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

The international transfer of technology is one of the most important features of the global economy. However, the literature on it is sparse. This book encapsulates the author's contributions to this field over the last three decades and provides insights into the manner, mechanisms, and cost of technology transfer across national boundaries and the implications for (the theory of) the international firm.

This pioneering work discusses the role of Japan in the economic development of Singapore since 1965 by looking at the nature and extent of the value-added activities of Japanese multi-national corporations in the manufacturing, construction, and retailing sectors. Japan's economic presence and influence have been very strong in Singapore in the past few decades. Currently, the city state is one of the major recipients of Japanese foreign direct investment in Asia, and is also a very important overseas customer for Japanese manufacturing and construction firms. Nevertheless, there is no major academic work on Japanese economic activities in the city state, even though there are large numbers of works on the economic development of Singapore.Based on primary and secondary sources in English and Japanese, Hiroshi Shimizu examines the nature and extent of the value-added activities of Japanese multi-national corporations in the manufacturing, construction and retail sectors, drawing on case studies of leading companies such as Minebea, the Pokka Corporation, Kikkoman, Bridgestone, and Isetan. The author uses this information to analyze Japanese Foreign Direct Investment in Singapore as part of an Asian or global strategy, and to explore competition and co-operation between Japanese MNCs and local firms. He also evaluates various factors involved in the decline of Japan and the rise of China in the economic and other areas in Singapore, especially since the late 1990s.

Despite widespread criticism of multinational companies, they have made an unparalleled contribution to the development of Eastern Europe over the last two decades. They have brought opportunities to the young, improved working conditions, saved communities from destitution, rehabilitated corrupt banking systems and laid a modern telecommunications network. Their exports have driven economic growth; their presence has boosted civil society. The impact has not always been positive, but their power and dynamism, if effectively harnessed, can help defeat poverty elsewhere too.

The papers in this volume of International Finance Review provide a reflection on the role of international finance -- and its relationship to strategy, economics, political science and public policy -- in examining value creation in multinational enterprise. These are 22 original papers submitted specifically for this volume based on its theme. The papers present a breadth of methodologies, including theoretical, empirical, conceptual, and case study approaches. Several papers offer combinations of these different categories. Among the empirical papers, there are many kinds of data sets analyzed, ranging from macroeconomic data to firm-level financial data to survey data. In addition, the data sets are rigorously analyzed in many different ways.
This volume also takes a broad perspective on multinational enterprise, which allows discussion of traditional areas in the study of multinational enterprises (MNEs) as corporations, but also includes topics related to multinational enterprise as an undertaking, not just as corporation. For example, there is attention to small and medium-sized companies as well as larger MNEs. There are also papers that consider exporting enterprises and the environment of multinational enterprise. With this spirit, the volume covers multinational enterprise from a variety of perspectives, including views from private corporations and government policymakers, and the authors of the papers include both academics and practitioners. Altogether, the papers offer insights into value creation through a variety of lenses.

An increasing number of studies in the last decade or so have emphasized the viability and persistence of distinctive systems of economic coordination and control in developed market economies. Over more or less the same period, the revival of institutional economics and evolutionary approaches to understanding the firm has focused attention on how firms create distinctive capabilities through establishing routines that coordinate complementary activities and skills for particular strategic purposes. For much of the 1990s these two strands of research remained distinct. Those focusing on the institutional frameworks of market economies were primarily concerned with identifying complementaries between institutional arrangements that explained coherence and continuity. On the other hand, those focusing on the dynamics of firm behavior studied how firms develop new capacities and are able to learn new ways of doing things.
This book aims to bring together these approaches. It consists of a set of theoretically motivated and empirically informed chapters from a range of internationally known contributors to these debates. In their chapters, the authors show how institutions and firms evolve. Ideas of path dependency and complementarity of institutions are subjected to critical scrutiny both by reference to their own internal logic and to empirical examples. Varieties of institutional integration, the surprising maintenance of 'deviant' or alternative traditions and processes, and the existence of unpredictable yet consequential policy options that can lead to breaks in path dependency are scrutinized with particular reference to how national and international firms may relate toinstitutions at various levels as a diverse arena of potential resources rather than as a singular and determinant constraining force. The book provides a set of theoretical and empirical challenges for researchers concerned with the relationship between national institutional contexts and firm dynamics. For those involved in teaching or studying at doctoral, Masters and higher level undergraduate courses, the book provides a structured entry into the debates about how institutions and firms are changing in the contemporary era.

This research volume includes a synthesis of recent advances in the theory of the multinational enterprise, with a focus on internalization and international diversification issues. It proposes important extensions of multinational enterprise theory, especially as regards the importance of geography to multinational strategy, and the linkages between internalization and international diversification. The book also introduces the study of various new topics in international business research, namely regional (as opposed to global) strategy analysis, global alliances that lead to alliance specific advantages, and environmental aspects of international strategy.

The ten chapters that provide this state of the art overview of international business theory and strategy were written by some of the world's best known international business scholars, including John Cantwell, John Dunning, Lorraine Eden, Jean Francois-Hennart, Ans Kolk, Alan M. Rugman, Alain Verbeke and Bernard Wolf.

The research volume focuses especially on the important contributions of Alan M. Rugman, President of the Academy of International Business, and one of the founders of the international business field.

The volume's editor is Professor Alain Verbeke, McCaig Chair in Management at the Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary (Canada) and also associated with Templeton College, University of Oxford (UK), and the Solvay Business School, Free University of Brussels (Belgium).

The Ivey Casebooks Series is a co-publishing partnership between SAGE Publications and the Richard Ivey School of Business at The University of Western Ontario. Due to their popularity in more than 60 countries, approximately 200 new cases are added to the Ivey School of Business library each year. Each of the casebooks comes equipped with instructor's resources on CD-ROM. These affordable collections will not only help students connect to real-world situations, but will benefit corporations seeking continued education in the field as well. Broadening the scope of environmental forces to a global rather than a domestic context leads to cross-country comparisons that add complexity to the subject matter, enrich analytical theories, and heighten the interest of students. Students gain an appreciation for the many ways in which environmental forces interact, creating a set of risks and opportunities that is unique in each country and that must be evaluated in formulating trade and investment decisions. Cases in the Environment of Business offers an outstanding collection of relevant, classroom-tested cases. In discussing the cases, students will participate in managerial decisions in an international context. Most cases deal with a variety of environmental forces, but generally a single set of forces plays a predominant role. The instructor's resources on CD-ROM includes detailed 6-10 page casenotes for each case, preparation questions for students to review before class, discussion questions, and suggested further readings. Cases in the Environment of Business addresses the following five sets of environmental forces: Industry Structure Responses to strategies of customers, suppliers, and competitors, ; dependence of profitability on unique value-added attributesand the shift of certain activities to low-wage countries Macroeconomic Variables Income levels and growth rates, foreign exchange rates, inflation rates, interest rates, and unemployment rates Political Variables Regulations, financial incentives, taxation, foreign investment restrictions, and international trade and investment agreements Societal Variables Labor and environmental practices, ethics, corporate social responsibility, boards of directors, and demographics Technological Variables Technological infrastructure and the pace and direction of technological changes, including, in particular, the Internet and e-business. The IVEY Casebook Series Cases in Business Ethics Cases in Entrepreneurship Cases in Gender & Diversity in Organizations Cases in Operations Management Cases in Organizational Behavior Cases in the Environment of Business Cases in Alliance Management Mergers and Acquisitions: Text and Cases

The book International Mergers and Acquisitions is an anthology that combines scientifically substantiated articles and practical experiences to a synthesis. Different points of view based on scientific research, business administration and corporate law provide the reader a holistic perception - continuative to the existing standard literature. Selected articles from and for scientific research and economy focus on topics, which are only addressed marginally in existing books. International experts were invited to highlight new perspectives and perceptions in international M&A processes. Therefore the articles deal with M&A activities in the new EU member states, Eastern Europe and Asia, legal aspects, break-up fees and corporate lock-ups as well as brands in M&A and IT aspects.

In their foreign markets, MNCs interact not only with customers and suppliers but also with governments and bureaucrats. The book is an outcome of several years of research on MNCs market activities in developing and industrialized countries. Different from the earlier studies this book addresses how interactions not only with business partners, but also with the vast variety of governmental and legislative organizations, affect local firms and MNCs??? businesses. Based on the business network theory, the book develops a new model for the exchange relationship between local customers and MNCs and investigates the effect of different political organizations and other business firms. It examines relationship using several dimensions, business, social and political, through multiple cases from a developing country (DC) and industrialized countries. The comparison provides deepened knowledge on strength and longevity of business relationship in these two different business worlds. The outcomes reveal new insights with the claim for general appliance for DCs. The book supports the management of MNCs in their understanding of local firms??? behavior in such markets and to retain appropriate measure in their globalization efforts. The book also enables governments in DCs to realize consequences of their political actions for both local firms and MNCs and thereby industrialization of the country.

This book is published during a phase of crisis and transformation for the automobile industry across the world; this crisis is particularly acute in Europe and the United States. The book is written especially for the non-specialist with more than a passing interest in the sector, such as experts of other sectors, trade unionists, representatives of the corporate world, policymakers and public managers who deal with industry, commerce and public planning. The authors provide up-to-date information and assessments of what is actually taking place, with particular attention paid to the sub-supply companies. The main focus lies on four European countries, Germany, Spain, Sweden and Italy, each of which is significant for its different experiences. Finally, three important non-European situations, the United States, Brazil and Japan, are examined.

Although many firms label themselves 'global', very few can back this up with truly global sales and operations. In The Regional Multinationals Alan Rugman examines first-hand data from multinationals and finds that most multinationals are strongly regional, with international operations in their home regions of North America, the US or Asia. Only a tiny proportion of the world's top 500 companies actually sell the same product and deliver the same services around the world. Rugman exposes the facts behind the popular myths of doing business globally, explores a variety of regional models and offers an authoritative agenda for future business strategy. The Regional Multinationals is the essential resource for all academics and students in International Business, Organization and Strategic Management, as well as those with an interest in finding out how multinationals really work in practice and how future strategy must respond.

Banking on Multinationals addresses two fundamental puzzles in Japanese industrial policy: Why does the Japanese state-better known for its attempts to control markets, protect infant industries, and maximize national exports-administer the world's largest public program to support the expansion of multinational corporations? And why does the Japanese state not fear loss of control over mobile multinational corporations and erosion of the domestic export base through foreign direct investment (FDI)? Solis's explanation of Japan's lead in state financing of FDI takes into account both the industrial policy goals behind the extension of FDI loans and the political uses of subsidized credit to appease economically weak but politically powerful constituencies. As the first systematic study of Japan's public FDI loan program, Banking on Multinationals reveals a previously unexamined dimension of Japanese government policy and helps explain the uncanny ability of stagnant sectors and small firms to participate in FDI activities. Rather than simply espousing the familiar idea that Japan's preeminent role as banker to multinationals is evidence of mercantilism in Japanese foreign economic policy, this book brings to life the domestic political conflicts underlying FDI policy.

This volume includes contributing chapters from authors based in Asia, Europe, and North America to examine an emerging topic in the international management field - managing multinationals in a knowledge economy. They were selected to reflect the influences of three key factors - economics, culture, and human resources - on managerial decisions that affect multinationals and their effective operations. Leading the volume is an invited article by John H. Dunning, "An Evolving Paradigm of the Economic Determinants of International Business Activity." It presents a comprehensive review of his thirty-plus years of research on the eclectic paradigm, and a preview of his most recent work on the role of relational and institutional assets in foreign direct investment. This article, along with commentaries on Dunning's work written by Jose de la Torre, Timothy Devinney, Will Mitchell, and Stephen Tallman, can be found in the Research Forum section.
The present volume also includes five other articles selected through a double-blind review process. They complement the Research Forum papers, which focus on the economic determinants of international business activity, by examining critical cultural and human resource issues faced by multinationals. These include: the role of culture in entry mode decisions, the impact of national context on top management teams, cultural attributes of Russian management, the utilization of managerial expatriates, and the bridging of theory and practice in international human resource management research. A review of the volume's ten chapters suggests that, despite all the technological advances in cross-border communication and coordination, social capitaland human resources are the most critical factors possessed by multinationals.

The global shortage of effective business leaders makes urgent the search for new insights about the nature of global leadership and the best means of developing such leaders. This text is a response to this urgent need. The rapid globalization of the economy places business leaders in new and demanding international settings and requires them to work across cultures. Volume 3 of "Advances in Global Leadership" presents original papers on the psychology of global leadership and the development of international and global leaders. Chapters are authored by academics, business leaders and consultants throughout the world who bring their various insights into global leadership.

This book develops a conceptual framework for understanding the network of relationships that exists around the hub of large multinational firms. The authors bring together perspectives from international business and the organizational analysis of networks to explain their model which is supported by case evidence from several sectors: telecoms, autos, chemicals, retailing, and financial services.

In our increasingly competitive, uncertain, complex world marketplace, multinational companies, unions, and governments must rethink and adjust their human resource strategies and legislative policies again and again. Cooke and the contributors to this wide ranging volume provide case studies and original analyses of present and coming human resource issues and problems. Offering a balanced, objective understanding of what they are, they thus succeed in giving HR executives and public policymakers a way to devise more creative and workable coping strategies. Among the book's major points: MNCs usually underestimate the influence that differences in industrial relations systems, workplace cultures, and local resistance to certain HR policies can all have on their operations. Unions too often fail to develop effective transnational and inter-union strategies to better serve their memberships in other countries and cultures. And public policy makers are torn between policies meant to respond to a need for workplace efficiency, against other policies meant to promote worker equity. The book addresses these and other issues hitherto explored minimally or not at all and provides analytical, practical insights that have long-term generalizability and applicability. Unique in its depth of ideas representing a vast range of expertise, the book is a compelling addition to the literature on human resource management, and a necessary resource for executives at all levals in all types of global organizations.

The contributors examine, first, the foreign direct investment configuration strategies of multinationals, then the transnational diffusion of human resource and labor relations strategies. Among the topics they cover are, how MNCs choose to diffuse the policies of the domestic parent company into their foreign subsidiaries, or how they decide to adopt policies and practices that originate in the host countries. They take up the issues of organized labor's generally diminishing relative power in a rapidly changing global workplace, then focus on transnational collective bargaining strategies and sociopolitical action. Finally, by recognizing recent multilateral agreements governing workplaces across borders, the contributors are able to assess the European Union Directive on transnational works councils and the labor aspects and agreements of NAFTA.

In this volume, Bartlett and Ghoshal examine the transnational firm, its development and future. Ending their chapter is a debate about the future of international management research involving several individual scholars including Julian Birkinshaw (London Business School), Yves Doz (INSEAD), and Eleanore Westney (MIT). Three leading scholars in the international management field, Michael Kotabe (Temple University), Alan Rugman (Indiana University) and Srilata Zaheer (University of Minnesota) provide comments on Bartlett and Ghoshal's work and on future international management research. The present volume also presents five other articles that make a contribution to the main theme of the book. Together, they cover a set of topics in international management studies including: process issues and the evolution of collaboration in the management of international strategic alliances (alliances), the antecedents and outcomes from international entry modes (market entry), examination of the localization of HRM practices in American and European multinationals (resources), and the cultural, economic and political effects on national entrepreneurial potential (resources). The work in this volume provides a diversity of theoretical and methodological approaches and represents the thinking in the field on managing transnational firms focused on resources, market entry and alliances.

The impact of multinationality on the operations of a firm is clear and strong. Riahi-Belkaoui shows how it affects the known relationships between earnings, efficiency, disclosure, and market valuation by its role as a dependent, moderating, intervening antecedant or consequent variable. Its impact can be felt, for example, in relationships and phenomena such as the timeliness and the informativeness of earnings, the underreaction of securities analysts, post-earnings announcement drifts, and the level and quality of disclosure. An understanding of multinationality in the earnings-disclosure-efficiency-market valuation relationship can also be used by accountants and researchers in their daily activities, and by corporate executives in multinational organizational decision making. The result is a useful, probing exploration for academics and practitioners alike.

At a time when the gigantic transnationals have a huge impact on human health, the environment, working conditions and the economic prospects of nations, this book explores whether it is sufficient to continue to rely on industry self-regulation alone.
Before widening her focus to the general issues, the author examines the now famous case of the infant food industry. Almost two decades after the introduction of the WHO/Unicef Code seeking to regulate the marketing of formula milk substitutes, an estimated one and a half million babies die unnecessarily every year as a result of formula feeding. How effective, therefore, has the Code been in changing industry behaviour?
The author argues that a key question today is how to foster a political climate favourable to practical institutional arrangements for the better regulation of TNCs. Recognizing the tension between global governance on the one hand and the globalized free market on the other, she urges that close attention be given to corporate conduct and TNC compliance with what regulatory codes exist. A range of relevant questions is explored, including the roles of citizen action, national governments and international agencies.
A host of public concerns - for example, job losses when industries migrate or the introduction of GM crops without public consultation - point to corporate regulation as a looming political issue. This book contributes to the debate about how powerful corporations can pay regard not only to the bottom line, but also take more seriously their social responsibilities.

Hardbound. This volume provides a selection of the top papers that were presented at an international conference held in Cesme, Turkey in May 1998.

Among many factors contributing to a corporation's success, none is more crucial than reputation. It affects the way management makes decisions and the positions it takes, and how it takes them, on critical issues. A good reputation is also a signal to the market--one way that stakeholders will know that a corporation is successful. Riahi-Belkaoui looks at the most crucial functions and influences that determine corporate reputation, among them, the way it affects a firM's market value; the quality of its disclosures; how well its earnings are managed, how its executives are compensated. He also addresses other processes, such as international production, the informativeness of earnings, accounting choices, and the characteristics of earnings forecasts. The result is a succinct, readable, probing study for corporate decision makers in various functions of the firm, their academic colleagues, and knowledgeable onlookers who need ways to evaluate and buttress their investment decisions.

Riahi-Belkaoui examines the process of reputation-building first, then the role of corporate reputation and how market value and accounting value differ. He moves to the impact of contextual factors of multinationality and corporate reputation on accrual and cash flow valuation models. In Chapter Four he shows how corporate audiences construct the reputations of firms by interpreting information signals about the firms from various monitors. He then reports the result of an empirical study of the 100 most international firms, which supports the general hypothesis that corporate audiences construct reputations on the basis of information and firms' earnings management. In Chapter Six he turns to the relationship between the level of corporate reputation and managers' ccounting choices, and in Chapter Seven examines the value relevance of earnings, cash flows, multinationality, and corporate reputation. Chapter Eight advances the hypothesis that corporate boards control top management behavior by means of compensation, but also by judging them on organizational effectiveness and social performance. He restates a general model of international production, and in Chapter 10, hypothesizes that the level of corporate reputation affects both the informativeness of earnings and the magnitude of discretionary accounting accrual adjustments. He ends the book by providing empirical evidence of the relationship between economic performance and organizational effectiveness, a measure of overall social performance.

This comprehensive analysis discusses how American and non-American multinational corporations (MNCs) can plan, manage, and control their business activities and invest in four selected Middle East countries: Egypt, Kuwait, Jordan, Saudi Arabaia--and as a special unique feature, a fifth country, Israel. Abdallah covers in detail the tax systems and regulations and their effect on business in the Middle East. He looks at the future of the business environment and its effect on accounting in the Middle East during the first decades of the new century, and examines the role of different local and international organizations that are helping to make the Middle East an excellent place to do business.

Combining the Arab countries with Israel into a single volume, and writing in a remarkably clear style, Abadallah offers practical guidelines for Americans and other MNCs, potential international investors, large accounting firms, and even Middle East governments themselves. He helps businesses conduct feasibility studies for joint venture startups in the Middle East countries covered; helps MNCs manage their business more effectively and avoid conflicts with governments or cultural attitudes; offers managers and officers an understanding of Middle East environmental factors that may significantly affect their businesses; helps MNCs evaluate the performance of Middle East subsidiary managers; helps MNCs develop strategic transfer pricing policies that fit Middle East countries and which go according to accounting systems and practices there as well as in their home countries; and goes deeply into the accounting systems and practices of the countries under analysis here and compares them with both U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles and International Accounting Standards. This volume is of special value to corporate executives in or planning to enter the Middle East market, graduate students, and teachers of international business and accounting, and practicing accountants with Middle East clients (or who seek to acquire them).