Host country uncertainty,intra‐MNC production shifts,and subsidiary performance

This study examines whether or not production shifts occur among the foreign subsidiaries of multinational corporations (MNCs) under the influence of differing macroeconomic conditions in their host countries. This study compares intra‐MNC production shifts under the influence of exchange rate changes across different host countries. Our findings indicate that the increase of a subsidiary's production at the time of its host country currency depreciation decreases the production of other subsidiaries within the same MNC network. Our empirical evidence also shows that MNC subsidiaries that engage in production shifts with other affiliated subsidiaries command a higher performance. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Corporate Performance: Does Ownership Matter? A Comparison of Foreign- and Domestic-Owned Firms in Greece and Portugal

The paper investigates whether multinational corporations (MNCs) operating in Portugal and Greece perform differently than domestic firms. Departures from normality of firms’ profitability motivated the use of quantile regression. The results suggest that ownership ties do not make a significant difference with respect to performance of firms in Portugal. Results are similar for firms in Greece. Only when firms in the upper quantiles of gross profits are compared, MNCs are found to significantly perform better than domestic firms. MNCs have to compensate for their liability of foreigness that in spite of their technological advantages they cannot persistently outperform domestic rivals.JEL Classifications: F23, L10, L60, C21     

Whole vs. shared ownership of foreign affiliates

This paper studies why multinational firms often share ownership of a foreign affiliate with a local partner even in the absence of government restrictions on ownership. We show that shared ownership may arise, if (i) the partner owns assets that are potentially important for the investment project, and (ii) the value of these assets is private information. In this context shared ownership acts as a screening device. Our model predicts that the multinational's ownership share is increasing in its productivity, with the most productive multinationals choosing not to rely on a foreign partner at all. This prediction is shown to be consistent with data on the ownership choices of Japanese multinationals.     

美日跨国公司在华投资企业治理机制的特征及借鉴

跨国公司治理机制的形成是建立在母公司治理机制不断完善的基础之上的,其有效性包括了各子公司在内的整个企业集团治理机制的效率。跨国公司治理机制的实质就是母子公司治理机制及二者之间的内在联系。中国跨国公司的竞争力与发达国家的跨国公司相比存在很大差距,其根本原因就是公司治理水平的差异。通过对美国、日本跨国公司在华投资企业治理机制的比较,可以看出文化要素对跨国公司治理机制的独特作用,这对中国跨国公司完善治理机制具有重要借鉴意义。     

The ‘newcomer’ MNC and the re-organization of national industrial relations actor network: the case of the Finnish food-retailing sector

This article looks at the institutional-level negotiations and configurations between a ‘newcomer’ multinational, the trade union and the association of employers. Developing a relational approach based on Actor Network Theory, the article goes beyond the currently used convergence and divergence perspectives by looking at the effect of MNCs on human resource and industrial relations systems as a process of re-organizing identities and power positions of the actors. A qualitative study on the case of the entry of the first international company (Lidl) into the Finnish food-retailing sector suggests that an international company tends to become positioned as an authorial representative of the global market forces, superior to the national actors. A closer analysis reveals, however, that the trade union is granted with some strategic discretion in the emerging actor network whereas the association of employers appears as the least powerful actor in the evolving configuration. At a general level, the analysis of the Finnish case underlines the importance of examining the MNC effect from a theoretical perspective that pays full attention to the complexities and particulars of the process. Implications for internationally oriented human resource management and industrial relations research are discussed.     

在华跨国公司人力资源本土化分析

随着跨国公司加大在华研发投入力度,跨国公司人才本土化已成必然趋势。文中从多个视角分析了跨国公司人力资源本土化的动因以及我国具有的综合区位优势,提出了我国企业应对策略：应高度重视国内人力资源的开发,加大研发投入力度,通过与跨国公司展开合作竞争,不断学习、吸收其先进技术与管理方式,从而提高本土企业的竞争力。     

HRM and IR in multinational corporations in Denmark: uneasy bedfellows?

As multinational corporations operate in multiple countries, headquarters must take into account differences in local settings when seeking the means to coordinate and control subsidiaries. The local system of industrial relations sets the framework for what kind of human resource management a multinational corporation can implement. Yet another question is whether the still stronger multinationals can change the existing systems of industrial relations, directly or indirectly.

The paper analyzes four Danish enterprises over a 10-year period. This longitudinal study shows that none of the multinationals directly try to interfere in local industrial relations. However, by exercising their management prerogative in a way that differs from the Northern European tradition of industrial relations, they do influence the cooperation between employers and employees. In particular, the results show, that a shift from a stakeholder to a shareholder management style and an increased degree of HQ control have an effect on the whole cooperative atmosphere in each of the companies. In the long run, they may affect the collective bargaining system as such.     

Multinational public goods provision under multilateral income transfers and productivity differences

This article examines multinational public goods provision under multilateral income transfers and productivity differences across countries. Under a planner who uses linear approximation for utility maximization, we show that (1) a country is an income receiver if it has a higher productivity than the average in producing public goods, enabling it to provide more public goods; (2) the amount of transfers can be pinned down for all countries with an adjustment cost; (3) each country obtains an identical utility increment; and (4) the country with the lowest adjustment cost is the best candidate for the planner country. All results are derived based on well-known information regarding the cost of producing the public goods and income levels.     

Gandhian Economics from the Perspective of John R. Commons

We examine the evolution of law regarding corporations' legal status and the power of government to regulate corporations. John R. Commons described this jurisprudential history as changing the meaning of property from individual ownership to a going business owned by a going concern. Despite this history, the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 decision, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, accorded corporations the rights of individual citizens, characterizing the corporation as an "association of citizens." If corporations are associations of citizens rather than going concerns distinct from their owners, the law will elevate private interests of shareholders above collective interests.     

Skill Upgrading and Production Transfer within Swedish Multinationals

This paper studies the link between production transfer within Swedish‐headquartered multinational enterprises (MNEs) in the manufacturing industry and skill upgrading in their parent companies in the 1990s. The analysis distinguishes between horizontal and vertical foreign direct investment (FDI). The increased employment share in the affiliates in non‐OECD countries (vertical FDI) has a non‐trivial, significantly positive effect on the share of skilled labor in the Swedish parents. On the other hand, the parents’ skill upgrading is unrelated to employment changes in their affiliates in other OECD countries (horizontal FDI). This is consistent with implications of the newly developed horizontal MNE models.