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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.

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.

Background: Subsidiaries to multinational enterprises encounter pressure to fit the national cultural context as well as to keep consistent with the global corporation. For a Swedish multinational enterprise to be able to seize business opportunities in Thailand, an important aspect to take into consideration is the difference in national culture. It is the responsibility of the leader in the Swedish subsidiary in Thailand to manage the multinational enterprise corporate culture while also taking into account the Thai national culture. Global leadership competencies can enable this, although there is a lack of a unified framework of global leadership competencies. Aim:  The aim of this study is to gain a deeper understanding as to which global leadership competencies leaders in subsidiaries to Swedish multinational enterprises in Thailand should possess in order to manage the Swedish corporate culture while taking Thai national culture into account.   Methodology: The study has applied a qualitative research strategy and an abductive research approach. The data has been obtained from eight semi-structured interviews with four Swedish companies present in Thailand. Conclusion: Through a deeper understanding of global leadership competencies, this study concludes and provides evidence of six global leadership competencies that are of extra importance for leaders in Swedish subsidiaries in Thailand when managing the Swedish corporate culture and taking the Thai national culture into account.

The growing importance of non-market considerations has led multinational corporations to globalize not just production and commercialization but also their corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives as nonmarket strategies. Scholars have shown that CSR can create intangible assets that help companies reduce their foreignness and gain competitive advantages over local rivals. To what extent multinational enterprises (MNEs) can transfer CSR initiatives to other locations is an important question. Prior research, focusing on the transfer of operational initiative, is silent on the transfer of practices that extend beyond the boundaries of the firm to influence the welfare of external stakeholders. This study builds a theory about the conditions that influence success and failure in the transfer of CSR initiatives from headquarters to overseas subsidiaries. Through a case study of an Indian multinational, qualitative data is combined with the formal logic of fuzzy set analysis. The findings reveal that it is the combination of practice characteristics and local contexts that influence the success of practice transfer. Specifically, I explore two characteristics of CSR initiatives that facilitate practice transfer: stakeholder multiplicity and ambiguity. The former denotes the degree to which a CSR initiative can serve more than one stakeholder and the latter denotes the degree to which a CSR initiative can be applied to multiple contexts in different ways. The analysis suggests that stakeholder multiplicity is a predictor of transfer success to countries where coordination among diverse social actors is easy to achieve. In contrast, in high-context culture locations where rapid coordination is less easy to achieve, the ambiguity of CSR initiatives is a more important predictor of transfer success.

Thesis advisor: Susanto Basu / This dissertation examines the fluctuations of the aggregate economy when frictions in financial markets are present. I focus on the the asymmetric information problems between creditors and debtors on the quality of debtor's projects and I analyze how these frictions cause the fluctuations in aggregate economy which is potentially inefficient. The first chapter examines the interaction between the perverse incentives and the general equilibrium effects of misallocated bank credit. This essay is intended to elucidate the mechanism of zombie lending in Japan. By incorporating a soft budget problem into a neo-classical dynamic general equilibrium model, the model shows that an inefficient zombie lending regime can be selected as an equilibrium. In this equilibrium, the incentives and the general equilibrium effects are interdependent. The inefficient use of resources crowds out investment when banks have incentives to bail out insolvent firms. On the other hand, the general equilibrium effects give rise to the perverse incentives endogenously through the formation of the liquidation value and the continuation value of insolvent firms. In the worst case, agents fail to resolve non-performing loan problems, and the model economy permanently falls into an inefficient regime. The second chapter proposes a model that generate boom-and-bust cycles by securitization of subprime mortgages. I construct a dynamic housing choice model in which mortgages are financed by securitization and I assume that creditors have errors in measuring the default risks of subprime mortgages. With this setup, the resource availability for housing fluctuates endogenously and it causes the boom-and-bust cycles. Particularly, there are two channels that change the resource availability: the security design of the securitized assets and the evolution of house price inflation. I illustrate that subprime mortgages can be cheaply financed by securitization when creditors mismeasure the quality of the subprime mortgages. This ignites a boom in the model. However, the boom can be terminated as the profitability of securitization declines along with the decline in the expectation of house price inflation. This is because the house price inflation is tied with the liquidation value of the defaulted mortgages. As the expectation of the house price inflation slows down, the subprime mortgages become more risky and the securitization becomes less profitable. Eventually, issuers of securitized assets withdraw from the securitization market and the boom collapses. The last chapter explores the transmission mechanisms of international business cycles when the borrowing capacity of multinational enterprises (MNEs) is limited. I embed MNEs that face borrowing constraints in a two-country international business cycle model. I show that the net worth of MNEs plays a significant role in generating the international business cycle co-movement: the wealth effect in response to the change in MNEs' net worth has a strong multiplier effect on domestic and foreign investment of MNEs. Output moves in the same direction between the two countries due to the synchronized investment. The model is also able to generate reasonable cross-country correlations in real estate price and consumption. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Economics.

<p>This research paper reviews the topic of Planning Integrated Advertising Campaigns – Multinational enterprises acting on national markets. It examines the relevant theoretical background, the country of Sweden and a concrete business case of the multinational enterprise Dr. Oetker and its activities on the Swedish market. After an introduction, the first section of this work outlines the theoretical framework which is a necessary base for the research topic. Resultant, two models are developed: one regarding campaign phases and another concerning influences on national environments. These frame the theoretical findings in a concentrated form. In the following section, the empirical findings regarding the country of Sweden and the investigated company Dr. Oetker are depicted. The focus lies on Dr. Oetker’s company structure and the consequential influence on the manner of advertising and on the operations on the Swedish market. The analysis reveals information which can be split into two parts. Initially the empirical findings are evaluated based on the theoretical framework. Subsequently, a phase model which combines the two previous models with the empirical findings is developed. Its objective is to guide multinational enterprises through the planning process for successful national advertising campaigns. After this thorough analysis, a conclusion and recommendations for further theoretical and practical studies are given.</p>

This research paper reviews the topic of Planning Integrated Advertising Campaigns – Multinational enterprises acting on national markets. It examines the relevant theoretical background, the country of Sweden and a concrete business case of the multinational enterprise Dr. Oetker and its activities on the Swedish market. After an introduction, the first section of this work outlines the theoretical framework which is a necessary base for the research topic. Resultant, two models are developed: one regarding campaign phases and another concerning influences on national environments. These frame the theoretical findings in a concentrated form. In the following section, the empirical findings regarding the country of Sweden and the investigated company Dr. Oetker are depicted. The focus lies on Dr. Oetker’s company structure and the consequential influence on the manner of advertising and on the operations on the Swedish market. The analysis reveals information which can be split into two parts. Initially the empirical findings are evaluated based on the theoretical framework. Subsequently, a phase model which combines the two previous models with the empirical findings is developed. Its objective is to guide multinational enterprises through the planning process for successful national advertising campaigns. After this thorough analysis, a conclusion and recommendations for further theoretical and practical studies are given.

With the development of the Internet and the globalization, corporate web site has played an important role for multinational enterprise. The corporate not only need to focus on the globalization of their web site, but also need to devote the localization of the web site to fit the local needs. This study adopted the qualitative research methods, and has interviewed with employees of a domestic leading computer manufacturer-E Company. The purpose of the study is to explore the pros and cons of the multinational team by using cross-cultural studies in the theoretical analysis. Base on the experiential case, this study discussed how the cross-cultural issues influence the cooperation of the multi-national team and to find out the best solution for managerial issues. The research conclusion summarized as below. 1. Low cultural difference result in better web site performance. If the communicate is positive, the web site consistency can be recognized. 2. When the cultural difference is low, instead of the rich medium of communication, the key factor is the context of communication. 3. The performance of web site consistency and localization are affected by the national cultural differences. The differences in cross-cultural communication will also affect the cost of web site. 4. The cross-cultural differences have the negative impact of web site performance, however, the richer communication medium, and the trust can help to reduce the negative impact of this issue. 5. If two parties cooperate under the cross-cultural differences, the lack of cultural awareness, language, cognition and awareness of space and time could easily lead to ineffective communication or misunderstanding, the project is also leading to poor results.