跨國企業的發展已建構出一個極為龐大的全球商業體系，其涵蓋了全球生產總值的25％，國際貿易行為的65％，國際技術貿易的60％至70％，產品研發的80％至90％，換言之跨國企業實際上掌握了全球的國際貿易與技術研發。而過往跨國企業多群集於技術領先之處進行海外研發活動，近年來卻轉往以亞洲為主的開發中國家。其中OECD甚至表示跨國企業對於中國研發的投入已經使中國在2006年超越日本，成為研發投入全球第二的國家。 因此本論文便以此為出發點，希冀瞭解跨國企業國際投資行為，並將以跨國企業（摩托羅拉、諾基亞）在中國的投資行為為觀察對象，以瞭解跨國企業如何應對東道國之產業政策，以及如何利用東道國的政策法令、市場地位來極大化其跨國經營的效益，並在最後以臺灣廠商（明基）在中國的研發佈局為對照，指出臺灣廠商未來可以努力的方向。研究後所得整理如下： 1.跨國企業進入資本輸入國的型態已經呈現多元化的趨勢，多數的國際投資開始藉由離岸公司或是多國籍的方式進入資本輸入國。 2.資本輸入國時常會利用法令政策為手段來培植齊國內產業，而跨國企業也會藉由合資、併購等手段來避開資本輸入國法令政策的羈絆。 3.對於中國3G標準（TD-SCDMA）跨國企業之參與不遺餘力。 4.研發行為全球化型態已經成為目前跨國企業研發的方式，藉由建立全球研發管理平台跨國企業更能掌握全球資源。 5.臺灣廠商應盡力往技術研發方向佈局，並應盡力建立跨國研發管理平台，避免一味的追逐製造行為以為滿足，以免在中國本土廠商技術提升之後，淪為替人家代工或是必須遷往成本更低廉的地方。 / The development of Transitional Corporations has already created an enormously complicated business structure in the world. It includes 25％of the gross world product, 65％of the international trade, 60％~70％of the international technology licensing, 80％~90％of the R&D. In other words, Transitional Corporations has manipulated the trade and R＆D activities of the world. Moreover, Transitional Corporations are now spreading their R&D activities to developing countries（mainly in Asia）. OECD even mentioned that China will surpass Japan by the end of 2006 in R&D spending to become the world's second R&D investor after United States. This thesis examines the international investment strategies of Transitional Corporations. We discuss the international investment law and the foreign investment legal system in China（host country in this thesis）first. Then we focus on the investment strategies of Motorola and Nokia in China to realize how they arrange their R&D centers in China and how they deal with the policies of the host country to maximize their investment interests. In conclusion, we study the investment strategies of BenQ in China to give Taiwan corporations some advice about their international investment strategies. Our conclusions are as followed： 1.Transitional Corporations enter into the host country with diversified nationalities and through the establishment of offshore company. 2.The host country will have certain policies to foster their own industries, Transitional Corporations should use Joint Venture company or M＆A action to evade this kind of restrictions. 3.Transitional Corporations spare no effort to affect and join the development of 3G standardization（TD-SCDMA）in China. 4.Globalization R&D has played a major role in the R&D model of Transitional Corporations. Through the built of international R&D management platform, Transitional Corporations are more capable of controlling their global resources. 5.Taiwan Corporations should focus their investment on valuable activities, such as R&D, instead of just pursing manufacture interests.

Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / Over the years, the world economy has experienced growth in foreign direct investments (FDI), with the role of developing countries becoming more evident as both recipients and investors alike. The proliferation of international investment has also led to more bilateral investment treaties (BITs) with their complex and often duplicated rules. The increase in BITs of this complex nature has thus resuscitated a less publicly debated course, although recently discussed within the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development (UNCTAD), is there need for multilateral agreement on investment (MAI), hosted within the multilateral institution(s)? Since the late 1990s, the discussion as to whether international investments require the MAI has been characterised by diverging interests of developed and developing countries, with neither willing to concede. Even in the immediate post-War II period, this standoff between developed and developing countries has dominated a discourse on whether there is a need for an international agreement on international investment. Yet developing countries, or African countries classified as least developing, continue to be left out of MAI discussions. For example, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) 1990's proposed plurilateral agreement excluded African countries.

The purpose of this thesis is to offer a complex analysis of newly rising concept of the environmental provisions, with a particular emphasis on China and its deteriorating state of environment. The thesis is composed of eight chapters. The first chapter deals with the core problem of the environmental provisions, that is the colliding nature of the efforts to implement the environmental regulation in the international investment law. The following two chapters address the legal framework of the environmental provisions and the main actors in the field. Chapter four is concerned with the analysis of the material and formal sources of Chinese domestic environmental and investment law, which has been amended recently in reaction to the dramatically deteriorating environment in the country and which prompted the proliferation and greenization of the Chinese bilateral investment treaties. Chapter five proceeds with the analysis of the environmental provisions, their genesis, terminological delimitation and introduction of their typologies. The sixth chapter is dedicated to the analysis of the approach of China towards environmentally responsible investing. Chapter seven proceeds with detailed explanation of the particular types of the environmental provisions, which have been incorporated into the...

Magister Legum - LLM

The objective of the thesis is to analyze the external economic stability of the Slovak republic. First part of the thesis explains fundamental theories of the balance of payments, its structure and equalizing mechanisms. The analysis of the external economic stability is based on the development of the balances of payments between the years 2000 and 2008. The analysis of the external debt and the international investment position are also involved to complete the image of the Slovak external economic stability.

Cette thèse est composée de trois essais, chacun contribuant à mieux comprendre la façon dont différents types de relations politiques affectent les stratégies d'expansion internationale et la performance des entreprises. Le premier essai examine le rôle des relations politiques comme modérateur de la relation entre les attributs du pays hôte et le choix d’investir dans ce pays par des entreprises. Nous examinons le cas des premiers investissements dans les pays concernés par des entreprises du secteur manufacturier au cours de la période 2003-2010. Les autres essais examinent le rôle des relations politiques comme antécédents directs des décisions et des performances des stratégies d'expansion internationale des entreprises. Le deuxième essai étudie l’influence des différents types de relations politiques dans l’ampleur et le profil de risque des investissements internationaux des entreprises. Enfin, le troisième essai analyse le rôle des connexions politiques en tant que facteur explicatif de la capacité des entreprises à accélérer le financement et le développement de leurs projets. Les deux derniers essais sont testés sur une base de données originale recensant les relations politiques dont bénéficient les plus grandes entreprises françaises au cours de la période 2003-2012. / This dissertation is composed of the three essays, each contributing to address part of the puzzle regarding how different types of political connections affect firms’ international expansion strategies and performance. The first essay examines how political connections moderate the relationship between host country attributes and international strategy in a sample of greenfield investments in manufacturing during the 2003-2010 period. The second and third essays examine how political connections directly impact a firm’s international expansion strategies and performance. The second essay investigates the role of different types of political connections on a firm’s international investments amount and risk profile. Finally, the third essay analyzes the role of political connections as an explanatory factor of firms’ ability to accelerate the provision of funding and development of their project finance-based investments. Both the latter two essays rely on an original dataset on various political connections enjoyed by the largest French firms during the 2003-2012 period.

This doctoral dissertation studies the effect of economic integration on the performance of firms. The ongoing process of global economic integration has been characterized by dismantling of trade barriers and openness to foreign direct investments (FDI). These changes have not only brought opportunities to firms in terms of market access and the possibility to learn about foreign technologies brought in by foreign counterparts. The new economic environment has also posed new challenges through a greater competitive pressure urging firms to continuously align their production patterns to more efficient business practices. The agility of firms to adjust to external shocks, and hence the potential of countries to benefit from economic integration, does presumably not only depend on the internal assets of firms but may also be influenced by government policies and national institutional settings. This conceptual background constitutes the storyline of the doctoral dissertation.<p><p>Chapter 1 of the dissertation is a step forward in understanding the externalities of foreign direct investments on the economic performance of domestic firms. During the late eighties and early nineties, Spain saw an upswing in foreign direct investments that placed the economic at the top of FDI recipients in Europe. To provide fresh insights into the firm-levels responses to FDI, Chapter 1 investigates the effects of foreign direct investment on the productivity of domestic firms within the same sector of activity as foreign firms, and whether FDI externalities differed depending on their level of technology. The empirical results show that foreign presence had an overall positive effect on the productivity growth of domestic firms. The gains were not, however, evenly distributed across firms. Firms closer to the frontier benefited more from FDI than firms far from the technology frontier. <p><p>A further integration of the world economy with new economic actors, like China and India, has highlighted the need for European firms to climb the quality ladder and shift towards high value added products and greater flexibility in delivering new products in order to survive new competitive threats. Chapter 2 is a theoretical and empirical examination of the role of innovation for the export activities of firms. The intuition is that firms through innovation enhance their access to foreign markets by improving cost competitiveness and the quality of products. The Chapter builds on previous literature to develop a trade model in which firms differ in their propensity to innovate and export based on their underlying productivity. The empirical results, in line with the theoretical model, suggest a positive effect of innovation on the probability of participation in export markets.<p><p>The innovative activities of firms may not only depend on their internal assets, but presumably also on their relations with other actors in the national innovation systems. To understand better the role of firms’ relations with the science sector, Chapter 3 turns to one of the major producers of knowledge –universities- and investigates the factors that contribute to the successful transfer of knowledge from universities to the market. The results from Chapter 3 show that universities with established technology transfer policies, procedures, and large and experienced technology transfer offices perform better. <p><p>Previous chapters demonstrate that innovation gives a competitive edge to firms exploring foreign markets. Chapter 4, which is joint work with economists from France’s central bank, investigates how credit market imperfections affect the expansion and survival of firms in foreign markets, which is essential for the design of policies stimulating aggregate trade and competitiveness. Chapter 4 develops a theoretical model to study the impact of credit constraints on the number of newly served export destinations by firms and their exits from the export market and tests it using French firm-level data. The results show that credit constraints negatively affect the number of newly created export relations and have a negative effect on the probability of exit from the export market.<p> / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

La relation entre droit international des investissements et patrimoine culturel a fait l’objet de rares études et réflexions, et ce uniquement de manière récente. D’une part, le droit international des investissements a connu une croissance et un développement considérables uniquement dans les dernières trois décennies. D’autre part, comme certains auteurs l’ont souligné, le patrimoine culturel a un statut quelque peu ‘incertain’ en droit international. À la lumière des rares études sur ce sujet, qui généralement mettent en évidence les rapports conflictuels et ambigus entre droit international des investissements et patrimoine culturel, la thèse s’est proposée d’analyser la relation existant entre la réglementation internationale des investissements étrangers et le patrimoine culturel dans se multiples expressions, et cela aussi bien sur le plan des règles substantielles que du contentieux et de la résolution des différends d’investissements concernant la culture. L’idée que la relation entre les investissements étrangers et le patrimoine, réglés par le droit international de manière et amplitude différentes, puisse apporter des avantages mutuels a servi de prémisse générale pour toutes les études menées dans le cadre de la thèse. Parmi les investissements, les investissements étrangers revêtent une grande importance dans les périodes de crise économique et de difficulté à rassembler les ressources nécessaires à préserver le patrimoine. Les investissements sont donc vitaux pour la culture. Cela ne contredit pas l’idée qu’il existe des situations de ‘conflit’, quand les activités économiques peuvent potentiellement causer des dommages et/ou représenter un danger pour le patrimoine. Les recherches et les analyses effectuées ont montré que les traités en matière d’investissements contiennent souvent plusieurs dispositions concernant la culture et le patrimoine culturel. En matière de litiges, les différends d’investissement ont impliqué ou touché aux formes et expressions les plus variées de la culture : des sites UNESCO patrimoine de l’humanité aux industries culturelles, aux lieux de mémoire et au patrimoine des communautés indigènes. En outre, d’une façon quelque peu surprenante et inattendue mais significative, les règles qui protègent les investisseurs internationaux ont été invoquées par des investisseurs qui avaient réalisé des investissements dans les biens et ‘ressources’ culturelles ainsi que pour défendre les activités économiques relatives au « capital culturel » des communautés indigènes. Les diverses études conduites dans le cadre de la présente thèse ont permis de montrer plusieurs aspects et facettes de la relation entre investissements étrangers et patrimoine et de tirer diverses conclusions. Les recherches effectuées ont montré la nécessité d’investissements étrangers pour la protection, sauvegarde, conservation et valorisation de chaque expression culturelle, et les avantages d’une interaction entre régulation internationale des investissements et patrimoine culturel : la relation symbiotique entre droit international des investissements et patrimoine culturel a été démontrée. Cette première réflexion conclusive « soulève » un deuxième élément : il existe, dans le droit international de la culture et du patrimoine, un espace légitime et ample réservé au droit international des investissements. Symétriquement, l’arbitrage d’investissements peut représenter un instrument valide de résolution des différends en matière de patrimoine. Enfin, on peut soutenir que l’intersection des règles internationales en matière d’investissements étrangers avec les règles internationales en matière culturelle peut être déterminante dans la création, ou soutenir la présence, d’un système qui tienne compte – à travers des standards précis de transparence, légalité et légitimité – de l’ensemble des intérêts impliqués. / The relationship between international investment law and cultural heritage has commanded little attention and only recently. Certainly, international investment law has become one of the most prominent branches of international law. Its development has been strictly connected to the soaring growth of bilateral treaties on the promotion and protection of foreign investment and free trade agreements with foreign investment chapters. n turn, the status and place of cultural heritage under international law has grown, significantly progressing from some provisions included in international humanitarian conventions on the protection of heritage during armed conflicts. In light of the few studies existing on the subject of this thesis, which have in general concluded that conflictual and ambiguous relations exist between international investment law and cultural heritage, this thesis proposes to analyze this relation from both the substantive and dispute settlement standpoints. The idea that the relation between foreign investment and cultural heritage, regulated in different ways and ‘intensities’ by international law, could be positive was a general premise for all the research. Indeed, among investments, foreign investments have a great importance in a moment of economic crisis and difficulty in finding appropriate resources to safeguard heritage. Investments are hence vital for culture. The researches and analyses carried out for the thesis have shown that investment treaties often contain a number of provisions concerning culture and cultural heritage. With regard to international disputes, investment disputes have involved or touched upon different cultural forms and expressions: from UNESCO sites to cultural industries, to lieux de mémoire and indigenous communities’ heritage. Further, quite surprisingly, the international rules protecting foreign investors have sometimes been invoked, or resorted to, by subjects that had invested specifically in cultural ‘resources’ or to protect economic activities based on indigenous communities’ culture. The studies and researches carried out for this thesis have made it possible to reach and demonstrate a number of conclusions. First, the researches carried out have demonstrated that foreign investments are necessary to protect, safeguard, preserve and promote any form of cultural expression, and a strong interaction exists between the international regulation of foreign investments and cultural heritage. It has thus been shown that there exists a symbiotic relationship between international investment law and cultural heritage. Second, it has been possible to prove that, within international culture and cultural heritage law, there exists a ‘legitimate space’ for international investment law. Symmetrically, international investment arbitration can represent a valid cultural dispute settlement mechanism. Lastly, it is possible to assert that merging international rules on foreign investments and international rules on culture or cultural heritage can lead to create, or support the existence of, a more transparent, legitimate and rule-of-law-based system. In the light of all these considerations, the research, analysis and reflection carried out for the thesis has demonstrated how positive the relation between international investment law and cultural heritage can be fro states and the society. This, without denying any potentially negative effect. One might hope that the results obtained allow to adapt any practice in the field of culture. The protection of cultural heritage can indeed be strongly enhanced through the regulation of foreign investment.

No description available.

Cette thèse porte sur deux espaces juridiques différents : celui des droits de l’homme et celui des investissements étrangers. Le centre de gravité de notre recherche étant défini géographiquement en Amérique latine, le but est d’analyser l’articulation de ces deux espaces juridiques en identifiant et étudiant la circulation normative dans sa dimension horizontale, c'est-à-dire reposant sur le cadre normatif international. L’interaction entre le droit international des investissements et les droits de l’homme est une problématique récente, qui a commencé à attirer l’attention de la communauté internationale et a mis en évidence les avantages et les limites de leur articulation. En effet, les États sont tenus de protéger, respecter et garantir tous les droits de l’homme indépendamment des classifications dont ils font l’objet. Concomitamment, les Etats doivent aussi suivre les obligations relatives aux investissements étrangers déduites des accords en la matière. Le respect de ces deux types d’obligations peut opérer sans poser de problèmes de coordination, ou, au contraire, dans certaines hypothèses, une concurrence de ces deux types d’engagements peut apparaître. De ce fait, l’identification de leurs points de rencontre ainsi que de leurs points d’achoppement devra être menée pour atteindre l’objectif principal de notre analyse défini par l’articulation de ces deux domaines du droit international. La pratique témoigne des implications que les activités d’investissements ont de temps en temps vis-à-vis des droits de la personne, ce qui invite à analyser l’interaction entre ces deux régimes juridiques. C’est ainsi que quelques nouveaux modèles de traités d’investissements commencent à mentionner expressément la protection des droits de l’homme. De la même manière, l’arbitrage international est de plus en plus occupé par des questions concernant les points de rencontre et d’achoppement entre les deux régimes. Ainsi, la jurisprudence arbitrale traite la question, mais souvent de façon timide et hétérogène, et la plupart du temps par le biais d’interprétations privilégiant la protection des droits de l’investisseur sur toute autre question relevant des droits des différentes personnes affectées par l’investissement. La lecture de cette même situation dans l’enceinte contentieuse des droits de l’homme du système interaméricain est souvent divergente, car ceux-ci sont appliqués et interprétés en concordance avec des principes spécifiques et privilégiant l’essence humaniste qui distingue la matière. Ces divergences d’interprétation risquent de s’approfondir du fait de la spécificité des structures régionales participant à la création et au développement du droit international des investissements et des droits de l’homme. En Amérique latine, région reconnue pour ses contrastes, des approches régionales particulières se sont développées autour de la question du traitement et de la protection des étrangers par le biais des doctrines Calvo et Drago, ainsi que de l’interprétation régionale de plusieurs droits dans le cadre du système interaméricain de protection des droits de l’homme. Ces approches particulières ont bâti des traditions juridiques latino-américaines, dans les matières respectives, qui ont évolué dans le temps et se confrontent avec le cadre juridique international de l’investissement étranger. Cette situation de possible fragmentation juridique se nourrit de la création des nouveaux centres de décision et d’institutions régionaux comme l’UNASUR, l’ALBA et plus récemment la CELAC. De ce fait, elle nous invite à approfondir la question de l’articulation des régimes juridiques en l’étudiant sous le prisme de la tradition juridique latino-américaine. / This thesis addresses two different legal areas: Human Rights and foreign investment protection. The focal point of our research is Latin America, and the objective is to analyze the articulation of the above-mentioned legal areas, while identifying and studying the circulation of legal norms in their horizontal dimension, in other words, in the framework of international law. The interaction of foreign investment law and human rights is recent, and is a subject that has begun to attract the attention of the international community and to display the advantages and limits in their articulation In fact, States have to protect, respect and guarantee Human Rights, regardless of the classification they are subject to. At the same time, States must also comply with their obligations to protect foreign investment in their territories derived from international treaties that they are part of. Compliance with these two types of obligations can take place without implying any coordination problems, but in other cases, it could also cause these obligations to clash. We will aim to identify common points in both regimes, as well as conflict areas in order to determine the articulation between these two areas of international law. In fact, practice reflects the implications that investment activities sometimes have on human rights, and invites to analyze the interactions between these two regimes. This is how some new model agreements promoting and protecting foreign investment have begun to expressly refer the protection of human rights. In the same way, international arbitration has been increasingly dealing with questions concerning the common areas, as well as the diverging points of these two regimes. In effect, arbitral jurisprudence deals with this interaction, but often times in a timid and heterogeneous way, and in the majority of the cases biased by interpretations that privilege the rights of investors over any other question relative to rights of other persons affected by the investment. In light of human rights jurisprudence, this situation often receives a different understanding, due to the fact that human rights are interpreted and applied in accordance with specific principles, and placing greater importance on the humanistic essence that distinguishes the area. These differences in the interpretation may deepen, taking into account the specificity of regional structures that participate in the creation and development of international investment law and international human rights law. Concerning Latin America, bearing in mind the contrasts that depict the region, it has featured particular approaches with regard to the treatment of foreign investors, greatly influenced by the Calvo and Drago doctrines, as well as by regional interpretations within the framework of the Inter-American system of human rights. These interpretations have built Latin American legal traditions in the matter that have evolved over time, and can be evaluated against the international investment juridical framework. This landscape of possible legal fragmentation is nourished by the creations of new decision-making centers and regional institutions such as the UNASUR, ALBA, and more recently the CELAC. This question calls us to deepen the study of the articulation of these two legal regimes, under the prism of the Latin American legal tradition.