Offshore jurisdictions attempt to attract foreign capital to themselves by having lower financial regulatory requirements than other jurisdictions. By examining the literature and the latest data on financial flows, the thesis attempts to identify the sources of the powerful systematic causes and effects of Offshore. It does this by disaggregating elements of Offshore that are normally conflated. An eclectic theory based on elements of liberal international theory and world-system structuralism is constructed in order to clarify the role of Offshore in the international economy. The conclusions are that Offshore is an integral part of the current global economic system; that further research may reveal that Offshore serves hegemonic interests; that regulatory competition is likely to remain a part of the international economy for the foreseeable future; and that, by finding common interests among hegemons and others, the invidious Offshore element of secrecy has a serious chance of being curtailed so that systematic stability can be increased.

This thesis comprises three essays on international business strategy with regards to services and technology. The first essay investigates why the average expense ratio paid by Canadian mutual fund investors is 50% higher than that paid in U.S. This discrepancy is commonly thought to exist because Canadian funds do not take advantage of economies of scale and have less competition. A monopolistic competition framework is used to develop a model for the mutual fund industry. By allowing each fund to have different attributes, the model permits funds to charge different expense ratios in equilibrium and is found to strongly fit the North American mutual fund market. Empirical analysis indicates that these two common explanations and measurable fund attributes account for 15% of the discrepancy. The second essay analyses the U.S. mutual fund decision to enter the Canadian market through either foreign direct investment (FDI) or trade in advisement services. The total value of U.S.-controlled funds amounts to 18% of the Canadian equity fund market. This paper investigates how the fund-level and firm-level characteristics affect the channel used to enter the Canadian market. Empirical results indicate that the funds offered through FDI are not especially successful in the U.S. market but are associated with companies with large market shares, whereas the funds offered through trade in advisement services are highly successful in the U.S. market and are from companies with relatively few successful funds. The third essay compares the motivation for acquisition between foreign and domestic acquirers of U.S. drug companies, especially with regard to technology transfer. An estimation of the acquisition decision reveals that foreign acquirers choose targets with high research intensity more as their own intensity decreases while domestic acquirers choose targets with high research intensity more as their own intensity increases. Domestic acquirers' post-acquisition innovative productivity increases mostly due to efficiency of knowledge synthesis because the targets are usually have familiar product lines. Foreign acquirers' innovative productivity does not increase after acquisition because they tend to take over firms in unfamiliar research areas that are usually highly technical and require a long-term commitment of R&D.

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This paper analyzes the liberalization of Venezuela's foreign direct investment (FDI) laws. In the past, Venezuela placed tough restrictions upon the entry and operation of foreign investment. These restrictions were made possible as long as petroleum prices remained high and the country had access to cheap international bank loans. The debt crisis in the 1980s, a drop in commodity prices, and a decrease in international bank loans once again made FDI an attractive source of foreign capital. In order to attract greater FDI inflows, Venezuela began to liberalize its foreign investment laws in the mid-1980s. Despite these changes, FDI inflows into Venezuela have been erratic. This paper then discusses some of the adjustments Venezuela will have to make in order to attract greater foreign investment inflows, and ends with an examination of how the country can maximize FDI's contribution to its economic development.

Over the next 25 years the world is likely to see the largest shift in economic and political power for more than a century. Many of today's so-called industrial economies will be dwarfed by emerging markets due to the latter's faster economic growth rates. China is by far the most important emerging market, but as a result of its relatively recent opening to western investment, its vastness, diversity and its distinct culture, among other factors, it has been a particularly troublesome market for western companies to enter and succeed in. Companies wishing to invest in China have arguably not been particularly helped by the corporate strategy literature. This literature has been, to a great extent developed upon evidence derived from developed countries which may not relevant for the very different business terrain and context of emerging markets. Moreover, the China strategy literature has tended until recently to focus on the joint venture vehicle as corporate strategy and with much of this literature producing unclear or conflicting findings. Furthermore, there has been considerable corporate dissatisfaction with the investment results achieved by the more traditional forms of China corporate strategy, like the joint venture and the wholly foreign owned enterprise. / This thesis argues that China, by virtue of its particular environment and market characteristics, has generated a corporate strategy which can be defined as multiventuring (the setting up of a cluster of coherent, inter-related set of ventures) to enter and/or develop business in China. This thesis's exploration of an actual case study of multiventuring provides new insight and knowledge on this new form of corporate strategy for China, and possibly for other emerging markets. / This thesis is concerned with how a western company enters and/or develops its business in the large but complex emerging market of China. It examines the new corporate strategy of multiventuring and argues that under certain conditions, it could be an attractive China corporate strategy, and better able to deal wtih China's complex environment and particular market characteristics than the more traditional corporate strategies, which to date have yielded mixed results. / Thesis (MPhD)--University of South Australia, 2007.

Capital movement of foreign direct investment (FDI) as both a causative and consequential feature of economic globalisation has emerged as an influential factor of urban growth. It is also the main vehicle of China's global integration. However, there is a lack of knowledge about the impact of FDI on urban planning and the transformation of large cities in China and elsewhere in the world. / This research is devoted to investigating the urban impact of globalisation, focusing on impact of FDI and using Shanghai for case study. It theoretically integrated the global urban network with the theories of FDI: the 'OLI' and investment development path (IDP) and provided the first empirical insight into the intra-urban location of different forms of FDI and the way that FDI, urban planning and local social-economic factors have together reshaped the city. It advances the current understanding of the urban impact of global forces, previously confined to either the macro-economic level of a city of the micro-economic level of foreign firms, as well as the internal restructuring of China's large cities as a result of global integration. / An historical approach has been applied to discern the relationships between the political and economic context and the urban planning agenda, highlighting the features of socialist urban planning and the strategies adopted to pursue and respond to global integration. / The features that direct the location of FDI are discerned and discussed in terms of the interaction between global and local factors. The location of FDI and the consequential urban transformation of the city is graphically illustrated and discussed. Case studies explain further the interplay between FDI and urban planning as well as the consequential growth patterns. / Shanghai has changed substantially with the growing proliferation of FDI, particularly since the city has become the focus of China adopting an open door policy in the 1990s. The land market and other tertiary industries have been opened to foreign investors. The mega FDI-oriented planning project of Pudong has also been undertaken. The role of FDI as both a developer and consumer has been very influential in directing the physical growth, breaking with previous patterns established by centralised control. The location of service FDI has been shaped by the market and has dramatically concentrated on the inner city. Manufacturing FDI, facilitated by preferential policies, has focused on suburban industrial parks designated by governments. / With the differential concentration of FDI in different areas, the socialist effort to homogenise the social and spatial arrangement of the inner city has been disrupted. The Comprehensive Metropolitan Plan for the city's development between 1982 and 2000 was undermined by conflicting interests between different levels of governments, particularly local government eager for foreign investment. The old CBD, the new planned regions facilitated by preferential policies and areas to facilitate FDI in the inner city have emerged as office centres both to extend China's global links and to cater to foreign interests. In doing so, planning proposals in these regions have often been undermined. The suburbs have been industrialised by increasing foreign and domestic manufacturing activities. The previous expansion of urban districts has replaced by the designation of Special Economic Zone with planned FDI-oriented themed parks in Pudong and newly designated urban districts scattered with industrial parks. / Foreign development interests have often called the tune in the transformation of the city. While foreign investors have sought certainty under the urban planning regime, planning itself has been undermined. Planning innovations have been implemented only to the extent that they are congruent with interests of FDI. The harmonising of global and local interests has become the main objective of urban planning into an increasingly invidious position, as it has more and more been called upon to support development interests of global sectors while remaining a legitimate force in the shaping of the city. / Thesis (PhD)--University of South Australia, 2003.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2007. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 120-127). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Graduate School of Management, 2001. / Bibliography: leaves 303-339.