Talent Management (TM), as a new managerial concept with regard to Human Resource Management (HRM), has increasingly gained concern and attention from the academic as well as business world, but there are many gaps and omissions left for further theoretical development and empirical study. Hence, understanding the differences between TM and HRM becomes necessary. Given an absence of clarity in the literature, the aim of the present study is to gain a thorough understanding of TM among Multinational Corporations (MNCs) in Beijing, to explore to what extent this managerial idea represents anything new, and to find out why organisations adopt TM. A case study method was selected as the main research methodology. The study was undertaken in Beijing, and the target companies were limited to four MNCs, respectively from the IT (two organisations), health care and education industries, and three consultancy companies. The theoretical perspective largely draws upon the literature on TM, management fashion and institutional theory. Findings show that the topic of TM has been enthusiastically pursued. However, there is not a single concise definition shared by all the case study organisations, even though different strands of understanding regarding TM are explored in this study. The thesis has also explored what is distinctive about TM, and the factors and purposes influencing the adoption of TM in China. Through comparing HRM with literature and empirical findings relating to TM, this thesis has found that TM seems to presage some new approaches to the management of the people resource in organisations, rather than a simple repackaging of old techniques and ideas with a new label. Meanwhile, this thesis strongly challenges the idea that TM is another struggle by HR professionals to enhance their legitimacy, status and credibility. Therefore, TM should not be considered as ‘old wine in new bottles’, at least with respect to the case of MNCs in China.

The intense competition arising from globalisation requires MNCs to manage their HRs globally and strategically to become a source of competitive advantage. Hence, SIHRM acknowledges the need to balance global integration and local responsiveness, together with emphasising the importance of seeking strategic fit between HR policies and business strategy, which in turn leads to superior firm performance. Furthermore, this development also increased awareness and recognition of the role of senior managers and cultural traditions. Therefore, the primary purpose of this research was to explore the relationship between SIHRM effectiveness and firm performance as perceived by senior management coupled with the influence from MNCs' headquarters and Chinese cultural values. Consequently, the researcher selected a case study approach with a triangulation data collection method through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews undertaken in four selected subsidiaries of MNCs. The research findings strengthened the theoretical foundations of several HRM models, together with supporting Analoui's eight-parameter approach (1999) as a functional, coherent and interlinked framework regarding the effectiveness of senior managers. In particular, this research found that quality enhancement of products and service was the preferred and adopted key business strategy amongst the studied MNCs. Whilst they are also seeking to balance globalisation and localisation through reconciling control and adaptation rather than satisfying one at the expense of the other, such that the trend is for Western HR policies to be gradually accepted and internalised by the younger generation of the Chinese managers. Finally, this research made several recommendations to foreign MNCs operating in China.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the impact of various channels of technology spillovers on local innovative capacity at national and firm level. At national level, the thesis investigates the drivers of Malaysia‟s innovative capacity and the effect of international external sources on innovative capacity. At firm level, this thesis examines the impact of FDI on the innovation progress and studies whether multinational corporations (MNCs) can act as catalysts to stimulate local firms‟ innovation activities in Malaysia. Via a case study analysis at firm level, this thesis focuses on knowledge transfer through backward linkages established between MNCs and their local suppliers. Time series data analysis is conducted to provide empirical evidence of the effect of FDI spillovers on Malaysia‟s innovative capacity at national level. Additionally, a case-study approach is adopted to investigate the impact of vertical FDI spillovers on the innovation performance of local Malaysian firms. The key findings of the study reveal that export-related spillovers are positively associated with Malaysia‟s innovative capacity, whereas importrelated spillovers play a minor role in local innovation. The findings also indicate that there is no significant correlation between economic development and local innovation, which suggests that strong economic growth is not a necessary condition in order for Malaysia to enhance its local innovative capacity. The results suggest that there is strong evidence of the importance of foreign innovation activities to local innovative capacity at national level. In contrast, knowledge spillovers measured by FDI inflows have no significant impact on local innovative capacity. The results showed that FDI might be constrained by the fact that spillovers are more likely to take place through vertical relationships than horizontal relationships. At firm level, the study suggests that knowledge and technology can be diffused through high-quality and standard requirements imposed by MNCs, the assessment and feedback and training programmes offered by MNCs to local suppliers, as well as the production process itself. These results extend ii the existing literature on national innovative capacity and validate earlier theoretical and empirical research on vertical spillovers. The findings from the thesis also have important policy and managerial implications with regard to the impact of FDI on host developing countries.

International Human Resource Management (IHRM) plays a significant role in Multinational Corporation (MNC) management and governance, particularly when such organizations transfer policies and practices from their headquarters to subsidiaries overseas. However, there is some scepticism concerning the balance and coherence in the relationship between standardized systems set in MNC headquarters and the adapted practices in their subsidiaries. This may become evident when considering the factors that influence the design, conduct and related effectiveness of human resource practices such as performance management. This research explores the extent to which transferability of a model for performance management, initially based on western practice, is possible from China to Africa, taking into account the required adaptation of its specific Chinese characteristics to specific African conditions. It concludes that performance management can make an important and long-lasting contribution to Chinese MNCs in Africa and raise their competitiveness and efficiency, although significant challenges remain. In the exploration of the design and implementation of this HR practice in the headquarters and subsidiary contexts, the study evaluates the methods incorporated in performance management systems for their effective transfer and examines the key factors which concern stakeholders, including employee engagement, intercultural communication and sustainable impacts within a development context. The research develops an analytical framework for taking into account the context, the influential factors and the effectiveness criteria of performance management systems in Chinese MNCs when their IHRM practices are transferred into different contexts, with specific reference to an Africa case study context. The study establishes that in the contexts considered the benefits of standardized HR practices, such as performance management, may be gained most fully for both headquarters and subsidiary when these practices are set within a win-win frame for both parts of the organisation. One which is characterised by an appropriate balance of standardisation and adaptability.

This thesis examines and explains multinational employers' experiences of localized shortages of skilled process workers in Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP), China. It explains three challenges facing SIP employers in accessing sufficient skilled process workers and their responses within HRM to such challenges. These three challenges are employers' experiences with vocational education and training (VET) deficiencies in students' skill development, employers' experiences of poaching of skilled process workers by other companies, and employers' experiences of provision of workplace training for skilled process workers in their own companies. In response to these challenges, SIP employers have adopted various HRM measures that include differing combination of recruitment and selection, employee retention, training and development, and employment relations management. These policies and practices represent the different ways that SIP employers have attempted to meet the challenges of localized skill shortages in the context of their own business strategies.

The purpose of this thesis is to describe the behaviors that multinational corporations(MNCs) and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are taking for carrying outcorporate social responsibility (CSR) under the context of sustainable development.Besides, the factors which drive and influence the performance are further exploredand discussed.The thesis is to be analyzed by means of a literature review, qualitative case study,semi-structured interviews, within case study and cross case study.By adopting these methods, the thesis shows that both MNCs and SMEs are aware ofand actively shouldering CSR in spite of different contents and approaches. MNCs areable to integrate economic, environment and social values into CSR strategy whileSMEs focus more on economic values. Competitive pressures, social expectations andinternal governance system are the main drivers of MNCs. By contrast, owners’ desiregives rise to the performance of carrying out CSR strategy by SMEs.It is suggested that a new domain of CSR namely, political social responsibility isfound through the study. It demonstrates that MNCs with the state-owned nature haveparticular missions and responsibilities to serve the country and society, which is notcommon but exists in the world.

Purpose: Our purpose is to study how language proficiency and cross-cultural adaptation affect ethnically diverse teams in their cross-cultural communication competence. Methodology: The data was collected through six interviews of team members working in a product development project in a multinational company. The interviews were conducted in March of 2012. The data analysis followed an interpretative thematic analysis inspired by Boyatzis (1998). To analyze the data we have utilized some steps of the thematic analysis. With the analysis it was identified that ethnically diverse teams build language proficiency and cross-cultural adaptation. Findings: The findings from this research indicate that cross-cultural adaptation and language proficiency should be considered as important dimensions of cross-cultural communication competence within ethnically diverse teams. Language proficiency remains a challenge for many ethnically diverse teams and should be included in studies related to communication. Employees’ ability to adapt to the current environment and culture has an essential impact on team communication. Research limitations/implications: The research was done in a Multinational company based in Sweden within one team at Electrolux AB, therefore implications from our study may not be applicable to all ethnically diverse teams in Multinational companies globally.

The aim of this thesis is to critically examine and analyze multi-national corporation´s work with corporate social responsibility when it comes to environmental protection and sustainability. This study is therefore a case study, where empirical material about a multinational corporation, the company of Wärtsilä, is studied. These include annual sustainability reports and other official material available, as well as qualitative interviews with eight employees at Wärtsilä. This material is then analyzed through the theoretical framework of Corporate Social Responsibility (e.g., Caroll, 1979) and through the theory of Corporate Citizenship (Mirvis and Googins, 2006). The results show that Wärtsilä has come far when it comes to integrating and improving its product environmental performance, but there appears to be inconsistencies between the information collected from the reports etc. and the information gathered from the interviews. These inconsistencies show that there is a need for further integration of the goals for environmental protection and sustainability, presented in the official material, into all levels and departments of the company.

Contemporary studies in international management field conceptualize subsidiaries as semi-autonomous entities. By involving in entrepreneurial undertakings and strategic activities, subsidiaries could contribute strategic value to parent multinational corporation (MNC). Distinguishing from previous researches derived from entrepreneurship theory and done by Birkinshaw and his colleagues, this study incorporated human capital theory and knowledge-based view (KBV) to fulfill the existing research gap and enlarged our understanding of subsidiary entrepreneurship. This research proposed two models to unlock and testify the underexplored phenomenon of subsidiary entrepreneurship. In the first model, this research incorporated human capital management in MNCs context and testified that not merely top management team (TMT) entrepreneurial leadership and subsidiary entrepreneurial culture were critical antecedents of subsidiary¡¦s strategic initiative, but the human resource management (HRM) practices of subsidiary talent management played an important mediator to generate the entrepreneurial system. In the second model, this study demonstrated the cross-field integration and synthesis of entrepreneurial literatures, human capital theory and knowledge-based view and expressed a more comprehensive illustration of strategic entrepreneurship. This study certified that absorptive capacity could facilitate subsidiary¡¦s entrepreneurial culture and further enhance subsidiary¡¦s strategic initiative. Moreover, subsidiary¡¦s practices of talent management could facilitate its absorptive capacity and further contribute to subsidiary¡¦s strategic outputs. By analyzing the empirical data collected from 202 MNCs¡¦ foreign subsidiaries in Asian area, this study testified that the subsidiaries which could contribute strategic value creation for parent MNCs should equip multilayer of initiative-takings: the local distinctive capability, market initiative and knowledge outflow. Furthermore, the HRM practices of talent management in subsidiary played critical mediating role on both the development of organizational capability, improvement of absorptive capacity and the enhancement of subsidiary strategic initiative. TMT entrepreneurial leadership was the core engine which could activate subsidiary¡¦s mechanisms to facilitate the activities of strategic value creations.

SEW refers to the stock of affect-related values that an owning family derives from its family business. As a promising theoretical concept, the SEW has been used widely to explain the diverse strategic choices of family firms compared to non-family firms. However, little study has been done to measure SEW directly and to measure the effect of SEW on family firms’ strategic choices.     Within the context of family-owned Hidden Champions, this thesis study replicates the five-dimension model proposed by Berrone et al. in an empirical study to verify the psychometric measurement on the degree of SEW. Furthermore, internationalization has been chosen as an example to demonstrate the effects of SEW on family firms’ strategic choices and outcomes.   This study has verified the reliability and validity of the SEW scale and SEW’s five subscales constructed. Furthermore, the measurement on SEW and its five dimensions has been applied to examine the effects of SEW and its five dimensions on the internationalization of family firms. The findings reveal that SEW has a negative effect on the internationalization of family firms, which is mainly due to the negative effect of Family Control and Influence.