The fashion industry has become an industry with high attention, and in recent years Swedish fashion has become a strong name internationally. At the same time, it is a competitive industry where smaller fashion companies are competing with big clothing chains. For these actors it is important to internationalise and enter foreign markets to be able to grow. This requires resources and capital that many of the smaller fashion companies today is missing; market knowledge, export knowledge and commercial knowledge.  This makes it interesting to see what factors are important for smaller Scandinavian fashion companies to succeed in establishing on the international market. The purpose of this dissertation is to evaluate and analyze conditions for three smaller Scandinavian fashion companies' internationalisation process. The study is based on case studies of these fashion companies. Theories have been chosen according to the background. These highlights the importance for companies to have knowledge of their market, and how internationalisation is a process of knowledge in which they learn something from each step. Furthermore, how companies in some cases follow a particular pattern and how the establishment can be done in specific steps. It may be important to develop relations with actors in their environment.  By different theories, the authors have designed an assumption about what is important for the smaller fashion companies.  In the dissertation we have found that the most significant and important factors are collaborations, available resources internally or externally, and to have knowledge of the market. The expansion of the business as a foreign establishment means that companies need to seek help outside their organization to succeed internationally.

These years has witnessed a rapid change in staff’s working pattern. Flexible working arrangements are increasingly widespread in developed countries as well as developing countries. The adoption level of flexible working arrangements is predicted to keep increasing in the future. However, some obstacles will emerge when flexible working policies are carried out in companies. The results such as low participation of staff in flexible working arrangements may fail to live up organizations’ expectation. Accordingly, employers’ and employees’ evaluation of flexible working policies may be helpful to remove these obstacles and plays a vital role in improving the implementation of flexible working arrangements.Considering that change of the implementation of flexible working policies will have direct impacts on employers and employees, these two groups of people are chosen as respondents to investigate. The respondents of this thesis are from foreign and multinational companies in China. Since documental data on flexible working policies are quite few, the researchers have collected both qualitative and quantitative data by doing interviews and a survey. The findings of the interviewees’ opinions and the survey data show both similarities and differences between employers’ and employees’ evaluations, which may pave the way for improvement of the implementation of flexible working arrangements.The findings of this research show that the implementation of flexible working policies is affected by two categories, “the content of policies” and “the external factors influencing the implementation of policies” such as facilities provided by companies, trust and support from supervisors. Furthermore, employers and employees tend to hold similar or different opinions on the concepts included in these two categories related to their different positions in their companies. The findings of this research are regarding the current implementation of flexible working arrangements and limited types of flexible working arrangements. Other factors and improvements can be achieved in future practice.

Foreign companies were the main drivers of economic development in the Czech Republic in last two decades. Today the Czech market is already saturated with large number of foreign investment and future development of the Czech economy depends on a shift towards a knowledge-based economic development. Thesis attempts to evaluate different position of domestic and foreign companies from the Pardubice Region in global production networks. This position will have different influence on focus of companies on research, development and knowledge-based activities. The work is based on 34 directed interviews with the directors of domestic and foreign companies from the Pardubice Region. First aim is to indicate different position of domestic and foreign firms in global production networks. Second aim is to find a different meaning of research and development activities for companies. Development activities are the main article of shift towards the production of knowledge-intensive products with higher added value. Last aim of thesis is to evaluate different intensity of collaboration of domestic and foreign companies on the research and development activities with other firms and institutions.

Within the past two decades U.S. companies have experienced increased competition from foreign companies. In an effort to combat this competition many U.S. companies focused on quality as a solution to the problem. Researchers agree this emphasis on quality systems has changed the way many managers conduct business. Yet, no studies have identified which components of world-class quality systems, if any, contribute most to changes in performance. The purpose of this study is to empirically investigate three research questions pertaining to world-class quality systems: (1) What are the components of world-class quality systems? (2) Does a relationship exist between world-class quality system components and improved organizational performance? (3) Which world-class quality system components contribute most to changes in performance? The theoretical foundation for investigating these relationships is developed from Galbraith's (1977) information processing model of organization design. An extensive literature review resulted in the identification of seven components common to world-class quality systems: management involvement, customer involvement, employee involvement, supplier involvement, product/service design, process management, and continuous improvement. The literature suggests implementation of these components leads to changes in performance in such areas as productivity, throughput time, and quality output. A cross-sectional field study was used to gather data to answer the research questions. In this study, each component of world-class quality systems is measured as an independent variable. Change in productivity, throughput time, and quality output are measured as dependent variables. Factor analyses, correlation analyses, and hierarchical regression analyses are used to test the relationships. The target population was ISO 9000 certified companies located in the United States. The results indicated that management's involvement and employees' involvement are positively correlated with change in performance. The results also show that a positive relationship exits between the use of world-class quality system components and change in performance.

In the era of globalization and rapid change, talent management (TM) is becoming an increasingly important topic, since it sets direction for companies and the whole economies in general towards success and development. Exploring the phenomenon on the organizational or meso level, talent management techniques are implemented by organizations to attract, develop, engage, keep and deploy employees who are believed to be particularly valuable to them. By utilizing talents in a proper way, companies can increase their efficiency, add value to their brand credibility, and contribute to diversity of their corporate culture. For these reasons, top managers and HR professionals widely consider talent management to be one of their key priorities and invest largely in it. Companies that refuse to employ talent management techniques risk losing their competitive advantage, their market share and consequently their profitability. More than that, such companies remain unattractive to talented experts and cannot boast prominent financial results. This thesis gives a lot of insight into the current state of affairs concerning talent management in Russia and looks into possible problems that can arise in regard to the process of its implementation in Russian context. We found the issue of talent management in Russia to be under-researched at the moment, thus, we decided to make a contribution to the study of the concept. We carried out our research through a multi-level perspective because we are positive that there is a strong interplay between different contexts regarding talent management implementation in Russia. The obtained empirical findings have provided us with the knowledge that there is a number of obstacles hindering development of TM in Russia. More than that, we found that the approach to TM fully depends on the origin of a company.

The diploma thesis deals with the activities of global value chains in Czech Republic, with a focus on the Czech Republic. The theoretical part of the work explains the term value chain, its origin, function and its impact on selected economic indicators. Types of the processes in the firms and the possibility of relocation on the external subject or abroad is mentioned at the end of this section. The practical part aims to access the activity of the companies in global value chains. Based on the statistic dates, information from various databases and calculations, the paper offers an insight into the situation in selected sectors. Other parts are dedicated to analyzing the opportunities, current trends and overall development of this industry in Czech Republic. The output of the work provides a general look on the concept, how the firms are working in value chains and how are they affecting the electronic industry.

This study analyzes corporate governance practices of foreign (non-U.S.) issuers listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Nasdaq. Specifically, I examine the extent to which these foreign issuers voluntarily comply with U.S. stock exchange corporate governance requirements applicable to domestic issuers. My sample consists of 201 foreign companies primarily domiciled in Brazil, China, Israel, and the United Kingdom. I find that 151 (75 per cent) of the sample firms do not elect to comply with any of the U.S. corporate governance requirements. Logistic regression analysis generally supports the hypotheses that conformance with U.S. GAAP and percentage of managerial ownership are positively associated, and that percentage ownership by major shareholders is negatively associated with foreign firms electing to comply with U.S. corporate governance rules. This evidence is relevant for regulators and investors.

Globalisation of trade and investment has led multinational enterprises to develop strategies to maximise profits by investing in countries with a favourable tax climate, resulting in loss of tax revenue to domestic economies. In South Africa, recent economic liberalisation and associated relaxation of exchange controls have created increasing exposure to global competition, risk of capital flight and potential threat to the tax base. Heeding OECD recommendations intended to counter negative tax implications for domestic economies and curb harmful tax practices, South Africa introduced controlled foreign company provisions initially in 1997, followed by comprehensive legislation in 2001. Appropriateness of South Africa’s CFC regulations as domestic anti-avoidance measures is assessed in this study for their relevance in the international fiscal arena, highlighting key divergences, shortcomings and anomalies in the South African regulations compared with OECD recommendations, and with regulatory measures in the United Kingdom (jurisdictional-entity approach) and the United States (transactional approach), these two examplars offering paradigms of the most important CFC regulatory approaches currently in force. The primary materials investigated in the study are the statutes which constitute the taxation laws, read in conjunction with auxiliary, quasi-statutory advisory and explanatory documentation issued by the respective regulatory authorities, along with test cases that established legal precedent on points of ambiguity in taxation law. A key finding in the literature review is the relative dearth of publications on current South African CFC regulations in an international comparative context. A paradigm shift is noted in United Kingdom tax policy, as it migrates towards a territorially inclined tax system in CFC regulations – more compatible with European Union (EU) requirements and propelled in large measure by EU-pressure – with a similar trend in United States tax policy, intended to rekindle expansion and growth of the United States economy through repatriation of foreign funds earned by CFCs. The study finds that it would be unrealistic to seek an absolute paradigm for reform or evolution of South African CFC regulations in either the United Kingdom or the United States, although the South African and United Kingdom CFC measures show significant affinities in their entity-based mechanisms to grant full exemption. More significant constituents of CFC regulation in one or another of the two countries do, however, prove to be generally congenial to the South African situation and offer useful pointers for ongoing reform of the South African measures. Other areas in the United Kingdom or United States CFC regulations are identified as less relevant to South African requirements, being linked to tax principles that would be excessively complicated in the South African circumstances, needlessly demanding for tax administrators and for South African shareholders, contradictory to South African tax principles, anachronistic, or not suited for the underlying global-entity approach in the South African regulations. The research provides an updated assessment of the current state of the South African CFC regulatory measures, when seen in a broader international context, and indicates areas that could be the subject of fruitful ongoing investigation. / PhD (Tax), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Globalisation of trade and investment has led multinational enterprises to develop strategies to maximise profits by investing in countries with a favourable tax climate, resulting in loss of tax revenue to domestic economies. In South Africa, recent economic liberalisation and associated relaxation of exchange controls have created increasing exposure to global competition, risk of capital flight and potential threat to the tax base. Heeding OECD recommendations intended to counter negative tax implications for domestic economies and curb harmful tax practices, South Africa introduced controlled foreign company provisions initially in 1997, followed by comprehensive legislation in 2001. Appropriateness of South Africa’s CFC regulations as domestic anti-avoidance measures is assessed in this study for their relevance in the international fiscal arena, highlighting key divergences, shortcomings and anomalies in the South African regulations compared with OECD recommendations, and with regulatory measures in the United Kingdom (jurisdictional-entity approach) and the United States (transactional approach), these two examplars offering paradigms of the most important CFC regulatory approaches currently in force. The primary materials investigated in the study are the statutes which constitute the taxation laws, read in conjunction with auxiliary, quasi-statutory advisory and explanatory documentation issued by the respective regulatory authorities, along with test cases that established legal precedent on points of ambiguity in taxation law. A key finding in the literature review is the relative dearth of publications on current South African CFC regulations in an international comparative context. A paradigm shift is noted in United Kingdom tax policy, as it migrates towards a territorially inclined tax system in CFC regulations – more compatible with European Union (EU) requirements and propelled in large measure by EU-pressure – with a similar trend in United States tax policy, intended to rekindle expansion and growth of the United States economy through repatriation of foreign funds earned by CFCs. The study finds that it would be unrealistic to seek an absolute paradigm for reform or evolution of South African CFC regulations in either the United Kingdom or the United States, although the South African and United Kingdom CFC measures show significant affinities in their entity-based mechanisms to grant full exemption. More significant constituents of CFC regulation in one or another of the two countries do, however, prove to be generally congenial to the South African situation and offer useful pointers for ongoing reform of the South African measures. Other areas in the United Kingdom or United States CFC regulations are identified as less relevant to South African requirements, being linked to tax principles that would be excessively complicated in the South African circumstances, needlessly demanding for tax administrators and for South African shareholders, contradictory to South African tax principles, anachronistic, or not suited for the underlying global-entity approach in the South African regulations. The research provides an updated assessment of the current state of the South African CFC regulatory measures, when seen in a broader international context, and indicates areas that could be the subject of fruitful ongoing investigation. / PhD (Tax), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

Le développement des relations économiques internationales et la construction d’un espace européen intégré tant d’un point de vue économique que politique a relancé le débat sur la nationalité des sociétés. La question n’est pas tant de savoir si les sociétés commerciales disposent d’une nationalité au même titre que les personnes physiques – les solutions en la matière sont depuis longtemps acceptées par la doctrine et la jurisprudence internationales – mais plutôt de déterminer comment cette notion a évolué et s’adapte aux contraintes d’une part, d’une économie de marché mondialisée et d’autre part, du droit de l’Union européenne qui bouleverse les solutions traditionnellement admises en matière de nationalité des sociétés dans les droits internes des Etats membres. Ainsi, les critères de rattachement juridique d’une société à un Etat déterminés par les règles de droit international privé de chaque Etat s’orientent inéluctablement vers le critère anglo-saxon de l’incorporation. L’apparition de nouvelles personnes morales de droit de l’UE comme la Société européenne (SE) ou la future Société privée européenne (SPE) posent également la question de la nationalité et de la loi applicable à ce type de groupement européen. Il en est de même s’agissant des groupes de sociétés dont une réglementation de leurs activités pourrait être relancée dans le cadre du droit de l’UE. / The development of international economic relations and the construction of an integrated European area, both from an economic and a political point of view, has revived the debate on the nationality of trading companies. The question is not so much whether trading companies have a nationality on an equal footing with natural persons – solutions have long been accepted by international doctrine and jurisprudence – but rather to determine how this notion has evolved and adapted to the constraints on the one hand, of a globalized market economy and, on the other hand, of European Union law which overturns the traditionally accepted solutions of nationality of trading companies into the legal systems of Member States. Thus, the criteria for the legal connection of a company to a State determined by the rules of private international law of each Member State are inevitably directed towards the Anglo-Saxon criterion of incorporation. The emergence of new European Union legal entities such as the European Company or the future European Private Company also raises the issue of nationality and the law applicable to this type of European legal entities. The same applies to groups of companies whose regulation of their activities could be revived under European Union law.