Since 1994, the opening up of the South African economy has presented South African companies with opportunities to exploit the bigger global market and also with challenges of competing with international companies. Companies must consider both external environmental forces and internal organizational factors before arriving at a suitable international strategy. This treatise explores the wiring harness industry in the Nelson Mandela Bay to determine whether the industry is adopting international strategies in line with globalization, thus ensuring sustained growth and profitability. A literature survey was conducted to discover the main strategies that are used by companies in order to achieve global competitiveness. These strategies were used in conjunction with Porter's (1990) theory of National Competitive Advantage to analyse the wiring harness industry in the Nelson Mandela Bay. Porter's (1990) theory of National Competitive Advantage was used to analyse the competitiveness of the wiring harness industry in the Nelson Mandela Bay. A questionnaire was developed to test the degree to which the wiring harness industry in the Nelson Mandela Bay is in agreement with the findings of the literature study. This information was used to determine whether the wiring harness industry in the Nelson Mandela Bay is following global trends to remain profitable.

by Ann Shu-ju Chiu. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 147-157). / Acknowledgement --- p.i / Chapter 1. --- Introduction / Chapter 1.1 --- Statement of the Problem --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Literature Reviews --- p.5 / Chapter 1.3 --- Fieldwork --- p.12 / Chapter 2. --- China Policy towards Foreign Investment and the Entry Mode of Taiwanese Investors / Chapter 2.1 --- China Policy in SEZs and Foreign Investment --- p.21 / Chapter 2.2 --- The Entry Mode of Taiwanese Investors --- p.26 / Chapter 3. --- Cultural Identity and the Business Behavior of the Taiwanese Business people in Mainland China --- p.32 / Chapter 3.1 --- Special Economic Zones and Dialect Group Identity --- p.36 / Chapter 3.2 --- Religious Connections --- p.42 / Chapter 3.3 --- Trends of Popular Culture --- p.50 / Chapter 3.4 --- Business of Food Culture --- p.55 / Chapter 4. --- Taiwanese Business Behavior Pattern in the China Market --- p.66 / Chapter 4.1 --- Guanxi as a Socio-cultura 1 Value Shared by Ethnic Chinese --- p.66 / Chapter 4.2 --- The Political Culture of Guanxi --- p.73 / Chapter 4.3 --- Taiwanese Ethnic Edge in the China Market --- p.78 / Chapter 4.4 --- The Practice of Guanxi of the Taiwanese Businessmen --- p.84 / Chapter 4.5 --- The Changing Patterns of Guanxi Practice --- p.89 / Chapter 4.6 --- Discussions on the Rationality of the Guanxi Value Systems --- p.93 / Chapter 4.7 --- Concluding Remarks --- p.102 / Chapter 5. --- "Investment, Management and Cultural Affinity" / Chapter 5.1 --- Cultural Affinity and Investment Behavior: From Donation to Investment --- p.103 / Chapter 5.2 --- Taiwanese Investment and Management --- p.114 / Chapter 5.3 --- Kinship and Management --- p.121 / Chapter 5.4 --- Taiwanese Employees in Multinational Corporations --- p.128 / Chapter 5.5 --- Patterns of Investments --- p.133 / Chapter 6. --- Concluding Remarks --- p.138 / Notes --- p.146 / Bibliography --- p.147

How do we account for foreign firms that are successful in politically “risky” countries? While traditional political risk indices may tell us why a country is considered a difficult operating environment, they tell us very little about why some foreign firms are nevertheless able to operate successfully in such countries over long periods of time. In fact, risk indices by their very nature make “success” almost impossible to capture due to their sole focus on “host country” behavior. Rather, as this thesis argues, the political risk is in the relationship between the firm and a series of stakeholders within a given country, not the country itself. This is a thesis of deviant cases: it holds the “successful relationship” between a foreign firm and its stakeholders as the constant dependent variable in the “significantly risky” country of Kazakhstan. Success is defined as the ability of each actor to pursue its own goals to a self-satisfactory degree, with the resources an actor mobilizes to achieve those goals and the constraints that restrict those resources as the independent variables. Three self-contained cases of “successful” foreign mining firms operating in Kazakhstan are analyzed here to determine the distinct causal pathways that led each firm to seeming “success”; the thesis then pivots to a between-subjects examination aimed at drawing out the common themes among the three different foreign firms. Within international relations theory, the relationship between the foreign firm and its stakeholders is considered here as a window into the intersection of the international political economy and the domestic political economy of a country in transition, but critically, allotting agents and structures equal ontological status. Thus the ultimate aim of this investigation is to enrich our understanding of social behavior – here, co-existence – within the context of the agent- structure debate in larger social scientific inquiry.

This thesis aims to provide evidence on whether FDI occurring in the Turkish economy has any effect on domestic firms, especially whether and to what extent it leads to KTTs towards domestic firms by paying attention to the role of MNCs. In order to do so, we firstly conduct a series of econometric analyses to analyze the impact of FDI-related technology spillovers on domestic firms&rsquo / productivity level in the Turkish manufacturing industry. Estimation results produced positive evidence on horizontal and backward technology spillovers, while negative evidence on forward spillovers. Secondly, we conduct a comprehensive empirical research based on case study at firm-level in the Turkish automotive industry. By this study, generally we aim to investigate the existence, nature and intensity of transfers, and what &ndash / if any &ndash / kind of KTTs occur at both inter- and intra-firm level in the industry. For this aim, we used two different research methods to collect detailed data and information from both suppliers and AMMs at the firm-level. Our main findings in terms of KTTs at inter-firm level can be summarized in this way: foreign suppliers are seen to dominate local suppliers in terms of many indicators and absorptive capacity level / it seems that KTTs occur from AMMs to their domestic suppliers mainly on providing documentations, assistances for logistic management, quality control, know-how, R&amp / D, co-design and co-development activities, designing and cost reduction / compared to foreign suppliers, local suppliers tend to be involved in those production-product-training related KTTs which are less knowledge-intensive and of a lesser quality. Also, performing R&amp / D activities is found as the most important firm level factor which influences positively KTTs, strategic collaboration activities with the AMMs, and many technology activities of the suppliers. The technology policies on attracting more FDI flows should be reviewed under the findings and insights of this study since it is a necessary condition &ndash / although not sufficient - to have an efficient absorptive capacity level and/or skilled human capital stock in order to get benefit from these flows.

University of Macau / Faculty of Business Administration / Department of Finance and Business Economics

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Government and Public Administration

Diss. Åbo : Åbo Akademi.

The aim of this diploma work is to point out the importance, influence and activities of transnational corporations and to discuss the related trends in foreing direct investments (FDI) in the world economy. The basic questions which are to be discussed are the clarification of the term transnational corporation, how is it possible that these corportions became so successful, what is their role in the world economy and what are the trends in FDI flows in the past two decades.

This diploma paper provides an overview of operation and meaning of multinational corporations in the modern global economy and in the economy of the Czech Republic. Likewise, the paper presents a comparison of conditions and consequences, connected with the activities of multinational corporations in the economies of Russian Federation and Czech Republic. During the process of studying the history and modern reality of multinational corporations in Czech Republic the author wanted to realize, how substantial was their influence in Czech economy. By comparison with multinational corporations' activities in Russian economy the author finds out, whether the scenario is unique in Czech republic, or it is possible to find certain analogues in other countries.

This study explores the cultural adjustment of the domestic partners of German expatriates working in the Nelson Mandela Bay automotive industry of South Africa. The data was collected by distributing pre-interview questionnaires to the participants and conducting in-depth interviews with them. Grounded theory was used in the data collection and analysis and an auto-ethnographic approach was employed, allowing for reflexivity. The findings suggest that the expatriated domestic partners did not necessarily experience much difficulty in adjusting to South African culture as they did, for example, adjusting to not being able to work for the duration of their stay. The research has also shown that the unmarried domestic partners of expatriate employees are at a disadvantage compared to their married counterparts; receiving less assistance from the companies of their partners. Based on the findings, it has been recommended that companies refine and streamline the assistance they offer to the domestic partners of their expatriate employees, providing all domestic partners with the same pre-departure training and entitling them to the same benefits.