The research deals with the extent to which multi-national corporation rely on Taiwan subsidiaries¡¦ knowledge resource while operating their capital in subsidiaries in Mainland China. From the interview of the case study, there are three major driving forces affecting parent companies to count on their Taiwan subsidiaries, forces such as specific of parent companies, resource specific of Taiwan subsidiaries and local resource specific in Mainland China, Regarding specific of parent companies, the following factors effect the extent to which parent companies depend on Taiwan subsidiaries¡¦ knowledge resource:1.entry mode 2.experience in Chinese markets 3.The scope of value activities 4. the human resource exercise. Regarding resource specific of Taiwan subsidiaries, the following factors effect the extent to which parent companies depend on Taiwan subsidiaries¡¦ knowledge and resource.1.the strategic roles 2.strive actively to develop 3.industries 4. vertical and horizontal mode of value activities Regarding specific of local resource qualities in Mainland China, the following factors increase the extent to which parent companies depend on Taiwan subsidiaries¡¦ knowledge and resource.1.culture distance 2.uncertainty of local political and economic environment 3.industry value system of the local environment 4.local appropriate talent and the cost

South African Multinational Corporations (MNCs) are expanding their operations and seeking investment opportunities elsewhere bedsides South Africa. Some of these opportunities present themselves in unfamiliar environments which are politically risky nonetheless South African MNCs continue to invest in such countries. The aim of this research paper is to establish the impact of political risk on foreign direct investment decisions by South African MNCs. The paper seeks to establish key political risk factors that South African MNCs consider prior to investing in a country deemed politically risky. Once they have indentified these political risk factors, what are the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) drivers attracting them to a specific country despite its political climate? The paper attempts to understand the decision making process of MNCs when seeking to invest in a politically risky country and to what extent do MNCs involve the incumbent government and other local stakeholders in this process. Lastly the paper seeks to establish how MNCs manage the impact of political risk in a country.A qualitative research methodology with an exploratory design was used to collect the data. In-depth face-to-face interviews were conducted with eight representatives from South African MNCs which are doing business in politically risky countries.The results reveal that political risk has a significant impact on the FDI decision making process of South African MNCs and how they go about conducting this process has a far reaching impact on the success of the MNC in a politically risky country. Conducting a thorough political environment assessment is critical, by engaging the incumbent government and all relevant stakeholders is key when seeking to invest in politically risky countries. Politics drive economics therefore one cannot separate economics and politics. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

The major purpose of study is to know the main human resource function role which is performed currently by the subsidiary of Multinational Corporation (MNC) in Taiwan and the concept of multiple-role model is adopted in the study. This study is done by the quantative survey to find out the factors which could influence the human resource function role and the current multiple-role model, meanwhile the cluster analysis is used to investigate the main model of current human resource function role. Human resource activities within the subsidiary of MNC in Taiwan are influenced by both external and internal environments, because there¡¦re many environmental factors to be considered and they are not easy to be controlled, so the study focuses on the discussion of the variables of internal environment in the organization. According to the characters of the variables, the study divides the variables into organization character and management character to investigate the influence of internal environment on human resource function role. After passing through the examination and analysis , the study result is presented as here below: 1. The major human resource function role performed by current subsidiary of MNC in Taiwan is Administrative Expert, the next is Strategic Partner, Change Agent and the last is Employee Champion. It represents that the human resource department of the subsidiary of MNC in Taiwan still do lots of works in the administration. But it¡¦s also found from the result that the roles of Strategic Partner and Change Agent are elevated after comparing with the previous studies. So it¡¦s assumed the position of human resource department becomes higher, human resource department involves more in the strategic management. 2. The cluster analysis is used in this study to evaluate the multiple-role model of Business Partner. The samples in the study are divided into 3 groups and named as High Level Business Partner, Middle Level Business Partner, and Low Level Business Partner. 3. The study finds that two variables, ¡§the position of human resource supervisor¡¨ and ¡§if human resource supervisor joins the management team¡¨, influence the performing level of human resource role.

The primary goal of the current study is to develop a more advanced model of information-seeking behaviors. For achieving this goal, it paid attention to two social phenomena characterizing contemporary society: informationalization and globalization. First, focusing on these two influential phenomena, this study investigated how individual-level factors—information overload, information ambiguity, and goal orientations—affected information-seeking behaviors among employees in a multinational corporation. Next, in addition to these individual predictors of information-seeking behaviors, this study explored the effects of two team-level factors—team task interdependence and team tenure—on the relationships between the main predictors and information-seeking behaviors. Last, paying more attention to the multicultural context, this study investigated how these employees in a multinational corporation seek task and feedback information from two culturally different sources: American direct advisors and Korean expatriates. In order to more thoroughly investigate the roles of the cultural backgrounds of information sources, this study explored how American employees perceived the cultural backgrounds of the two culturally different sources and how such perceptions influenced those employees’ information-seeking behaviors. / text

This diploma thesis is dealing with integration of employees in multicultural environment. It defines terms related to the subject: culture, company culture, working group, intercultural communication and intercultural integration. It contains analysis of real multicultural environment, represented by one team of IBM office in Brno. In the end, this thesis offers some improvements for better efficiency of intercultural integration in this team.

The research regarding best practice transfer complexity is limited and mainly focused on a Western perspective. Thereby, it overlooks the emerging market context. Further, previous research has not examined the constraints affecting the transfer success from several dimensions. Therefore, this thesis aims at answering what the main constraints are to a successful best practice transfer from a Swedish multinational corporation headquarter to a Chinese subsidiary. Additionally, this thesis aims to examine how these constraints affect the transfer success from both a process and outcome perspective. In order to investigate this, the theoretical framework explains the potential internal and external constraints that can affect the transfer and defines success. This study was conducted through a qualitative case study based on a Swedish regional HQ’s transfer to its Chinese subsidiary. The data was mainly collected through semi-structured interviews with respondents from both Sweden and China. Conclusively, the findings showed that relational, organizational and contextual constraints were present. However, the qualitative research showed that there are often trade-offs between constraints and their effect on success, which previously have not been shown in quantitative research. In addition, the results suggest that the context is important to acknowledge when transferring best practices.

Cross-sector social partnerships have become a widely used instrument to work towards sustainable development and especially to deal with social issues. However, research on this phenomenon commonly addresses possible solutions directly, without a deeper analysis of the underlying obstacles and possibilities. The purpose of this study is to fill this gap by exploring the obstacles and possibilities for cross-sector social partnerships in achieving sustainable development. To do so, an empirical case study of a multinational mining corporation and its partners is conducted. Data is gathered from seven semi-structured interviews. The study shows that cross-sector social partnerships (CSSPs) are used by the interviewees to address social issues. Interviews are conducted with actors in different sectors who have relationships with the multinational corporations, this allows a diverse data collection. The study provides analytical results by identifying the obstacles and possibilities that are significant to the collaborations among partners, that is to say the CSSPs. Thus, three main obstacles are found: ​power imbalance, diverging focus and lack of trust among partners​. Whereas, three main possibilities are identified: ​optimism towards future development, broader involvement and more frequent & constructive dialogue​. The study also provides insights on partners at different influential levels and thereby makes a contribution to existing literature. From a practical perspective, understanding the underlying obstacles and possibilities could help to make the partnerships more effective.

This master thesis focuses on the process of globalization and its consequences that allowed for the formation of multinational corporations. The current environment is characterized by the fast pace of changes that requires firms react flexibly, which demands new approaches to managing employees, creating more flexible organizational structures supporting creative people, and innovation because people and innovations are the key sources of competitive advantages. The goal of this thesis is to analyze changes at O2 after Spanish telecommunications firm Telefónica S.A. sold a majority stake to PPF in 2013. The changes associated with the switch in ownership can chiefly be seen in the firm's goals, its organizational structure, its policy toward employees, in customer satisfaction, and in its investments and share price.

Background: Cross-sector social partnership (CSSP) is a joint effort that utilizes resources from different sectors to solve social issues, such as poverty, pandemics and environmental degradation. According to the United Nations, the environmental tipping point of global warming is soon reached, and to avoid this irreversible situation, the collaboration between state and non-state actors is a requirement. With extended resources gained from different sectors, the outcome of the CSSP is greater than if the actors were handling issues by themselves. Problem: There is a growing trend of CSSPs that strive to mitigate climate change, and the Climate Council of Jönköping is a practical example of this phenomenon. Multinational corporations (MNCs) have a large environmental impact and therefore they have a special responsibility to contribute to communities’ efforts to tackle climate change. Furthermore, within CSSP literature, additional research of corporations’ roles in CSSPs has been suggested. Purpose: Considering the increased focus on partnership practices, along with research gaps and complex CSSP elements, the purpose of this thesis is to investigate how MNCs contribute to the CSSP, the Climate Council of Jönköping. Method: Descriptive research was used to describe how MNCs contribute to a CSSP. With an abductive approach, deeper knowledge about the Climate Council of Jönköping as a phenomenon was gained. Empirical data was collected through a qualitative study, consisting of observational research and in-depth interviews, which was analyzed by making use of template analysis. The MNCs of the Climate Council of Jönköping are Castellum, GARO, Husqvarna Group, IKEA, and Skanska. Conclusion: The major conclusion of this study is that the MNCs perceive that their task within the Climate Council of Jönköping is to be a role model and to exchange ideas and knowledge regarding sustainability with other actors. Within CSSP literature, trust among actors, clearly-defined roles, and bridging each other’s weaknesses, are central concepts. The findings about the MNCs deviate from this, as all these factors are not identified. This suggests that the Climate Council of Jönköping and the MNCs do not contribute to public value and mitigating climate change as much as they possibly could.

Le travail de thèse porte sur l’innovation inverse et ses particularités managériales et organisationnelles au sein d’une filiale d’entreprise multinationale (EMN) localisée dans un pays émergent. Contrairement au modèle classique, l’innovation inverse peut se produire à partir d’un pays en voie de développement ou émergent, et ensuite être transférée vers un pays développé. Dans le cadre de cette recherche, nous nous intéressons au Brésil, un pays émergent où des entreprises mondiales disposent de centres de R&D de référence en Amérique Latine. L’innovation portée par la filiale d’une EMN est réalisée en fonction de divers facteurs et caractéristiques locales qui contribuent à ce que l’innovation menée par cette filiale se propage à l’échelle globale. Les objectifs de la recherche sont de mieux comprendre comment les EMN’s s’organisent dans une approche d’innovation inverse, de progresser sur l’éclairage théorique, et de proposer un modèle de management favorisant l’innovation mondiale à partir des initiatives locales dans un pays émergent. Nos travaux mettent en œuvre une démarche qualitative qui s’appuie sur une méthode d’études multi-cas. Notre contribution est un nouveau modèle théorique et fonctionnel pour l’innovation inverse prenant en compte les éléments qui contribuent à ce phénomène: l’intégration entre la maison mère et la filiale, la décentralisation de la R&D et la valorisation de compétences locales et l’insertion dans le système national d’innovation (SNI). Nos résultats de recherche ont mis en avant l’existence d’autres types d’innovations au-delà de l’innovation technologique qui induit une innovation mondiale. Nous avons observé que les innovations au niveau managérial, processus ou marketing sont absorbées au sein de la maison mère et diffusées vers d’autres filiales à une échelle mondiale. / Our research work concerns reverse innovation and its managerial and organizational features in a multinational corporation (MNC) subsidiary located in emerging markets. Unlike the traditional model, reverse innovation can occur from a developing or emerging country, and then be transferred to a developed country. Our empirical field is Brazil, an emerging country which hosts the reference R&D centers for Latin America of several global companies. The successful transfer to the global scale of an innovation coming from the subsidiary of an MNC depends on various factors and local characteristics that are explored in the thesis. The aims of this PhD dissertation are to better understand the mechanisms of reverse innovation in the context of MNCs, to advance theory and to propose a management model encouraging global innovation based on local initiatives in an emerging country. We show that practices carried out by MNC subsidiaries can have organizational, managerial and environmental implications that can account for the success of reverse innovation. Our research work implements a qualitative approach based on a multi-case study method. Our contribution is a new theoretical and functional model for reverse innovation that takes into account the elements that contribute to this phenomenon: the integration between the parent corporation and the subsidiary, the decentralization of R&D and the valorization of local skills and the insertion into the national system of innovation (SNI). Our research results highlight the existence of other types of innovation beyond technological innovation that lead to global innovation. We show that innovations at management, process or marketing level are absorbed within the parent company and disseminated to other subsidiaries on a global level.