Student Number: 9305986E School of Accountancy Faculty of Commerca, Law and Management / Academic and commercial interest in the corporate governance practices of publicly listed companies has increased significantly in the past five to ten years. High-profile corporate failures such as Enron and Worldcom have heightened the interest in corporate governance practices. This research study's primary aim is to explore the contribution of board structure to company performance in South Africa. The majority of prior corporate governance literature has centered and focused on the relationship between board structure and company performance where performance is measured in terms of traditional measures. This research study follows the themes of Mitchell Williams, which diverges from this prior body of literature in two primary ways; first the relationship between board structure and company performance is investigated where performance is defined by intellectual capital performance and second unlike the majority of prior literature that utilised data from the United States, data was collected and analysed from a sample of South African companies listed on the JSE Securities Exchange.

京都大学 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(経済学) / 甲第24162号 / 経博第656号 / 新制||経||301(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院経済学研究科経済学専攻 / (主査)教授 黒澤 隆文, 准教授 IVINGS Steven, 教授 渡邊 純子 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Economics / Kyoto University / DGAM

This study is motivated by the need to improve the understanding of international entrepreneurship (IE) in emerging economies. Thus, the researcher conducted an in-depth case study of four Nigerian firms to investigate how divergent institutional conditions influence the processes of IE from emerging economies to developed economies. The findings of the study depict how entrepreneurial activity from emerging economies to developed economies can involve many sub-activities and processes to achieve opportunity identification, development, and exploitation. This process which appears disruptive is significantly supported through resource acquisition and development. However, this process of IE is heavily shaped by the institutional conditions of the international entrepreneur’s host and home markets. The institutional environment impeded growth and entrepreneurial aspirations while simultaneously facilitating access to resources, reducing risks and providing legitimacy to the firms. These simultaneous effects of institutions constrained strategic choices of the entrepreneurs and by so doing, shaped the means and processes by which they identify and execute international opportunities. The major contributions of this thesis include the validation of New Institutional Economics (NIE) framework for the examination of IE processes and empirical evidence demonstrating how entrepreneurial activity from emerging economies to developed economies can involve many sub-activities and processes to achieve opportunity identification, development, and exploitation. Also, the study guides emerging economy managers and entrepreneurs on ways to effectively manage their liabilities of smallness and foreignness. Lastly, the study provides some policy recommendations to facilitate the development of a conducive environment for entrepreneurship and IE to flourish in Nigeria.

No / Purpose: Using arguments from the regulatory focus and upper echelons theories, this paper aims to examine the impact of a chief executive officer’s (CEO’s) regulatory foci (i.e. promotion and prevention focus) on small- and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs’) level of innovativeness and how these relationships are jointly moderated by intense competition. Design/methodology/approach: The empirical analysis draws on survey data gathered from 257 SMEs in Ghana. Findings: The study findings indicate that a CEO’s level of promotion focus positively affects the firm’s engagement in innovation, while a CEO’s prevention focus is negatively associated with the firm’s innovativeness. The positive association between a CEO’s promotion focus and a firm’s innovativeness is enhanced under conditions of intense competition. Additionally, the negative relationship between prevention focus and firm-level innovativeness is attenuated under intense competition. Research limitations/implications: This study relied on a single informant and also used subjective measures for the dependent variable. As such, individual respondents might have biased perspectives on firm-level product innovativeness. Future studies may use multiple informants to examine the causal links of the variables. Practical implications: The study’s findings provide managers with a deeper understanding of how to achieve superior firm-level product innovation. The understanding of this issue can promote the development and maintenance of further entrepreneurial ventures in emerging economies. Originality/value: The paper has a strong theoretical value as it pioneers research on the effect of CEOs’ regulatory foci on firm-level innovativeness in competitive environments.

Yes / This study applies a new multi-focal actor-centered institution-theoretic approach to examine the association between executive pay and the recruitment of social elites to the board of directors in developing countries. We use a sample of 119 initial public offerings (IPOs) from 17 African stock markets to model this relationship. The results suggest that a higher proportion of elites on the board is associated with lower executive pay. This is moderated by institutional quality; that is, lower institutional quality is associated with more directors drawn from social elites and with higher pay, while the opposite is true in higher-institutional-quality environments. Our findings confirm the importance of the social environment within which governance is embedded.

Yes / Using panel data of 1,080 multinational corporations (MNCs) from the United States, we examine the effects of environmental sustainability practices on the degree of firms’ offshoring activities. In addition, we disaggregate offshoring activities into their core components depending on whether or not the firm buys (inputs) or sells (outputs) and/or owns assets in a given country and examine the extent to which sustainability practices influence the different components of offshoring decisions. The results indicate that sustainability practices significantly affect offshoring activities of MNCs. In particular, we found that sustainable business practices matter when the firm sells goods or owns assets in the given host nation. Additionally, the results show that the sustainability–degree of the internationalization relationship is crucial for MNCs that have offshoring activities in advanced economies relative to those firms that have activities in emerging markets. Our results are robust to alternative explanations.

This study examines the challenges of organisational transformation in emerging economies with special reference to Zimbabwe. It is an inductive study using grounded theory, rooted in case study methodology, based on Eisenhardt's (1989) eight steps of building theory from case study research. A longitudinal multiple case study design is used to capture transformation experiences of four companies (covering four business sectors) spanning from 1980 to 2000. Fourteen constructs from the within-case analysis form the basis of data collection and these are refined through cross-case analysis. Nine themes and sixteen challenges emerge from the study. The challenges and themes are used to identify points of convergence and divergence. Issues that trigger organisational transformation are spotted and best practices explored. Ultimately, the nine emerging themes are crystallized into seven. Both the emerging model - the Madzivire Transformation Model (MaTra) - and the elaborated model - the Madzivire Collaborative Transformation Model (MaCoTra) - are constructed from the seven themes. MaCoTra is a refinement of MaTra with the following differentiating features: * The metaphor of choruses signifies the centrality of collaboration from an African perspective; * MaCoTra reflects non-linear and linear linkages between choruses; * Choruses depict the significance of songs in African bonding; * A personal commitment to transformation calls for collective bonding around values, visions, missions and strategies; * MaCoTra is a remarkable departure from steps, phases and stages espoused in most Western change literature; * MaCoTra's philosophical base is Ubuntu - `I am because we are'- focusing on independence and interdependence; * Change interventions may be through individual or multiple MaCoTra choruses; * The organisational song connects all organisational members in a choir of transformation. MaCoTra addresses the sixteen challenges and exceedingly covers challenges cited in enfolding literature. MaCoTra was tested in and outside the study sample. I assert that MaCoTra is usable in Zimbabwean companies and may be generalized through replication studies in Africa and other emerging economies. Areas of further study towards the achievement of more generalisability of the theory/model are suggested. This study addresses the existing knowledge gap and prescribes the Madzivire Collaborative Transformation Model - MaCoTra - for companies in emerging economies. / Business Management / D.B.L.

Traditionally, Multinational Corporations and the United Nations used to have different agendas. During recent years, there has been a shift, and with the adoption of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in 2015, the objectives of the two different entities are more closely aligned. The United Nations has increasingly promoted multi-stakeholder partnerships as a way to foster development efforts in emerging markets. At the same time, these partnerships have appeared to be a way for businesses to gain legitimacy and overcome the challenges in entering emerging markets. The literature review is based on Johanson and Vahlne’s (1977) Uppsala Model, complemented with Bottom of the Pyramid literature. Specifically, the role of experiential knowledge in the internationalization process is investigated. An exploratory field study has been conducted during one month in Myanmar, with the overarching purpose to study an MNC’s expansion into an EM. The study has further investigated on how MNCs partner with non-traditional actors when entering EMs and how the exchange of knowledge is carried out on the micro-level in these relations. The study includes interviews with both an MNC and the UN, including observations on site and a documentary analysis. In line with previous literature, the result show that the MNC had to learn from the local market in order to succeed in their internationalization process, but also educate the local market in order to enter. Thus, the thesis contributes to research in proving that internationalization in emerging markets seems to be a two-way experiential knowledge direction where MNCs also need to take an active part in educating the emerging market in order to enter.

Charles University in Prague Faculty of Social Sciences Institute of Economic Studies MASTER THESIS Financial Stress Transmission from Developed to Emerging Countries Author: Bc. Nicolae Gavrilenco Supervisor: doc. Roman Horvàth, Ph.D. Academic Year: 2012/2013 Abstract In this research we have analyzed the financial system as it is today, describing the implications financial innovation had and the impact of the recent financial crisis. We tried to understand the nature of the financial stress and its measures. In the context of world financial integration it was also necessary to have a review upon the financial stress transmission channels from developed to emerging countries, determining the linkages and their measures. We employed a structural VAR model to determine whether there is empirical proof of financial Stress transmission from developed to emerging countries and see if financial integration represents the decisive factor in financial stress transmission. Our results suggest that there is a significant impact of financial stress in developed countries on the output of emerging ones. However we can observe an increasing influence of country-specific factors in explaining the variation in the rest of the variable of our model. The results also indicate the level of international financial...

One of the most visible signs of the globalization of the world economy is the increase of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows across countries. This past decade the trend of FDI has shifted from developed countries to emerging economies, which is most notably in the BRICS countries. However, as BRICS reputation has been damaged these past years due to its weak growth outlook in the early 2010s, investors are shifting to the new economic grouping acronym, the MINT (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey) countries for better future prospects of FDI destination. Since the MINT countries have emerged as a popular destination of FDI, it is necessary to investigate what are the key factors that make these four countries attractive as FDI destinations. Hence, this paper analyzes what are the determinants of inward FDI into the MINT countries during the time period from 1990 to 2014. To be able to answer the research question and demonstrate the effect of the seven independent variables (market size, economic instability, natural resources availability, infrastructure facilities, trade openness, institutional stability and political stability) on FDI as a dependent variable, the study uses a panel data analysis. The data is based on secondary data, which is collected from the World Bank dataset. The empirical finding from the study illustrates that market size, economic instability, infrastructure facilities, trade openness, institutional stability, and political stability are significant as determinants FDI inflows to the MINT countries, meanwhile, natural resources availability appears to be an insignificant determinant of FDI inflows to the MINT countries.