Abstract There is more than 20 years since Mainland China implemented the ¡¥open door¡¦ policy; starting from 1979. China¡¦s large and potential local market, abundant resources i.e. land, labors, raw-materials etc. and various taxation incentives are giving the great attractions to MNCs on making investments in China. On the opposite, Taiwan is now intertwined with the internal political turmoil and global economic downturn that lead the economic development to a situation of stasis. The current economic development in two sides of the strait has revealed the opposite trends, one is rising, and the other is shrinking. In face of such unpleasant situation, what can Taiwan do to create other opportunities for future economic development? The focus of this thesis is on the changes of value activities of MNC¡¦s Subsidiaries in Taiwan. The main themes for this research are (1) MNCs have long been the key players of international investment since 1960s, and influenced substantially on the global economic development. The investment behaviors of MNCs in the new developing market - China have brought the high attentions of academic circles and practitioners. (2) In face of the rapid upraising of China, what are the changes of value activities in MNC¡¦s Subsidiaries in Taiwan? What are the possible solutions for future development of Taiwan? (3) Until now (per our understanding), there are few articles studying about the resources flow and the mutual dependence amongst MNC¡¦s HQ and Subsidiaries, this thesis provides the observations. Therefore, this thesis covers the topics of the initiative behaviors of MNC¡¦s Taiwan Subsidiaries while intending to set up a new Subsidiary in China; the decisive factors of assigning the third country nationals (TCNs) for China Subsidiary and the role shifts of Taiwan Subsidiary upon of the time changes. This thesis indicates that because of the value activities in MNC¡¦s Taiwan Subsidiaries are mostly concentrated on production or operation, and do not take part in business related management thus they have few decision powers on initiating a China Subsidiary. Exceptions are for those Subsidiaries which have the top management with local nationality and/or with entrepreneurship might participate indirectly in decision making. Besides, MNC¡¦s Taiwan Subsidiaries mainly act as the task role in China project therefore, the depth of involvement depends on their capabilities and resources which have relation to the years of establishment. If other MNC¡¦s affiliates or regional headquarters are possessed of the needed capabilities and resources, they might also involve to a certain extent in China¡¦s investment. The assignments of top team members for China project are influenced by the management style of MNCs. In most of cases, the top leading positions are filled by home country nationals of MNCs. But, for the functions of factory construction; operation or production the manager positions are commonly delegated to the experienced persons in Taiwan Subsidiaries. The main considerations are the technical capabilities, cultural background and common language. In respect of the role shifts of Taiwan Subsidiaries during the three developing stages i.e. construction, operation, and expansion of China Subsidiaries, our cases indicate that during the construction period, the main contributions of Taiwan Subsidiaries are to helping the personnel recruitments, providing technologies of factory construction and establishing the management systems; during the operation period, the contributions are to smoothing the daily production, optimizing the process, upgrading the quality of products; during the expansion period, the contributions are to enhancing the supply chain management, improving the productivity, introducing the new products or new manufacturing processes. This thesis concludes that, in line with the continuous growth of China Subsidiaries, the importance of Taiwan Subsidiaries might be dieing down, especially when there will be more and more experienced and capable human resources in China. This thesis also indicates that, due to the product profiles of MNC¡¦s Subsidiaries in Taiwan and China have the high percentages of overlap thus the internal sales competition can be foreseen. However, our cases reveal that there is no fact of strong competition but most cooperation. The main reasons are that the business management is normally handled and coordinated by the separated organization of regional sales & marketing also, the current market demands are still big enough. Therefore, at the moment, two Subsidiaries of Taiwan and China are sitting in a balance or even in a complementary situation. However, if Taiwan¡¦s economic situation can not go abreast with that of China, it can be predicted the fadedness of Taiwan Subsidiaries in MNC¡¦s position. Only the individuals who with the high competencies can continuously play the important roles in MNC¡¦s Subsidiaries or possibly to be upgraded to the higher position in MNC¡¦s regional or global management teams.

<p>Expanding to foreign markets is increasingly popular for companies. The company has to decide which organisational structure, entry mode, to use in the new market. Factors affecting the change from one entry mode to another have obtained little attention. This thesis concerns Swedish companies’ changes of entry mode in Taiwan.</p><p>The purpose is to investigate which factors that serve as triggers respectively barriers for the change of entry modes, to be able to examine which theories that can be used to explain and support mode changes.</p><p>Different theories concerning choice and change of entry mode have been investigated. Based on the theories, a model including factors influencing entry mode changes was established. The model has contributed a foundation for the empirical findings as well as the analysis of the companies. As a method, a qualitative approach was conducted through interviews with five Swedish companies having a subsidiary in Taiwan. The criterion for the companies was that they should have a subsidiary in Taiwan, but entered the market with another entry mode. Considering the small number of companies and to obtain an understanding about the entry mode changes, a qualitative investigation was the most suitable.</p><p>Conclusions that could be drawn were that the competitive Taiwanese market had triggered some of the companies to change their entry mode to a subsidiary in order to be present in the market. Increased sales volume did also have evident affect on why the companies changed their entry mode. The investigation also gives indications that barriers tend to be of internal and firm specific character. Concerning the theories explaining entry mode changes, no complete theory could explain the changes, but parts from different theoretical fields could be applied.</p>

Thesis (doctoral)--Uppsala universitet, 2003. / A duplicate abstract in 1 leaf inserted. Includes bibliographical references.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Uppsala : Uppsala universitet, 2004. / Härtill 5 uppsatser.

Univ., Diss.--Frankfurt (Main), 2004.

Zugl.: Zürich, Universiẗat, Diss., 1992. / Zugl.: Zürich, Univ., Diss., 1992.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Stanford University, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 185-201).

Thesis--University of Oregon. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 332-356).

Σήμερα οι όροι «επιχειρηματικότητα» και «διεθνοποίηση» έχουν εισχωρήσει στο σύγχρονο επιχειρηματικό λεξιλόγιο για να περιγράψουν λειτουργίες της σύγχρονης εταιρίας στο εγχώριο και στο διεθνές περιβάλλον της αγοράς. Ειδικότερα, ο νέος όρος διεθνής επιχειρηματικότητα που σχετίζεται με την επέκταση των δραστηριοτήτων της επιχείρησης σε διεθνείς αγορές έχει συγκεντρώσει έντονο ενδιαφέρον τόσο από διοικητικά στελέχη όσο και από ερευνητές του χώρου. Οι τεράστιες αλλαγές που έχουν επέλθει στο διεθνές οικονομικό περιβάλλον με την πλήρη απελευθέρωση των αγορών και την ένταση του ανταγωνισμού, αναδεικνύουν στις μέρες μας την επιχειρηματικότητα ως τον πλέον σημαντικό παράγοντα της ανάπτυξης. Η παρούσα εργασία αποτελείται από δύο μέρη. Το πρώτο μέρος αποτελεί την θεωρητική προσέγγιση και αναλύει τις βασικές θεωρίες και τα στοιχεία που συνθέτουν την έννοια των ξένων θυγατρικών μονάδων και την απόδοσή τους. Το δεύτερο μέρος αποτελεί την εμπειρική προσέγγιση όπου μετράται η απόδοση των οικονομικών μονάδων. / Today the terms "entrepreneurship" and "globalization" have penetrated the modern business vocabulary to describe features of the modern corporation's domestic and international market environment. Specifically, the new term international entrepreneurship associated with the expansion of the business in international markets has garnered strong interest from both managers and researchers from the area. The enormous changes that have occurred in the international economic environment with the full liberalization of markets and increased competition, makes nowadays entrepreneurship the most important factor of development. This work consists of two parts. The first part is the theoretical approach and analyzes the key theories and data that make up the meaning of the foreign affiliate units and their performance. The second part is an empirical approach where measured performance of economic entities.

Background: Biopacemaking is the attempt to replicate sinoatrial node (SAN)-like pacemaker activity in other areas of the heart by manipulating genes involved in pacemaking. Application of this could emulate the electronic pacemaker without the need for implantation of permanent hardware, or directly repair dysfunctional SAN tissue in human disease. We upregulated the transcription factors Tbx18, Tbx3 and the membrane ion exchanger NCX1 in bradycardic subsidiary atrial pacemaker (SAP) tissue which we used as a model of SAN dysfunction. We aimed to show that one or more of these gene targets could improve pacemaker function and alter the molecular character of SAP tissue and thus could potentially be used for the repair of dysfunctional SAN tissue. Methods: SAP tissue was isolated from the right atria of rats and kept beating in culture at 37°C for 48 hours. Recombinant adenoviruses were injected into SAP preparations to upregulate Tbx18, Tbx3 and NCX1 individually. Beating rate, overdrive suppression and pharmacological response to If blockade and β-adrenergic stimulation were measured along with molecular changes in pacemaker and atrial genes and proteins using RT-qPCR and immunohistochemistry. Results: Tbx18 upregulation significantly increased SAP beating rate after 48 hours of culture (a final rate of 141 ± 9 bpm in uninfected SAP tissue versus 215 ± 16 bpm in Ad-Tbx18 infected SAP tissue, p<0.01). It induced upregulation of HCN2 (p<0.01) and RYR2 (p<0.05), downregulation of HCN4 (p<0.05) and no change HCN1, Tbx3, Kv1.5, Kir2.1, Nav1.5, NCX1, Cx43, Cx45, Cav1.2 or Cav3.1. There was also no change in overdrive suppression and no change in response to pharmacology. No increase in beating rate was seen with either Tbx3 or NCX1 upregulation. Tbx3 preparations induced downregulation of the atrial genes Kir2.1 (p<0.01) and Nav1.5 (p<0.05), along with HCN1 (p<0.05), HCN4 (p<0.01), Tbx18 (p<0.05) and NCX1 (p<0.01), upregulated Cx43 (p<0.05) and showed no change in Cx45, RYR2, Kv1.5. NCX1 preparations demonstrated reduced overdrive suppression (p<0.05). Conclusion: Tbx18 showed the most potential for biopacemaking in SAP tissue, however both Tbx3 and NCX1 could be applied as secondary targets to fine tune biopacemaker function. Future work would focus on applying these targets to dysfunctional SAN tissue in larger animals.