Australia and the UK are both prominent economies in the international arena and share a strong trade and investment relationship. Interestingly, the UK while being a significant destination for Australian exports is an even more significant destination for Australian direct investment, a case anomalous to international trends. Analysis of this case elicits the question as to what factors differentiate between the firms that export and those that FDI. It is imperative to understand the differentiating factors between exports and direct investment as market entry decisions are decisive to the success of firms in international markets. A number of theories of international market entry have developed over the last quarter century, the ownership, location, and internationalisation model (OLI) is used in this study. The importance of the variables developed in this model are identified, and assessed as to their relevance to entry of Australian firms into the UK market through FDI or Exports. Qualitative information is used to support initial quantitative profiling. Results of the investigation indicate that while some variables were at times decisive, they were not predictive at all in other situations. The full interaction of the variables in the model was therefore concluded to be essential to fully differentiate between exports and FDI in all cases.

The subject matter of this licentiate thesis concerns the two EU directives on European Works Councils. The analysis is confined to the Swedish implementation of these directives into Swedish law. The thesis defines the term "EWC regulation" to encompass both the Swedish levels of EWC legislation and the regulation of EWCs by EWC agreements themselves. The overall objective is to gain an increased understanding of the function of EWC regulation. This requires a normative analysis of both EU and national law as well as an empirical study of the application. The thesis includes a number of agreements on EWCs based on the Swedish legislation and their application in corporations based in Sweden. Three multinational corporations in the health care sector, financial sector and metal industry have been selected. The focus lies on the regulation's practical significance for worker influence and corporate governance. A distinction is made between rules on worker participation (in law) and worker influence (in practice). As a point of departure the author combines the theory of reflexive law with concepts borrowed from the fields of management studies and economic history. The methods used consist of doctrinal legal interpretation and semi-structured interviews. The key findings run as follows. The EWC regulation generates worker influence by enhancing the knowledge and unity of worker representatives. The regulation facilitate corporate governance by strengthening the legitimacy of management, improving the decision basis and channels of communication. The worker influence is, under proper circumstances, strong in issues such as reorganizations, reassignments, health and safety. The influence is weaker in situations of relocation, outsourcing across national borders and other forms of regime shopping.

Os projetos globais de desenvolvimento de produtos passam pelas áreas de conhecimento da gestão tradicional de projetos e, adicionalmente, demandam maior atenção de diversos aspectos inerentes ao ambiente global, tais como: coordenação e controle; construção de confiança e cooperação entre as equipes dispersas geograficamente. Outro tema especialmente importante nesse contexto é o processo de comunicação que se torna bastante crítico à medida que os recursos tradicionais de comunicação em projetos (reuniões face-a-face, comunicação não-verbal, visualização do trabalho in loco, entre outros) passam a ser limitados e/ ou substituídos por outros baseados em meios eletrônicos (videoconferência, emails, mensagens instantâneas, entre outros). O objetivo desta pesquisa foi o de mapear as práticas de comunicação aplicadas aos projetos globais e analisar se essas práticas variam de acordo com o tipo e com algumas características do modelo de gestão dos projetos. A unidade de análise escolhida foram os projetos globais de desenvolvimento de produtos de empresas multinacionais brasileiras e o método de pesquisa, o estudo de casos múltiplos. Os resultados permitiram verificar que a freqüência da comunicação nos projetos globais diminui com a distância, o que dificulta o controle e a coordenação das equipes. Mas a distância por si só, apesar de impor desafios adicionais, não causa necessariamente problemas de comunicação, pois pode ser contornada pelo apoio das ferramentas eletrônicas de comunicação que formam as bases para os projetos acontecerem de forma dispersa. O estudo permitiu concluir que o uso das práticas de comunicação, bem como a importância dada a elas variam em função do tipo de projeto e de algumas características de gestão deles. Apesar de ter sido possível identificar tais variações, verificou-se que as práticas não ocorrem de forma padronizada nos projetos; ao contrário, são desenvolvidas de forma improvisada e circunstancial e não contam com um planejamento específico no início do projeto. / Global new product development projects go through the traditional knowledge areas of project management, and additionally they demand more attention related to the global environment aspects, such as coordination and control, and trust building and cooperation between geographically dispersed teams. Another important theme in this context is that the communication process becomes critical, as traditional communication resources employed in projects (face-to-face meeting, nonverbal communication, in locus work visualization, among others) undergo constraints or are replaced by those based upon electronic means (video conference, email, instant message). This research aimed to identify the communication practices applied to global projects and analyze whether these practices vary across some project characteristics and its management model. The unit of analysis adopted was the global new product development projects undertaken by Brazilian multinational companies, and the research method employed was the case study. The findings showed that the communication frequency in global projects diminishes as the physical distance increases. Athough it represents additional challenges, the distance itself does not cause communication problems. This is due to the support of electronic communication tools that create the basis over which projects are dispersedly held. This study allowed me to conclude that the use of communication practices along with the importance paid to them, vary according to the project type and some characteristics of its management. In spite of the variations, it has been also identified that communication practices are not used in projects in a standard way. On the contrary, these practices are employed in an improvised and contingent manner, and they are not planned since the beginning of the project.

Dans un monde de compétition économique en évolution constante, les équipes projets plurifonctionnelles constituent un outil de management apprécié pour mettre en place des transformations stratégiques majeures dans les multinationales. Cependant, de nombreuses études empiriques (Kotter, 1995; Beer, Eisenstat and Spector, 1990; Beer, 2000; Stvetena and Damian, 2006) montrent que ces équipes, à moins qu’elles ne soient bien gérées, conduisent à l’échec. A partir d’une étude comparative approfondie d’une équipe pilote et de quatre autres équipes dédiées à la transformation du marketing, de la vente et de la distribution, dans deux entreprises pharmaceutiques, nous examinons les conditions internes des équipes plurifonctionnelles dédiées au changement organisationnel au sein d’organisations multinationales. Les résultats montrent que ces équipes réussissent mieux lorsque qu’elles couplent leurs activités avec le reste de l’organisation dans la première phase et la dernière phase du projet, lorsqu’elles pratiquent un leadership partagé et lorsqu’elles sont organisées en semi-structures. Cette étude contribue à la littérature sur le changement organisationnel en transcendant les relations paradoxales entre stabilité et changement, à la littérature de l’approche par les pratiques en explicitant les relations entre les pratiques et les organisations, et propose des enseignements clés pour les managers impliqués dans des transformations majeures au sein d’entreprises multinationale / In today’s ever-changing, competitive business environment, cross-functional teams are an increasingly popular mechanism to implement major business transformations within multinationals. Yet empirical data (Kotter, 1995; Beer, Eisenstat and Spector, 1990; Beer, 2000; Stvetena and Damian, 2006) support for the prevailing view that such teams, unless they are well managed, lead to failure. By drawing on an in depth comparative study of one Pilot Team and four teams dedicated to marketing, sales and distribution transformation in two pharmaceutical companies, we examine under which internal conditions cross-functional teams dedicated to organizational change enable or hinder organizational change within multinational corporations. The findings suggest that they succeed best through high level coupling activities with the remainder of the organization during the early and the later phases of a project, when practicing shared leadership and when organized as a semi-structure. This study contributes to the literature on organizational change in transcending the paradoxical relationships between stability and change, to the literature on the practice-based approach in making more explicit the relationships between practices and organizations and provides implications for managers involved in major business transformations in multinational corporations.

The main objective of the thesis is to analyze the topic of leading multicultural teams, with a specific attention to the particular example of the company XYZ; and answer the research questions with the gathered data and construct recommendations. The theoretical part provides a comprehensive overview of the concepts of multinational corporations, teams, multicultural teams and leadership. The assumptions derived from the theory serve as a base for the following empirical part, where the theoretical research is completed with a qualitative study. The qualitative study was conducted in cooperation with the company XYZ and professionals working directly in the multicultural teams were interviewed. By combining the findings from both theoretical and empirical part, many of the assumed benefits, especially the increased creativity, of the multicultural teams were confirmed. However, the negative aspects were identified as well, with the more difficult communication above all.

The aim of this diploma work is to point out the importance, influence and activities of transnational corporations and to discuss the related trends in foreing direct investments (FDI) in the world economy. The basic questions which are to be discussed are the clarification of the term transnational corporation, how is it possible that these corportions became so successful, what is their role in the world economy and what are the trends in FDI flows in the past two decades.

This diploma paper provides an overview of operation and meaning of multinational corporations in the modern global economy and in the economy of the Czech Republic. Likewise, the paper presents a comparison of conditions and consequences, connected with the activities of multinational corporations in the economies of Russian Federation and Czech Republic. During the process of studying the history and modern reality of multinational corporations in Czech Republic the author wanted to realize, how substantial was their influence in Czech economy. By comparison with multinational corporations' activities in Russian economy the author finds out, whether the scenario is unique in Czech republic, or it is possible to find certain analogues in other countries.

To determine how leading companies in North America, Europe, and Asia develop and sustain strong talent pipelines, this research investigates talent management processes and practices in a sample of 37 multinational corporations, selected on the basis of their international scope, reputation, and long-term performance. In-depth case studies and a Web-based survey of human resources professionals identify various effective practices that can help companies attract, select, develop, and retain talent. However, the results suggest that competitive advantage comes not primarily from designing and implementing best practices but rather from the proper internal alignment of various elements of a company's talent management system, as well as their embeddedness in the value system of the firm, their links to business strategy, and their global coordination.

The thesis deals with the issue of International Management procedures in multinational corporations regarding sending their employees abroad. Its aim is to describe the process of expatriation, define the importance of culture and the role of the company in the process as well as to analyse the situation of expatriates in the Czech Republic based on a questionnaire research.

Prior to the issuance of Financial Accounting Standards Board Statement No. 8 (SFAS No. 8), there was a marked inconsistency in the area of accounting for foreign currency translation. Though designed to make the diverse accounting practices of multinational corporations (MNCs) more compatible, SFAS No. 8 was the subject of a great deal of criticism, eventually leading to the issuance of Financial Accounting Standards Board Statement No. 52 (SFAS No. 52). SFAS No. 52 differs from SFAS No. 8 on objectives and method of translation, and on accounting treatments of translation adjustments. This dissertation provides an empirical examination of the security market reaction to the accounting policy change embodied in SFAS No. 52, and its impact on the volatility of reported earnings of MNCs. The effects of the issuance and early adoption of SFAS No. 52 on security return distributions were determined by both cross-sectional comparisons of cumulative average residuals (CAR) between MNCs and domestic firms and between early and late adopters, and by time-series tests on CAR of MNCs. Two volume analyses were performed to test the effects of SFAS No. 52 on security volume. The first analysis was adjusted to remove the effects of the marketwide factors on volume, and the second analysis was unadjusted for the market influences. Four nonparametric tests were used in testing the effects of SFAS No. 52 vis-a-vis SFAS No. 8 on the volatility of reported earnings of MNCs. The findings of this study led to the following conclusions: (1) SFAS No. 52 had significantly affected security returns of MNCs, but had no significant effects on security volume of MNCs; (2) the early adoption of SFAS No. 52 had no effects on security returns and volume of early adopters as opposed to late adopters; and (3) SFAS No. 52 did not have any significant effects on the volatility of reported earnings of MNCs. However, the impact of exchange adjustments on MNCs* earnings under SFAS No. 52 was significantly affected by the size of foreign operations and industry classifications.