ABSTRACT As the global market effect, most enterprises have complicated relationship between cooperation & competition. The most effective strategy & accurate operation structure became the most significant guide line in all industries. Through the Taiwan industries development history among the global market, three most significant concepts were listed as follow: 1. Economic aspect ¡V minimized the capital consumption in all business transaction. 2. Strategy aspect ¡V Combine others abilities & resources to enhance its own strength 3. Marketing aspect ¡V established standard industries rules & use it to rule the market. Over competition between industries will not only increase the cost consumption and also defected the relation between industries network system. The most effective solution is to provide a clear system for production, transportation & sales. Globalize the trading connection between all countries in-order to maintain the business under any circle stances. In fact, cooperation between the industries is the most significant & effective strategy against the global market competition. Taiwan industries management team must consider carefully on all factors that would occur in all investment plans. Analysis the most accurate resource combination structures & created the most precious strategy for production, sales & investment.

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This thesis examines the implementation of Community Corporate Responsibility (CCR) practices among ten subsidiaries of Multinational Corporations (MNCs) in Sri Lanka and the different factors which influence such implementation. Within this context, it specifically focuses on examining the internal factors residing within the MNC as an organisation and those factors which exist outside in the institutional environment of the host country. The study combines three broad theoretical domains: Corporate Responsibility implementation literature, International Business Strategy literature and Neo-Institutional theory. It uses a qualitative research methodology based upon the interview method. Qualitative interview data collected through sixty-two in-depth interviews with managers of the ten subsidiaries and key institutional actors in the host country were analysed using descriptive coding, interpretive coding and conceptualisation to arrive at the findings. The findings showed that non-specialist functional departments were mainly responsible for implementing CCR practices, indicating a lack of strategic and structural integration of CCR practices. The findings reinforces the dominant role of the MNC headquarters in implementing CCR practices within subsidiaries operating in a developing country, indicating that 'power' relationships between subsidiary and parent is an important denominator in internal organisational practices implementation. Furthermore, dynamic and complex relationships were found between the subsidiaries and the Sri Lankan government and other institutional actors indicating the existence of a strategic approach towards legitimisation by iii subsidiaries, using CCR practices. Based upon these findings, this research proposes the need to conduct future studies across different MNCs and their subsidiaries located in multiple developing countries to further examine the implementation of CCR practices as it would enable public policy makers and business managers to better influence the global CSR of MNCs.

This qualitative field study investigated cross-site knowledge sharing in a small sample of multinational corporations in three different MNC business contexts (global, multidomestic, transnational). The results disclose heterogeneous "worlds" of MNC knowledge sharing, ultimately raising the question as to whether the whole concept of MNC knowledge sharing covers a sufficiently unitary phenomenon to be meaningful. We derive a non-exhaustive typology of MNC knowledge-sharing practices: self-organizing knowledge sharing, technocratic knowledge sharing, and best practice knowledge sharing. Despite its limitations, this typology helps to elucidate a number of issues, including the latent conflict between two disparate theories of MNC knowledge sharing, namely "sender-receiver" and "social learning" theories (Noorderhaven & Harzing, 2009). More generally, we develop the term "knowledge contextualization" to highlight the way that firm-specific organizational features pre-define which knowledge is considered to be of special relevance for intra-organizational sharing. (authors' abstract)

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 number of multinational corporations (MNCs) has increased tremendously since the 1990s, as companies have started to act in a more global environment. This has resulted in more integration between economies, where companies have to adjust to this changing environment. In this paper, we study the impact of internationalization on nationality diversity in boards of Swedish MNCs during the period 1994-2012. Our propositions suggest that board size, a company’s degree of internationalization and country of origin are contributing factors that affect how a board is composed. Our findings concluded that companies with a high degree of internationalization often are more nationality diverse and that Swedish companies have gradually increased the number of non-Swedes in their boards over time.

Knowledge is often tacit and "sticky", i.e. highly context-specific and therefore costly to transfer to a different setting. This paper examines the methods used by firms to facilitate cross-site knowledge sharing by "thinning" knowledge, that is, by stripping knowledge of its contextual richness. An interview-based study of cross-site knowledge sharing in three industries (consulting, industrial materials, and high-tech products) indicated that highly developed knowledge-sharing systems do not necessarily involve extensive codification and recombination of personalized knowledge. Many multinational firms evidently conceive their knowledge-sharing systems with more modest objectives in mind than any large-scale "learning spirals" featuring iterative conversion of personalized knowledge into codified knowledge and vice-versa. A typology of knowledge-thinning systems was derived by interpreting the field study results from the perspective of knowledge-thinning methods used in earlier eras of history. The typology encompasses topographical, statistical and diagrammatic knowledge-thinning systems. (authors' abstract)

Nowadays, industries are characterised by their speed and changeability. Many institutions from the industrial environment, such as the technological development, appear to vary over industries. Industries are generally characterised by their instability. In addition, it is a common trend for MNCs to start the development of products in multiple countries. This in turn seems to bring many problems with it along, such as the lack of communication between departments and the difficulties of sharing knowledge. The recognition of implications for New Product Development (NPD) best practices in a sophisticated industry and complex international environment therefore led us to the overarching research question: “How can MNCs from different industries best manage their corporate portfolio of New Product Developments (NPDs) on an international level?” The following three considerations are used to help us answer the main issue: (1) how NPD best practices can create a competitive advantage for MNCs, (2) how industrial institutions can influence the NPD best practices, and (3) how international institutions can influence the NPD best practices. The purpose of this thesis is therefore to comprise the academic research of NPD best practices for MNCs with both the industrial and international institutions that influence NPD best practices of MNCs. This research has been conducted through a qualitative research; six industrial cases from five MNCs have therefore been used to answer these questions. Empirical data was gathered through five face-to-face interviews and one phone interview. The theoretical framework therefore includes the NPD best practices, and the main institutions within both the industrial and international environment. These three areas have been synthesised from the earlier on mentioned three themes, which have been used as a basis throughout the empirical findings. Within the analysis, the theoretical framework and empirical findings have been systematically combined to find answers regarding our three sub questions. Concluding, it seems that strategy, processes, resources and capabilities, and portfolio management are commonly used practices, whereas these seem to be influenced by both industrial and international institutions.

This study conceptualizes inpatriates – foreign nationals who are temporarily assigned to the corporate headquarters (HQ) of a multinational corporation (MNC) – as knowledge agents that link the HQ to its subsidiaries. Along these lines, the thesis examines the determinants of knowledge sharing between inpatriates and HQ staff as well as the resulting implications for inpatriates’ careers. Integrating research on international assignments and MNC knowledge flows with social capital theory, the main argument is that inpatriates can only share their local subsidiary knowledge with and learn from HQ employees if they establish social capital with them. The empirical investigation of inpatriates as the study’s principal unit of analysis follows a multi-method approach. First, a qualitative and inductive case study based on 13 interviews with inpatriates at three German MNCs is conducted, aiming to provide a deeper understanding of the inpatriate phenomenon. The interview findings highlight inpatriates’ role as knowledge conduits and derive various factors that may impact on inpatriates’ knowledge sharing, such as inpatriates’ acculturation attitudes, their host language fluency, host ethnocentrism and available organizational support.

Aim: This research aims to analyze the different market challenges faced by multinational corporations when operating in frontier markets, taking the Lebanese market as the case example. Methodology: The adopted methodology is based on a perspective multi-case study carried out through a qualitative conduct with several multinational corporations operating in frontier markets and Lebanon in specific. Accordingly, the data collection is based on semi-structured face-to-face, telephone and email interviews with different personnel in allocated companies based on their observations and experiences regarding business operations and market conditions in the country. Subsequently, the gathered primary data is analyzed, discussed and compared with secondary data provided by academic journals, books and trustworthy databases. Findings: Against the background of growing international competition companies increasingly follow internationalization strategies and expand their operations into new markets. Thereby, frontier markets, a subcategory of emerging markets, gain in importance. Simultaneously, new opportunities often go hand in hand with various risks and challenges. In this study four different categories of market challenges were applied and investigated: (1) Political Instability; (2) Economic & Financial Constraints; (3) Corruption & Nepotism; and (4) Cultural Differences. The interviews conducted with several MNCs operating in Lebanon devoted that only the country’s Political Instability affected the case companies’ business operations. Economic & Financial Constraints played a tangential role. Whereas, Corruption & Nepotism and Cultural Differences did not affect the enterprises’ operations at all. Hence, the primary data gathered revealed partially contradictory results in comparison to the findings obtained from the literature review. Contribution: This study addresses various market challenges occurring in frontier markets, a comparably new and uncharted subcategory of emerging markets. Particularly, the market challenges in the case country Lebanon are unexplored yet. Thus, the study contributes novel results and aims to close a research gap. Limitations: The findings presented cannot be generalized, neither to other ME countries nor to frontier markets in general. The scope of this study is limited to one specific market, providing companies’ perceptions about various market challenges when operating in Lebanon. In addition, due to the applied qualitative approach and the authors’ geographical distance to the researched market, the sample size is relatively small limiting the generalization of the study outcomes. Suggestions for Future Research: Due to the recently introduced terminology and categorization, research about frontier markets is limited yet. So far, the ME region in general and the case country Lebanon were not in the researchers’ focus regarding market challenges. This study provides initial points of reference about market challenges MNCs face in Lebanon. Further research with a greater variety of investigated enterprises and industries would be conceivable. Moreover, a research focus on SMEs operating in the country might reveal different findings.