In this paper, we examine responses to the conflicting institutional demands faced by an e-commerce subsidiary located in Sub-Saharan Africa and headquartered in Europe. Following an inductive approach, we gathered data from a 6-month participant-observation study and interviews with local managers. Our findings show that the subsidiary managers responded to conflicting institutional demands in a dynamic way, taking one response after the other. In some cases, the subsidiary managers responded in a way that they thought would be satisfactory but subsequent pressures from their headquarters or their local environment pushed them to adopt a new response. In other cases, the subsidiary managers intentionally adopted responses knowing that they would (have to) adopt another response later in the process.

by Yiu Wing-Yee. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 108-116). / ABSTRACT --- p.i / TABLE OF CONTENTS --- p.iii / LIST OF TABLES --- p.vi / LIST OF FIGYRES --- p.vii / CHAPTER / Chapter 1. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Overview --- p.1 / Purposes of The Study --- p.2 / Scope of The Study --- p.4 / Foreign Entry Mode --- p.4 / Country- of-Destination --- p.5 / Country-of-Origin --- p.5 / Industries --- p.5 / Importance of the Study --- p.5 / Theoretical Importance --- p.5 / Methodological Importance --- p.6 / Practical Importance --- p.6 / Structure of The Thesis --- p.7 / Chapter 2. --- FOREIGN ENTRY MODE CHOICE - AN OVERVIEW --- p.8 / "What is ""Foreign Entry Mode Choice""" --- p.8 / Research Streams on Foreign Entry Mode Choice --- p.9 / Determinants of Foreign Entry Mode Choice --- p.9 / Foreign Entry Mode and Performance --- p.12 / Theoretical Overview --- p.14 / Transaction Cost Approach to Entry Mode Choice --- p.14 / Eclectic Approach to Foreign Entry Mode Choice --- p.16 / Overview of Past Empirical Studies --- p.18 / Comment on Existing Literature --- p.20 / Chapter 3. --- FOREIGN ENTRY MODE CHOICE - AN INSTITUTIONAL PERSPECTIVE --- p.24 / Overview of Institutional Theory --- p.24 / Which Version of Institutional Theory to Be Used --- p.28 / Phenomenon to be Explained --- p.28 / Definition of Institution --- p.29 / Mechanism --- p.30 / Consequence --- p.30 / Level of Analysis --- p.31 / Summary --- p.31 / A Conceptual Model of Institutional Factors and Foreign Entry Mode Choice --- p.32 / Institutional Factors and Foreign Entry Mode Choice --- p.33 / Host country restrictiveness and foreign entry mode choice --- p.33 / Cultural distance and foreign entry mode choice --- p.35 / Historical norm and foreign entry mode choice --- p.37 / Transaction Cost Factors and Foreign Entry Mode Choice --- p.38 / Host market potential --- p.38 / Diversification --- p.39 / Parent experience --- p.40 / Asset specificity --- p.41 / Relative size of subsidiary to parent --- p.42 / Subsidiary age --- p.43 / Chapter 4. --- RESEARCH METHODOLOGY --- p.44 / Sample --- p.45 / Measures --- p.48 / Dependent Variable --- p.48 / Independent Variables --- p.48 / Institutional variables --- p.48 / Transaction cost variables --- p.61 / Analysis --- p.63 / Chapter 5. --- RESULTS --- p.65 / Relationship Among Variables --- p.65 / Overview of the WOS and TV Distribution among Countries --- p.65 / Logistic Regression Analysis --- p.68 / Additional Findings --- p.72 / Chapter 6. --- DISCUSSION --- p.80 / Institutional Factors --- p.80 / Transaction Cost Factors --- p.83 / Comparisons between Institutional Factors and Transaction Cost Factors --- p.85 / Synthesizing Institutional Factors and Transaction Cost Factors --- p.91 / Chapter 7. --- CONCLUSION --- p.94 / APPENDIX --- p.98 / REFERENCES --- p.108

<p>The purpose of this study is to examine the relevant literatures about coordination mechanisms as well as study the use of coordination mechanisms by MNCs. Since many scholars have presented various models and claimed that their ideas are useful for MNCs and   subsidiary. This is due to getting a better understanding of how coordination works and what problems may occur.</p>

Expanding to foreign markets is increasingly popular for companies. The company has to decide which organisational structure, entry mode, to use in the new market. Factors affecting the change from one entry mode to another have obtained little attention. This thesis concerns Swedish companies’ changes of entry mode in Taiwan. The purpose is to investigate which factors that serve as triggers respectively barriers for the change of entry modes, to be able to examine which theories that can be used to explain and support mode changes. Different theories concerning choice and change of entry mode have been investigated. Based on the theories, a model including factors influencing entry mode changes was established. The model has contributed a foundation for the empirical findings as well as the analysis of the companies. As a method, a qualitative approach was conducted through interviews with five Swedish companies having a subsidiary in Taiwan. The criterion for the companies was that they should have a subsidiary in Taiwan, but entered the market with another entry mode. Considering the small number of companies and to obtain an understanding about the entry mode changes, a qualitative investigation was the most suitable. Conclusions that could be drawn were that the competitive Taiwanese market had triggered some of the companies to change their entry mode to a subsidiary in order to be present in the market. Increased sales volume did also have evident affect on why the companies changed their entry mode. The investigation also gives indications that barriers tend to be of internal and firm specific character. Concerning the theories explaining entry mode changes, no complete theory could explain the changes, but parts from different theoretical fields could be applied.

The purpose of this study is to examine the relevant literatures about coordination mechanisms as well as study the use of coordination mechanisms by MNCs. Since many scholars have presented various models and claimed that their ideas are useful for MNCs and   subsidiary. This is due to getting a better understanding of how coordination works and what problems may occur.

Under global competition, some Taiwan corporations started to implement international strategy. Most of the corporations go foreign investment in South-East Asia and Mainland China. But some of the corporations do not afford the expected profit from the international strategy because they are not familiar with international business. In the international business area, multinational corporation (MNC) subsidiary knowledge flow is an important factor to influence the role of the subsidiary and the success of international strategy. The procedures of this study are mainly through the review on the relevant reference documents and the interview of PHILIPS Semiconductor Kaohsiung managers. The main purposes of this study are to establish an appropriate MNC subsidiary knowledge flow model to find out what factors will influence subsidiary knowledge flow, and to make a recommendation both for headquarter and subsidiary managers as their reference when they plan to implement knowledge transfer strategy.

After its accession to the WTO, under the open market for agricultural products and reducing domestic support, Taiwan needs to import brown rice of at least 144,000 metric tons, following the rule of minimum access in order to meet the requirements¡¦ of the WTO. To protect farmer¡¦s interest and agriculturalecology, the Taiwan government continues to implement paddy land utilization adjustment policy and price guarantee policy, which sustains government supplement to rice but it fails to reach the good of price stability in the market. This means all related policies still have room for improvement. In recent years, new rounds of negotiation for agriculture under the WTO framework have begun and, due to the pressure of negotiation, it is unavoidable to implement import tariff for rice. Thus, Taiwan¡¦s agricultural sectors are under the threat of a collapse, and to maintain the development of rice farming industry under the WTO regulations will be a very important issue. Also, the government should take more aggressive and prospective measures to overcome the current difficulties of the rice industry. This paper will explore rice policies in Taiwan and propose on improvement with consideration for a long term agricultural policy. Taiwan implements paddy land utilization adjustment policy for the preparation of tariff systems. Although this will meet the WTO regulation in the short term, it would experience risks and challenge, in the future. Currently, alternative plans are not available and what is suggested in this paper basically follows the American FSRIA and Japanese rice stability policies to reach a balance between government and farmers under the WTO regulation, trying to eliminate market intervention and reduce government¡¦s financial burden. With the decline of rice price and rent, the rice industry will develop towards a large scale of management and rice competitiveness will be upgraded, which will then increase farmer¡¦s revenue even when subsidies are reduced.

In the knowledge economic era, how to effectively accumulate and explore knowledge becomes the key factor to the success of MNCs in the global market. ¡§Human¡¨ will be the main source to create the competitive knowledge, also plays an important role of the process in knowledge management. Therefore, knowledge and human capital investment will be the most important resources for enterprises to keep competitive advantage. The main purpose of this research is to develop a framework of knowledge strategy and human capital in subsidiaries of MNCs. Using quantitive interview research, samples are from 6 companies in 3 industries. The major findings of this study are listed below: 1. ¡§Active subsidiary¡¨ and ¡§early entryer¡¨ will have positive effect in human capital investment. 2. The more subsidiary adapt ¡§global innovator¡¨ and ¡§local innovator¡¨ these two knowledge strategies, the more they will emphasize on human capital localization and top manager¡¦s competence. 3. ¡§human capital investment¡¨, ¡§top manager¡¦s competence¡¨ and ¡§ employee¡¦s ability of entrepreneurship¡¨will have positive effect on subsidiary¡¦s performance. 4. In the network between HQ and subsidiary, ¡§outflow of knowledge¡¨ will have positive effect on subsidiary¡¦s performance.

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

Abstract There is more than 20 years since Mainland China implemented the ¡¥open door¡¦ policy; starting from 1979. China¡¦s large and potential local market, abundant resources i.e. land, labors, raw-materials etc. and various taxation incentives are giving the great attractions to MNCs on making investments in China. On the opposite, Taiwan is now intertwined with the internal political turmoil and global economic downturn that lead the economic development to a situation of stasis. The current economic development in two sides of the strait has revealed the opposite trends, one is rising, and the other is shrinking. In face of such unpleasant situation, what can Taiwan do to create other opportunities for future economic development? The focus of this thesis is on the changes of value activities of MNC¡¦s Subsidiaries in Taiwan. The main themes for this research are (1) MNCs have long been the key players of international investment since 1960s, and influenced substantially on the global economic development. The investment behaviors of MNCs in the new developing market - China have brought the high attentions of academic circles and practitioners. (2) In face of the rapid upraising of China, what are the changes of value activities in MNC¡¦s Subsidiaries in Taiwan? What are the possible solutions for future development of Taiwan? (3) Until now (per our understanding), there are few articles studying about the resources flow and the mutual dependence amongst MNC¡¦s HQ and Subsidiaries, this thesis provides the observations. Therefore, this thesis covers the topics of the initiative behaviors of MNC¡¦s Taiwan Subsidiaries while intending to set up a new Subsidiary in China; the decisive factors of assigning the third country nationals (TCNs) for China Subsidiary and the role shifts of Taiwan Subsidiary upon of the time changes. This thesis indicates that because of the value activities in MNC¡¦s Taiwan Subsidiaries are mostly concentrated on production or operation, and do not take part in business related management thus they have few decision powers on initiating a China Subsidiary. Exceptions are for those Subsidiaries which have the top management with local nationality and/or with entrepreneurship might participate indirectly in decision making. Besides, MNC¡¦s Taiwan Subsidiaries mainly act as the task role in China project therefore, the depth of involvement depends on their capabilities and resources which have relation to the years of establishment. If other MNC¡¦s affiliates or regional headquarters are possessed of the needed capabilities and resources, they might also involve to a certain extent in China¡¦s investment. The assignments of top team members for China project are influenced by the management style of MNCs. In most of cases, the top leading positions are filled by home country nationals of MNCs. But, for the functions of factory construction; operation or production the manager positions are commonly delegated to the experienced persons in Taiwan Subsidiaries. The main considerations are the technical capabilities, cultural background and common language. In respect of the role shifts of Taiwan Subsidiaries during the three developing stages i.e. construction, operation, and expansion of China Subsidiaries, our cases indicate that during the construction period, the main contributions of Taiwan Subsidiaries are to helping the personnel recruitments, providing technologies of factory construction and establishing the management systems; during the operation period, the contributions are to smoothing the daily production, optimizing the process, upgrading the quality of products; during the expansion period, the contributions are to enhancing the supply chain management, improving the productivity, introducing the new products or new manufacturing processes. This thesis concludes that, in line with the continuous growth of China Subsidiaries, the importance of Taiwan Subsidiaries might be dieing down, especially when there will be more and more experienced and capable human resources in China. This thesis also indicates that, due to the product profiles of MNC¡¦s Subsidiaries in Taiwan and China have the high percentages of overlap thus the internal sales competition can be foreseen. However, our cases reveal that there is no fact of strong competition but most cooperation. The main reasons are that the business management is normally handled and coordinated by the separated organization of regional sales & marketing also, the current market demands are still big enough. Therefore, at the moment, two Subsidiaries of Taiwan and China are sitting in a balance or even in a complementary situation. However, if Taiwan¡¦s economic situation can not go abreast with that of China, it can be predicted the fadedness of Taiwan Subsidiaries in MNC¡¦s position. Only the individuals who with the high competencies can continuously play the important roles in MNC¡¦s Subsidiaries or possibly to be upgraded to the higher position in MNC¡¦s regional or global management teams.