The role of multinationals in the world economy

Based on trends observed during the ’sixties, a number of forecasts have projected an increasing domination by multinational corporations of the Western economies. By confronting them with the available empirical evidence of the ’seventies, Dr. Winiecki reveals some striking discrepancies between these forecasts and the realities of the past decade, the interpretation of which may contribute to a more realistic assessment of the future role of multinational corporations.     

中国跨国公司跨国并购的文化整合探讨

中国企业已经走向跨国并购的发展阶段,但与西方跨国公司相比,还存在较大的差距,尤其是在跨国文化整合上还处在探索阶段.文化整合影响着并购企业的经营,乃至成败.因此探讨文化整合问题对国内的企业跨国并购有着深远的意义.     

Japanese multinationals and the stability of the GATT system

The Kreinin hypothesis argues that the viability of an open, GATT-oriented global trading system could be threatened by the failure of Japan, a major player, to open its domestic markets and to source intermediate goods from foreign firms on a nondiscriminatory basis. Newly available data on intrafirm trade by Japanese multinationals suggest that the tendency to trade heavily with (Japanese) supplier firms with established relationships is not a conspiracy to promote a trade surplus, but rather an outcome of standard Japanese practices that closely resemble hierarchical vertical integration. But a breakdown of the GATT system is still a very real possibility because the Japanese chronic current-account surplus contributes to even further gains in the international competitiveness of major Japanese industries, and this may prove intolerable to the other major players.     

Management strategies of multinationals in developing countries

To what extent do American, Japanese and European multinationals follow different management strategies in developing countries? What effects do these strategies have on the developing countries involved? The free trade zones in Malaysia offer a seldom opportunity to compare companies from all three geographical areas operating under homogeneous conditions.     

The evolution of strategic asset-seeking acquisitions by emerging market multinationals

We study the extent to which emerging market multinational enterprises (EMNEs) engage in strategic asset-seeking acquisitions in advanced countries in relation to the strength of their home- and host-country national innovation system (NIS). We suggest that early acquisitions by EMNEs were used to compensate for the EMNEs relatively weak home NIS, and targeted weaker host NIS to limit the cognitive gap EMNEs would need to address. Instead, more recent acquisitions by EMNEs are supported by a stronger home NIS, and target firms in stronger host NIS. We also propose that acquisitions by high-tech (versus non-high-tech) EMNEs need a stronger home NIS due to the technological complexity of the industry, and are limited when the complexity of a stronger host NIS adds to the industry context. We find support for most of our arguments on 179 acquisitions in the Triad by Brazilian, Russian, Indian and Chinese multinationals.     

服务业跨国公司发展的动因与特点

一、服务业跨国公司扩张的动因在20世纪80年代以前,对外直接投资主要集中在原材料、其他初级产品以及以资源为基础的制造业,随着世界经济产业结构的调整,对外直接投资开始大规模流向技术密集的制造业和服务业,这使得服务业在世界对外直接投资总量中的比重不断上升。20世纪50年代服务业对外直接投资所占比重不到20%,70年代初也仅占25%,至80年代中期,这一比重迅速增长到40%,而至90年代中后期,服务业已稳获世界对外直接投资的半壁江山,如1998年全球服务业对外直接投资流出量约为3642亿美元,占到了总流出量的53%。与其他产业相比,经过90年代的发…     

Soviet all-union enterprises as new multinationals of the CIS

This paper examines the restructuring of the former Soviet economy provoked by the break-up of the USSR and the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States. Particular attention is devoted to the changes taking place in the former All-Union enterprises that have now essentially become new multinationals. The pressures influencing the two parallel developments of internalization and divestment are examined and illustrated using two case studies. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The emergence of Korean and Taiwanese multinationals in Europe: prospects and limitations

Although the outward orientation of the Korean and Taiwanese economies in the past was confined to their export activities, during the last decade and a half they have emerged as important home countries of overseas investment. In this contribution, special attention is paid to their investment activities in Europe, about which very little is known. After a short theoretical discussion of their ‘deviant’ (‘late’) industrialization patterns, the investments of two Korean (consumer electronics) and two Taiwanese (computer) companies in Europe are examined in detail. Special attention is paid to their actual operations in the region, the motivations to invest and the problems faced in building up a strong position in this part of the industrialized world. It will be shown that the late industrialization nature of the Korean and Taiwanese economies has considerably influenced their internationalization patterns.     

The complex integration strategies of multinationals and cross country dependencies in the structure of foreign direct investment

The behavior of many multinational enterprises is not well described by existing models of foreign direct investment (FDI). Firms often follow strategies that involve vertical integration in some countries and horizontal integration in others, a strategy known as complex integration. This paper presents a three-country model that is used to analyze why firms might follow a strategy of complex integration. My analysis reveals that complex integration strategies create complementarities between potential host countries that have important implications for the structure of FDI. The analysis also shows that falling transport cost between countries may increase the importance of complex integration strategies.     

Trade and exposure of Eastern European multinationals

We find that about 19% of our sample of 149 Eastern European multinationals’ stock returns experienced economically significant exposure effects to the U.S. dollar for the period January 2000 to December 2004. The average exposure of the highly net exporting (importing) industry portfolios is positive (negative). Foreign exposure is found to increase with the evolution of net positions in U.S. foreign trade and with the industries’ degree of openness towards U.S. foreign markets. We also find that foreign exposure decreases with firm size.     

Local enablers of business models: The experience of Brazilian multinationals acquiring in North America

Despite the rapid growth of South–North investments, the literature is still incipient to look into the broad range of issues associated with them. This article focuses on reverse takeovers and discusses the reasons why emerging-country firms, Brazilian multinationals in particular, are able to profitably acquire firms in developed countries, chiefly in the United States. The research addresses two specific subjects in international business literature: country-choice and entry-mode. The analytical approach assumes that reverse takeovers are part of the dynamic reconfiguration of global production systems which, in turn, are influenced by shifting conditions in countries' business environments. Changes in business environments impact local firms' business models and their positioning in global production networks and international markets as well. Reverse takeovers are facilitated when both the simultaneous evolution of the developed country multinational and the emerging country multinational business models establish a common ground for the transaction. Through the analysis of Brazilian multinationals' acquisitions in North America, relevant insights pertaining to the realms of firm-specific advantages, country-choice and entry mode in reverse takeovers are unveiled.     

The quality of British marketing: A comparison with US and Japanese multinationals in the UK market

This paper presents the findings of an empirical study comparing the marketing strategies and organisations of a matched sample of British companies and their US and Japanese competitors in the UK. Hypotheses about Japanese marketing are tested and provide a framework for the comparative analysis of the marketing effectiveness of the three sets of competitors. The findings highlight significant weaknesses in the marketing effort of British companies, these being exacerbated by excessive focus on short‐run financial gains. The US competitors, equally concerned with short‐term profits, were less committed to the UK market than their Japanese rivals, their market position being in danger of deteriorating further as the Japanese close the technological gap between them. The Japanese were unmistakably aggressive, single‐minded in their pursuit of market share and undeniably more market‐oriented than their US and British counterparts. This research was funded by the ESRC.     

Social responsibility and the future of multinationals: Guidance without rules

While voluntary behavior and social responsibility have so far played a peripheral role in multinational corporations’ global strategies, the author argues that the non-market social responsibility dimension will have to be incorporated systematically in management’s forward planning as a growing factor if the multinationals want to secure their future.     

International performance of multinationals: a hybrid model

This study examines multinationals’ performance using a hybrid model. By considering firm-specific assets hypothesis, this study incorporates the structure-conduct-performance paradigm and entry mode choice to develop and test a theoretical argument for international performance. Taiwanese MNCs are chosen to test both the validity of the overall framework and the importance of factors influencing the international entry modes and market performance. The results show that both marketing strategies and entry modes have significant impact on market performance. In addition, firm-specific assets have substantial influence on marketing strategies and entry modes. The empirical finding of this study support the argument that the hybrid framework provides the basis for a more comprehensive theoretical understanding.     

Firm heterogeneity and location choice of Taiwanese multinationals

This paper examines the extent to which production location decisions of Taiwanese multinationals reflect underlying patterns of firm productivity. In our theoretical model, heterogeneous firms in a middle-income country decide on the optimal production locations for serving three geographically separate markets: domestic, foreign high-income and foreign low-income. The model shows that the equilibrium decision of a firm depends on the fixed investment costs of establishing foreign subsidiaries, production costs, transportation costs, market size and its own productivity level.

Using firm-level data in 2000, Taiwanese electronics firms are divided into four different categories: non-FDI, investors in China only, investors in the U.S. only, investors in both China and the U.S. We use a multinomial logit model to link firms' location choices with their productivity, controlling for country, industry and other firm characteristics. Our empirical results are consistent with the predictions of the theoretical model. We show that more productive firms engage in outward FDI, with the most productive ones investing in both China and the U.S. We also provide evidence indicating that Taiwanese multinationals investing only in the U.S. are more productive than those investing exclusively in China due to smaller fixed investment costs in China relative to the U.S.