FDI in Sub-Saharan Africa: A longitudinal perspective on location-specific factors (2003–2010)

This paper examines the characteristics of Location Specific Factors (LSFs) in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) regarding inward Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) by Multinational Enterprises (MNEs). Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) of 758 MNEs in 2003, 1216 in 2005 and 2402 in 2010 is used to compare the variability in LSFs in ten, 15 and 19 SSA countries respectively. We find firstly the most powerful factors, influencing the political-economy and trade dynamics of hosts to FDI, stable over time. Secondly, by 2010, production inputs become the most important factor for FDI followed by political-economic stability. This result reflects findings in International Business (IB) literature. Policy implications point to unwavering need by SSA to reduce transaction costs for FDI; increase the predictability of the policy environment; and increase the productivity-adjusted cost efficiency of inputs.     

Playing away to win at home

This paper presents a model of the interaction between two rival firms based in the same country. Each firm must decide how to serve a foreign market (export or foreign production) and how much to invest in a corporate-wide asset that reduces production costs and/or augments the willingness-to-pay for their product. In this scenario, the firms’ foreign direct investment decisions are interdependent. Furthermore, strategic motives for FDI relate to a firm's domestic, as well as foreign, market profits. One possibility is that a firm sets up overseas production even though its foreign market profits would be higher by exporting.     

Learning Sustainability? Absorptive capacities as drivers of sustainability in MNCs’ purchasing

MNCs are expected to operate in a sustainable fashion. Implementation of sustainability requires the ability to acknowledge external (sustainability-related) knowledge, and to apply it in intra-company activities such as purchasing. We focus on absorptive capacities as potential drivers of sustainability, and investigate the effect that a purchasing function’s capacity to absorb and process knowledge has on social and environmental sustainability practices, and subsequently on economic performance in purchasing. We compare MNCs and non-MNCs using a structural equation model of a large set of survey data from four European countries and find that only realized absorptive capacities impact sustainability practices in purchasing and this impact is smaller in MNCs than in other companies. We suggest that companies respond to the demand for sustainability by strengthening their implementation capabilities: the potential to acquire and transform knowledge within a purchasing function is less relevant, and what matters is its application.     

Complements or substitutes? A meta-analysis of the role of integration mechanisms for knowledge transfer in the MNE network

The MNE integration literature lacks coherence in the use and effectiveness of different integration mechanisms. In this study, we use meta-analytic techniques to quantitatively synthesize and evaluate the impact of centralization, formalization and socialization on knowledge transfer. Our analysis of 89 independent samples, including 15,506 subsidiaries, shows that socialization facilitates knowledge transfer more strongly than centralization and formalization. Socialization substitutes for formalization’s positive impact, and mitigates centralization’s negative impact on knowledge transfer. We further identify that directionality of knowledge flows is key in explaining the impact of centralization mechanisms. Finally, we point out important systemic problems in current empirical research.     

海外商会组织与企业公共关系外交

伴随着全球经济一体化进程,各主要国家的商会力量与企业发展紧密结合,成为国际关系、区域与国别研究、跨文化管理活动中的一种组织形态.新世纪以来,在中国企业走出去成为常态的情况下,中国原生的以地缘关系、亲缘关系为特色和纽带的商业文化也随之展现在世界面前.在广泛意义上的企业公共外交中,商会的作用是不能忽视的环节.大中华区德国工商大会(AHK Greater China)是德国工商大会全球系统的组成部分,是大中华区所有德国企业的商会组织,甚至在以DIHK法为主的德国法律框架下,兼有对大中华区德企的部分行政管理职能.本文以大中华区德国工商大会为案例,探讨和比较德式“商会文化”与中式“商帮文化”的异同,在此基础上,对公共外交与商会文化的关系提出三个假设.     

从国际经济学理论视角看企业竞争优势——兼议国际经济学优势思想的演进

本文通过回顾和分析国际经济学中国际贸易理论和国际直接投资理论优势思想的发展和]进,说明了理论研究可以通过对各种市场结构的细分,把优势分析引入到企业内部,并通过对分工、市场结构与交易费用之间的矛盾关系的深入研究,探讨内生优势与外生优势之间的对立统一关系,而企业竞争优势的培育则是一个建立在企业自身独特能力基础上的、综合利用企业内外部各种比较优势的动态累积发展过程。     

Multinational banks in the crisis: Foreign affiliate lending as a mirror of funding pressure and competition on the internal capital market

We investigate how the lending activities abroad of a multinational bank’s local and hub affiliates have been affected by funding difficulties during the financial crisis. We find that affiliates’ local deposits and performance have been stabilizing loan supply. By contrast, relying on short-term wholesale funding has increasingly proven to be a disadvantage in the crisis, which has seen inter-bank and capital markets freeze. By introducing a liable approximate measure for intra-bank flows, we detect competition for intra-bank funding between the affiliates abroad as well as an increasing focus on the parent bank’s home market activities. In addition, the more an affiliate abroad relies on intra-bank funding in the crisis, the greater its dependence on its parent bank having a stable deposit and long-term wholesale funding position. We consider changes in long-term lending to the private sectors of 40 countries by the affiliates of the 68 largest German banks. To obtain a more precise picture, we clean our lending data from valuation effects.     

澳大利亚税源管理及对我国的启示

随着经济全球化步伐的不断加快,来华跨国公司的数量和规模也随之扩大。如何对跨国公司进行有效的税源管理,成为我国税务部门日益关注的问题。澳大利亚税源管理体系十分严密、高效,其对跨国公司税源管理的经验对我国加强税源管理工作具有借鉴意义,主要表现在以下方面:重视信息化手段在税源管理中的应用;加强税务部门与其他政府部门的合作,广泛收集税源信息;按企业规模分类实行税源监控;充分发挥中介机构在税源管理中的作用。