This dissertation is presented in the form of three essays on International Business studies. The purpose of the dissertation is to address the interdependence between the macroeconomy and finance at three levels of analysis: the conceptual level, the economic policy level, and the corporate policy level. Each essay addresses one of these levels. The empirical focus is on developing countries in general---and Latin America in particular---because in recent history these countries have experienced large economic fluctuations and major regime shifts. The introduction surveys the literature on the relationship between the financial sector and economic growth. The first essay synthesizes the literature concerning the benefits, risks, and costs of financial liberalization in developing countries and presents illustrative data on its recent implementation and outcomes. The second essay investigates the causal relationships between real activity, inflation, and financial assets' returns in seven major Latin American economies (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela) over the period 1976--1999, using vector autoregression analysis to explore the puzzling negative relationship observed elsewhere between real stock returns and inflation. The third essay investigates whether macroeconomic factors are as important as traditional firm-specific and country-specific factors as determinants of capital structure for a sample of firms from the seven Latin American countries mentioned above in the period 1986--2000 using panel data analysis. Empirical comparisons are drawn with industrial economies: the G-7 economies in the second essay and a subset of United States firms in the third. The final chapter presents the conclusions of this dissertation. The main finding is that differences between advanced and emerging economies in the relationship among economic variables do not seem as clear-cut as often assumed by academicians, policy

Globalisation and fierce competition necessitate MEs to rethink their strategies as well as their organisational structure in order to survive in an increasingly complex business environment. This has been accompanied with an overt wave of strategic alliances signaling that these strategic means represent an important weapon for the multinational company to use in the Global battle. However, the British involvement in such a wave is not as clear as that of other countries, for most of previous research has been done on US and Japanese firms. The current study rectify this shortfall by revealing the incidence of British-foreign alliances during the period 1980-1989. The main objectives of the study are to examine the motivations of these alliances, to uncover the management practices of such strategies, and to determine their impacts on the international competitiveness of the British partners. During the course of the last decade British MEs have formed 337 strategic alliances with foreign firms, mainly belonging to the "Triad Region" of the US, Europe, and Japan. Most of the alliances were concentrated in just four industries; electronics, aerospace, telecommunications, and automotives. Technological complexity and the high cost of R&D as well as globalisation and fierce competition are the main motivations for British firms forming strategic alliances. Strategic alliances' success lies in two main considerations: one is balancing the attention in the three crucial stages of the management process (planning, formation, and operation and control), and two is understanding the issues that link one stage to the other, i.e. preparation for the formation stage and development of the plan and management team of the alliance. The alliance performance is influenced by the scope of its activities as well as the ability of the firm to effectively manage such a strategy. Strategic alliances have positive impacts on three significant issues, namely; the international competitiveness of the British partners, the management of the firms, and their technological capabilities. Further, firms that equally importantly consider the three management stages of their alliances or network of alliances are more likely to ensure the improvement and/or enhancement of their international competitiveness.

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The demands of managing in an international operating environment have changed considerably over the past 20 years due to developments in global markets. Multinational enterprises face fierce international competition and are now tasked not only with developing effective competitive capabilities but also with maximising the knowledge and expertise developed in one part of the organisation by transferring it to another. This work has investigated the position of multinational enterprises in the developing global market and through a broad and thorough review of current literature, identified a gap in the knowledge -a tool for helping the assessment of the transfer of technology prior to the transfer process taking place. Using existing models as a foundation, a new framework has been developed with observations from three case study organisations and the incorporation of other relevant literature. To -make use of the new framework to practitioners it leas been used as the basis of a workbook by which the anticipated difficulties can be judged and a priority focus developed. Validation of the 'r ework has been carried out by a panel of industrialists and academics experienced in international technology transfer. The thesis concludes with a series of recommendations for further work. The originality of this work lies in the development by the author of the new pre-transfer assessment Framework. This should provide clear advantages over previous approaches and give way to improving the success of technology transfer projects.

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There is no universally applicable privatisation model, and each country needs to adopt an approach which takes account of its local context. This study devises an appropriate design and implementation procedure for the privatization of Indonesia's state enterprises by developing a Corporate Performance Measurement model and an Asset Topography. / Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2008.

Thesis (DBusinessAdministration)--University of South Australia, 2007.

Family businesses have fuelled the growth of the Singapore economy since the 1960s. Many large Singapore companies, including a significant number of those listed on the Stock Exchange of Singapore, are family-owned and controlled. When a family business grows, it requires the services of well-educated and qualified professionals. Consequently, family businesses need to attract and retain these professionals. However, little is known about the preference for family businesses as work organisations among professionals. This study examined business undergraduates' perception of work life in family businesses and their preference for such work organisations after graduation. / Thesis (DBA(DoctorateofBusinessAdministration))--University of South Australia, 2000.

This study examines the relationship between ownership structures and the performance of listed Thai financial firms, using a sample of 39 companies which is accounted for 86% of the market capitalisation of all financial firms listed on the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) in 1996. The study employs both univariate and multivariate regression analysis. The empirical results reveal that the presence of controlling shareholders is associated with higher performance, particularly when measured, for example, by return on equity (ROE). This evidence is consistent with the view that large shareholders mitigate the “free-rider” problem of monitoring a management team, and reduce agency costs, as contended by Shleifer and Vishny (1986) and Admati et al. (1994). In addition, the separation of voting and cash-flow rights through the use of pyramid and cross-shareholding is not detrimental to the value of a firm. The study does not find evidence to support the argument that a family's involvement in management has a negative effect on company performance. Rather, there is strong evidence to support the hypotheses that state-owned financial institutions display superior performance. Finally, the study does not find evidence to support the argument that there is a non-monotonic relationship between ownership concentration and company value. Nevertheless, there is strong evidence that, at higher levels of ownership (in this case 50-75%), the involvement in management by controlling shareholders has a positive effect on firm performance, in terms of accounting, ROE, and market measures, price-to-book ratio. The results add to the literature that evaluates an empirical the link between ownership structure and firm performance, and provide additional information to policy-makers engaged in the ongoing development of corporate governance in developing countries, particularly in Thailand. / Thesis (DBA(DoctorateofBusinessAdministration))--University of South Australia, 2005.