the first systematic, quantitative effort to examine the pattern of their international investments within the context of their competitive position in the domestic market. Multilatinas uncovers common strategies among sixty-two multilatinas from six countries, and emphasizes the unique challenges they face, as well as the diversity of their organizational resources. It also brings the institutional environment of Latin American countries to the fore, assessing its role as an essential component in understanding internationalization decisions. Finally, the book studies the role of non-market organizational resources such as bribes, negotiations and favours in business strategies. Multilatinas is an invaluable read for students, scholars, practitioners and executives studying Latin America's place in international business.

This book explores the personal experiences of professionals who are a part of the post-colonial and late-industrializing reality in the global value chain in Singapore. Looking at Chinese Singaporean employees at a French multi-national firm, the author explores the evolving social constructions of 'Chineseness'. Sociologist Manuel Castells once hailed Singapore as 'the only true Leninist project that has survived', and Lee revisits the Singapore 'social laboratory', addressing recent dialectics that transpire within the global political economy. Currently, professional actors need to address the demands of dual hegemony in response to China's rise in the Western-dominated capitalist political economy. Underlying these constructions are enduring dispositions that mediate interpretations of professionalism. The author puts to test the potential for change, surveying a large cohort of teachers as makers of future professionals. The question is, does change occur in the domain of practice or the habitus, if it is possible in the first place? The book will be of interest to scholars and students with an interest in Sociology, Identity and Ethnicity, Business Management, Globalisation, Organizational Sociology and Sociology of Education.

Multinational Enterprises and Host Country Development is a unique collection of papers looking at different aspects of the link between multinational enterprises and their effects on the host countries' economies. The volume studies effects of multinationals on R&D, innovation, productivity, wages, as well as growth and survival of firms in the host countries, and distinguishes direct and indirect effects through spillovers. All the analyses are conducted using firm level data for countries as diverse as China, Ireland, Sweden, Ghana, the UK or a group of countries in Central and Eastern Europe. This volume is a valuable reading for graduate students and researchers wishing to investigate the impact of multinationals.

Over the past decade, politics perspectives in international business have moved into the mainstream repertoire of research, theory development and teaching about the organisational behaviour of multinational corporations (MNCs). Politics perspectives contribute substantially to understanding the behaviour in and of MNCs in their different contexts and environments but so far these burgeoning perspectives have not been systematically and comprehensively reviewed. This book offers the first detailed overview of the theoretical foundations, methodologies and empirical applications of politics perspectives in MNCs. A group of international authors discuss twelve seminal contributions to the study of politics, power and conflict in MNCs, followed by a summary and synthesis of the literature into a comprehensive analytical framework. The book closes with a discussion of future directions in the field. This is a thorough introduction to political behaviour in MNCs written for scholars and graduate students in the fields of organisation studies and international business.

This is the first full account of how an influential form of commercial organization - the multinational enterprise - drove globalization and contributed to the making of the modern world. Robert Fitzgerald explores the major role of multinational enterprises in the events of world history, from the nineteenth century to the present, revealing how the growth of businesses that operated across borders contributed to an unprecedented worldwide transformation and deepening interdependence between countries. He demonstrates how international businesses shaped the economic development and competitiveness of nations, their politics and sovereignty, and the balance of power in international relations. The Rise of the Global Company uses the lessons of history to question prominent contemporary interpretations of multinationals and their consequences, and offers a truly wide-ranging survey of multinational enterprise, spanning two hundred years and five continents.

In a world focused on science and new technology, brands help to explain why several of the world's multinational corporations have little to do with either. Rather they are old firms with little critical investment in patents or copyrights. For these firms, the critical intellectual property is trademarks. Global Brands, first published in 2007, explains how the world's largest multinationals in alcoholic beverages achieved global leadership; considers the predominant corporate governance structures for such firms; and looks at why these firms form alliances with direct competitors. Brands also determine the waves of mergers and acquisitions in the beverage industry. Global Brands contrasts with existing studies by providing a new dimension to the literature on the growth of multinationals through the focus on brands, using an institutional and evolutionary approach based on original and published sources about the industry and the firms.

Since China's adoption of the "go global" strategy, more and more of China's privately owned enterprises have focused on outward foreign direct investment , and by doing so they have become the major market participants in China's internationalization process. This book presents authoritative academic and professional insights into the determinants of internationalization of China's indigenous privately owned enterprises. The case studies, in-depth interviews and investigations in this book will capture the interest of the readers and provide them with the background material and understanding of the determinants and possible pattern selection for internationalization of China's privately owned enterprises.

This book explores China's global competitiveness in the building of infrastructures with a particular interest in the resource-rich African countries. The book begins with a comprehensive literature review on total quality management (TQM) and national culture, followed by reviews of the construction industries in China and Nigeria. This provides better understanding of the linkages between TQM, based on the International Organization for Standardization's ISO 9000 quality management systems (QMS), and national culture, based on Emeritus Professor Geert Hofstede's national cultural dimensions. Premised on the culture-specificity and bi-directionality relationships between TQM and national culture, this book investigates the construction industries in China and Nigeria including their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) as well as an appraisal of their historical and emerging relationships. In its conceptual approach, this book presents different models in the lead up to its primary theoretical contribution of a quality management assessment model (QMAM) that was adopted during the study's field work. The book also presents relevant lessons relating to cross cultural management and quality performance not only to the Nigerians but also other foreign players in Nigeria's construction industry.

This book presents a new approach to management in an increasingly interactive world. In this context, the use of the word "new" has two meanings. The first relates to a new definition of borders (which are natural, institutional, functional, or mixed); the second concerns the fact that the book applies (and, where necessary, develops) analytical tools, methods and models that are different from those used in other similar books. The objectives of this book are: to clarify whether existing management theories and methods can be effectively applied in an entity (which can be defined as a sovereign country, a region, a community, a culture, or a firm) as the latter increasingly interacts with the rest of the world; to develop qualitative and quantitative methods to help leaders make optimal decisions for their entity and, at the same time, to maximize the positive (or minimize the negative) effects of those decisions on the rest of the world; and to design workable cross-border cooperation plans and conflict-management schemes that allow policy-makers to better cope with the challenges and problems posed by our increasingly interactive world.

This study deals with a topic of increasing concern--the relations between multinational corporations and their host countries in the Third World. Theodore H. Moran describes how a reaction against dependencia, a realization that the fate of the nation hinges on the decisions made by uncontrollable outside forces, can spur a host country to opt for control of an industry, exposing the country to new dangers as well as new opportunities.

Originally published in 1983.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

As a consequence of aggressive competition, Chinese industries have become increasingly consolidated. While the extent to which emerging local firms can challenge well-established multinational firms varies by industry, there are common characteristics of 'winners' within each firm type. A handful of multinational and local firms emerged victorious by acquiring small, weak, and regional players to become truly national players. During this process, weaker multinational firms were crowded out of the market by stronger multinationals as well as by emerging local powerhouses. The successful local firms that survive competition in China have global ambitions and venture into international markets, challenging foreign multinational firms in the global marketplace. This book examines how multinational firms grew their operations in China and how successful local firms emerged from the restructuring process, as well the competition between them, in the fierce marketplace of China's economic reform. While anecdotal evidence on this topic is widespread, there exists no comprehensive research. This book seeks to address this gap by rooting its discussion in the author's extensive and rigorous statistical analyses and detailed case studies across five industries: consumer products, beer, telecom, automobile, and steel.

In a world focused on science and new technology, brands help to explain why several of the world's multinational corporations have little to do with either. Rather they are old firms with little critical investment in patents or copyrights. For these firms, the critical intellectual property is trademarks. Global Brands, first published in 2007, explains how the world's largest multinationals in alcoholic beverages achieved global leadership; considers the predominant corporate governance structures for such firms; and looks at why these firms form alliances with direct competitors. Brands also determine the waves of mergers and acquisitions in the beverage industry. Global Brands contrasts with existing studies by providing a new dimension to the literature on the growth of multinationals through the focus on brands, using an institutional and evolutionary approach based on original and published sources about the industry and the firms.

Latin American multinationals (multilatinas) have been central in the rise of emerging markets in the last few decades. Their development comprises part of the global shift of wealth and power between nations. The rise of firms in a broad range of sectors - including construction, oil, telecommunications and the aeronautical industry - as important regional and global players is spreading: companies in Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Chile and many others are part of this increasing phenomenon. This book analyses the trends, the countries and the firms involved, and explores the implications for the US, China, Spain and the rest of Europe. In particular, Javier Santiso examines how Spain might profit from positioning itself as a unique hub between Europe and Latin America. The Decade of the Multilatinas includes a wide range of statistical data which will be useful to scholars, policymakers and commentators on Latin America in particular, and international business and emerging markets more generally.

Multinationals from Brazil, Russia, India and China, known as the BRIC countries, are a new and powerful force in global competition and are challenging the incumbency of much older global companies from the developed world. Emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs) now account for a quarter of foreign investment in the world, are a prolific source of innovation and make almost one in three cross-border acquisitions globally. Despite this, traditional theories of international business do not provide a satisfactory explanation of their behaviour or performance. The authors of this book shine new light on the rise of the EMNEs and how they have built a competitive advantage through innovation, novel configurations of their international value chains and the acquisition of companies overseas. Any manager, policy maker or researcher who wishes to understand the emergence of this new breed of multinational will find this book an invaluable resource.

This book is about Australia's businesses internationalization in China. The audience for the book includes executives, administrators; people interested in international business in China, as well as MBA students and academics who wish to study and learn business internationalization to China. China maintains rapid economic growth and is currently the second largest economy in the world. Australia's recent economic growth is tightly related to Chinese economic growth and China has been Australia's number one trading partner since 2006. The book is based on research conducted by the authors who recently interviewed 40 business executives from organizations, which range from large multinational mining and banking organizations to SMEs, including a range of industries, and utilizing various entry modes. The book offers insights from these Australian businesses. The book takes the reader through the preparations that need to be made for doing business in China. It focuses on opportunities that are available in the Chinese market and presents the obstacles that organizations can face, supported by data of real businesses internationalizing to China. The book examines the following key areas: the foreign direct investment and trade framework, Chinese culture, business in China, the political and legal frameworks, intellectual property, market entry strategy and human resource management issues. The reader will benefit from the knowledge developed in this book, and especially from the experience that the business executives interviewed for this book have to share.

Praise for "THE NEW EMERGING-MARKET MULTINATIONALS"

One of "Strategy and Business"'s Best Business Books of the Year

"This book is a real eye-opener. It will forever change your assumptions about international economic competition and who the winners will be."
--PHILIP KOTLERKellogg School of Managementand author of "Winning at Innovation"

"An insightful read--essential for those wishing to understand the evolution and growth of emerging-economy EMNCs and how they will reshape global market structures."
--ANAND MAHINDRA, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Mahindra Group, India

"As this timely book so insightfully points out, the rise of emerging-market multinationals is shifting the global competitive landscape and forcing us to think hard about new growth, strategy, and talent equations. A must-read for business leaders responsible for navigating today's global environment.
--MUHTAR KENT, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, The Coca-Cola Company

"This book offers an array of fascinating examples and an interesting framework for stimulating thinking about EMNCs' strategic options."
--PANKAJ GHEMAWAT, IESE Business School, and author of "World 3.0"

"A must-read. The book is well researched and provides compelling case illustrations. I highly recommend it."
--W. CHAN KIM, Professor, INSEAD; Codirector, INSEAD Blue Ocean Strategy Institute;and bestselling author of "Blue Ocean Strategy"

"This is the future of global competition. You need to understand it if you aspire to be a player or if global markets are now a part of your strategy."
--DAVID A. AAKER, Vice Chairman, Prophet, and bestselling author of "Brand Relevance"

"This book gives a clear idea of the success formula of emerging-market multinationals by showing practical insights based on a deep understanding of EMNCs. This will help readers from any type of company structure their own growth strategies."
--WONHONG CHO, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Hyundai Motor Company

"An excellent collection of ideas and examples that should inspire companies in emerging markets looking to build brands and markets anywhere."
"--BUSINESSWORLD"

About the Book:

"LG. HTC. Tata. Haier. Lenovo. Arcelik. Natura."

From smartphones and computers to blue jeans and beer, companies from China, India, Taiwan, Mexico, Turkey, and other emerging markets are now winning leading market shares with their own-branded, high-quality products--rather than with poorly produced products sold under others' brand names. These emerging-market multinational companies (EMNCs) are giving the incumbent market leaders of North America, Western Europe, and Japan a run for their money in the areas of innovation, branding, and marketing.

"How have these small, under-resourced businesses come so far so quickly? And what can you learn from their strategies and tactics?"

Renowned experts in global branding and marketing, the authors of "The New Emerging-Market Multinationals "conducted an in-depth study of 39 EMNCs to reveal the innovative compete-from-below strategies and tactics fueling these companies' meteoric rise. The authors identify four strategies driving this growth: COST LEADERS leverage existing low-cost structures and large-scale volumes to extend their reach into developed markets. KNOWLEDGE LEVERAGERS tap their existing resources and knowledge of home consumers and the market to build branded businesses in other emerging markets. NICHE CUSTOMIZERS combine their cost advantages in manufacturing with newly developed low-cost R&D capabilities to develop customized niche-segment branded offerings in other emerging markets. GLOBAL BRAND BUILDERS use their low-cost manufacturing and R&D capabilities to build branded businesses in developed markets-- but limit their focus to specific products and segments through a process of focused innovation.

Whether you run an EMNC or a developedmarket company, deep knowledge of the strategies outlined here is an absolute necessity for competing effectively now and in the future. Don't get caught off guard by the "new kids on the block"--because today's EMNCs are determined to be tomorrow's market leaders.

Managing an international operation is seen by many as one of the most challenging activities in an enterprise. Uwe Sachse offers substantial answers to the question of how companies behave after they have entered a particular foreign market. The results of the empirical study show that the mode switch is an important option for improving performance in foreign markets. Uwe Sachse shows that, over the duration of foreign business activity, companies pursue characteristic internationalisation pathways through their choice of mode.

Labor Rights and Multinational Production investigates the relationship between workers' rights and multinational production. Mosley argues that some types of multinational production, embodied in directly owned foreign investment, positively affect labor rights. But other types of international production, particularly subcontracting, can engender competitive races to the bottom in labor rights. To test these claims, Mosley presents newly generated measures of collective labor rights, covering a wide range of low- and middle-income nations for the 1985-2002 period. Labor Rights and Multinational Production suggests that the consequences of economic openness for developing countries are highly dependent on foreign firms' modes of entry and, more generally, on the precise way in which each developing country engages the global economy. The book contributes to academic literature in comparative and international political economy, and to public policy debates regarding the effects of globalization.

A new breed of multinational companies is reshaping competition in global industries. For most of the 19th and 20th centuries, multinational firms came from the most technologically advanced countries in the world. Over the last two decades, however, new multinational firms from upper-middle-income economies (e.g. Spain, Ireland, Portugal, South Korea, and Taiwan), developing countries (e.g. Egypt, Indonesia, and Thailand), and oil-rich countries (e.g. United Arab Emirates, Nigeria, Russia, and Venezuela) have become formidable global competitors. These firms do not necessarily possess technological or marketing skills. In contrast to the classic multinationals, they found strength in their ability to organize, manage, execute, and network. They pursued a variety of strategies including vertical integration, product diversification, learning by doing, exploration of new capabilities, and collaboration with other firms. This book documents this phenomenon, identifies key capabilities of the new multinationals, and provides a new conceptual framework to understand its causes and implications.

"Multinational Corporations and Global Justice: Human Rights Obligations of a Quasi-Governmental Institution" addresses the changing role and responsibilities of large multinational companies in the global political economy. This cross- and inter-disciplinary work makes innovative connections between current debates and streams of thought, bringing together global justice, human rights, and corporate responsibility. Conceiving of corporate social responsibility (CSR) from this unique perspective, author Florian Wettstein takes readers well beyond the limitations of conventional notions, which tend to focus on either beneficence or pure charity.
While the call for multinationals' involvement in the solution of global problems has become stronger in recent times, few specifics have been laid down regarding how to hold those institutions accountable in the global arena. This text attempts to work out the normative basis underlying the responsibilities of multinational corporations--thereby filling a crucial void in the literature and marking a milestone in the CSR debate.

In this timely book, Lee Tavis and Timothy Tavis contend that the values dimension of the actions of multinational firms is becoming increasingly important, given the worldwide integration of economies and peoples. The digital revolution has broadened the reach of globalization and created an informed society that demands higher standards of behavior from the business enterprise; at the same time, multinational corporations have gained power often comparable to that of the nation state, and global society is in need of widely accepted, enduring social and ethical standards. Tavis and Tavis argue that multinational firms must embrace an ethically pro-active stance in their own long-term interests. A strategy of supporting universal human rights, often in partnership with NGOs, offers the greatest potential for success.

"Values-Based Multinational Management "provides an agenda for practical action, with special reference to the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations Global Compact. It informs and addresses the values concerns of multinational business managers. It presents its examples and analyses in a clear and concise manner and will be of use both to practitioners in the business community and students and scholars of business ethics.

""Values-Based Multinational Management "employs a novel approach and a variety of perspectives that make it a very valuable addition to business ethics literature. This is excellent, helpful material that discusses an important way in which human rights may fit with globalization." --Timothy L. Fort, George Washington University

"More and more business executives understand that society increasingly judges corporate performance through a broad social lens that includes ideas of corporate social responsibility and business ethics. They are now ready to position their firms to meet these requirements. This volume is a thoughtful discussion of the ways in which the United Nations Global Compact can serve this purpose through a long-term human rights strategy and, importantly, how that strategy can be implemented within the firm." --Georg Kell, UN Global Compact

"This book underlines the fact that--despite the importance of institutional and social ethics--the individual ethics, if not virtue ethics, of corporate leaders remain central. Of highest importance is the authors' emphasis that no individuals--in whatever professional or personal role--can escape the fact that they are responsible for the outcome of their actions. It is to be hoped that this book revitalizes a facet of the debate on business ethics and corporate responsibility that has been neglected for too long." --Klaus M. Leisinger, Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development