The overall aim of this thesis is to analyse the social consequences of a transnational corporation(TNC) from the global North investing capital in the global South, and the communal processes that evolve in response. The study highlights the TNC’s construction of leadership and domination in the areas in which it settles, as well as the forces of popular resistance to the TNC’s exploitation of the region’s natural resources and the resulting socio-environmental conditions. The study is based on empirical fieldwork (including 22 interviews) carried out in Uruguay and Argentina related to the establishment of a pulp mill by Botnia/UPM. The analyses focus on discursive processes whereby the TNC establishes itself in the community. The found patterns are discussed in the thesis based on the following themes: “Making the TNC indispensible” ; “Dominating the spaces of communication” ; “Controlling the narratives” ; “Contradictions of external and internal colonialism” and “Establishing and maintaining hegemony”. All of these have to do with socio-political and discursive strategies and circumstances whereby the TNC—symbolically and materially— becomes a powerful force in the country and community where it establishes itself. This creates certain social positions, and gives rise to tensions within a number of areas. In relation to these processes, the thesis also highlights the formation and mobilization of resistance against the changing social, cultural and economic conditions created through the arrival of the TNC. What appears to be crucial for the deployment of a successful counter-force is the creation of spaces for organisation, for practices of resistance and to sustain democratic values and practices. This makes the social movement an autonomous voice that incarnates disobedience against thestate, the juridical international apparatus and the hegemonic practices of TNCs.

Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union all conditions and principles for doing business in the area have changed. The shift from a planned economy to a market economy is connected with rapid and basic changes in political, social, economic and technological conditions. The Baltic countries Estonia, Latvia andLithuania are going through a gradual transition and the decrease of central economic power leads to the liquidation of state monopolies. The markets of the Baltic is giving great opportunities for Western European companies since the Baltic is a good springboard to the more Eastern European markets, which consists of over 400 million possible customers.The Baltic countries is not a homogeny group, they have different language, culture and history. Western European companies need to be aware of this facts if they are going to become successful with their establishments. The Western European companies choose different entry modes in order to fulfil their international ambitions. The entry mode signals to host governments and to competitors the companies ambitions in the hostcountry. For the majority of companies the most significant international marketing decision they are likely to take is therefore how they should enter new markets. The purpose of the study is to explain how foreign companies strategies theoretically match the Baltic countries strengths and weaknesses and what kind of entry modes provides a good match between the investor´s strategy and the local attractiveness.

The study investigates the extent, development and nature of foreign direct investments in Sweden during the years 1895-1945. The work also has a qualitative aspect, which may be summarized as a question: Why do foreign companies undertake direct investments in Sweden? The basic premise has been that the companies' decisions are based on their own calculations regarding profit interests and structural conditions on the market, but these decisions are also influenced by various power relations. The aim is to discover partly the motives behind a company's readiness to enter the Swedish market, and partly the national and international power relations that furnished the institutional conditions favouring or hindering the making of direct investments in Sweden. The study shows that direct investments were much more extensive before 1945, above all before World War One, than has previously been assumed. Slightly more than half the direct investments were made by Denmark and Norway, and the greatest contribution from the major industrial nations was made by Germany. American direct investments increased in importance during the interwar years, and represented the greatest volume of activity in the foreign sector by the end of the 1930's. Manufacturing companies were the most important before World War One, as a result of direct investments in Swedish natural resources and the consumer goods industry. During the interwar years direct investments inclined more to forward linkage, and the majority were made in the chemical and engineering industries. Conditions in Sweden exerted most influence on direct investments before World War One - for example, Swedish tariff policy. Sweden's attempts to protect itself against the imperialism of the large industrial nations resulted moreover in 1916 in legislation which severely restricted the possibilities of making direct investments in the raw materials industry. After World War One, motives connected with specific countries and owneers were more important. At this time conflicts between American and European, primarily German, interests also entered the picture. One of the circumstances affecting direct investments was the increasing importance of the Scandinavian countries in the world market. This led to altered conditions between the Scandinavian countries, and partly to the realization by international business that Sweden must be seen as a market in its own right and not just as a sub-market in the Scandinavian region. / digitalisering@umu

The thesis consists of three self-contained essays on public policy in the macroeconomy. “Government Policy in the Formal and Informal Sectors” quantitatively investigates the interaction between the firms' choice to operate in the formal or the informal sector and government policy on taxation and enforcement. Taxes, enforcement, and regulation are incorporated in a general equilibrium model of firms differing in their productivities. The model quantitatively accounts for the keys aspects in the data and allows me to back out country-specific enforcement levels. Some policy reforms are analyzed and the welfare gains can be fairly large. “Determinants of Capital Intensive and R&D Intensive Foreign Direct Investment” studies the determinants of capital intensity and technology content of FDI. Using industry data on U.S. FDI abroad and data on many different host countries' institutional characteristics, we show that there is a differential response of FDI flows to investment climate according to the capital intensity of the industries receiving the investments. We find that better protection of property rights has a significant positive effect on R&D intensive capital flows. We find evidence that an increase in workers' bargaining power results in a reduction of both kinds of FDI. “Ambiguity Aversion, the Equity Premium, and the Welfare Costs of Business Cycles” examines the relevance of consumers’ ambiguity aversion for asset prices and how consumption fluctuations influence consumer welfare. First, in a Mehra-Prescott-style endowment economy, we calibrate ambiguity aversion so that asset prices are consistent with data: a high return on equity and a low return on risk-free bonds. We then use this calibration to investigate how much consumers would be willing to pay to reduce endowment fluctuations to zero, thus delivering a Lucas-style welfare cost of fluctuations. These costs turn out to be very large: consumers are willing to pay over 10% of consumption in permanent terms.

Κατά την παρούσα διπλωματική εργασία αναφορικά με τη συνεισφορά του John H. Dunning στη θεωρία της πολυεθνικής επιχείρησης και της άμεσης ξένης επένδυσης επιχειρείται η βιβλιογραφική ανασκόπηση του έργου του John H. Dunning σχετικά με το εν λόγω θέμα. Συγκεκριμένα, ο John H. Dunning υπήρξε ίσως ο πολυγραφέστερος σε θέματα πολυεθνικών επιχειρήσεων, άμεσων ξένων επενδύσεων και διεθνούς παραγωγής. / This thesis regarding the contribution of John H. Dunning's theory on multinational enterprises and foreign direct investment, attempts to present the literature review of the work of John H. Dunning on this issue. Specifically, John H. Dunning was perhaps the scientist with the greatest literary work on multinational enterprises, foreign direct investment and international production

Cost of debt is a key cognitive anchor for managerial decisions and an important determinant of firm profitability. We extend international management research by analyzing the effects of institutional distance, institutional quality, and their dynamics on the cost of debt in the context of foreign direct investments (FDI). We test our conceptual model on a sample of companies making 3,764 greenfield foreign direct investments from developed into less developed markets. Using hierarchical linear modelling, we show that the financial consequences of internationalizing into countries with weak institutions depend on both the institutional distance between countries, as well as their institutional quality. Furthermore, we find that recent changes in institutional quality form expectations about future development and ultimately influence post investment financing costs.

Throughout the history of capitalism, the process of industrialisation has been recognised as the engine of economic development. No region in the world ‘suffers’ more acutely from a lack of industrialisation than Africa, clearly highlighting the need for industrial policy. However, the formulation of such policies is not straightforward in the current era of globalised production. In recent years, a debate has taken hold over whether the geographical expansion and increased fragmentation of production networks—often referred to as the expansion of global value chains (GVCs)—calls for new approaches to industrial policy in developing countries. By drawing on the case of Ethiopia, this dissertation demonstrates that industrial policy in developing countries needs no new ‘magic bullet’ in the era of expanding GVCs. The dissertation applies a funnelling technique, meaning that each chapter builds on information presented and arguments made in the preceding chapters. Chapter 2 contextualises the importance of manufacturing and industrial policy for economic development in Africa. The chapter argues that the manufacturing sector continues to play an integral role in the process of economic development, and discusses the role of the state in the process of industrialisation, arguing that there are strong justifications for intervention through industrial policy. Chapter 3 looks at how the expansion of GVCs affects the productive structures of developing countries, particularly those in Africa, and asks if industrial policy has to change in this new global production environment. I argue that the fundamental problems of participating in GVCs are the same as when countries like South Korea and Taiwan industrialised between 1960 and 1990, although on a different scale. Chapter 4 analyses Ethiopia’s industrialisation trajectory and GVC-oriented industrial policies in the textile and leather industries. This analysis is based on 6 months of fieldwork in Ethiopia, where I carried out several interviews with stakeholders in the private and public sector and collected and collated datasets on industrial performance in collaboration with government agencies. While the findings of this chapter make an original empirical contribution to explaining the specific case of Ethiopia, the insights provided by the analysis offer broader conceptual conclusions as well.

O trabalho investiga o aumento da participação de investimentos estrangeiros diretos (IED) na indústria brasileira de alimentos. Além de conferir ao Brasil importante papel em atrair IED para o Mercosul, esse fluxo de investimento tem causado importantes modificações no arranjo industrial brasileiro. Aumento da concorrência, novas estratégias, mudanças no número de pessoal ocupado na indústria são alguns dos resultados mais marcantes. Investigar as razões de entrada, encontradas principalmente nas características do mercado brasileiro, os impactos na indústria local e sinalizar os efeitos de longo prazo dessas mudanças recentes são o objetivo principal deste trabalho. / The work investigates the increased share of foreign direct investments (FDI) in the Brazilian food industry. In addition to conferring on Brazil the important role of attracting FDI to Mercosur, this flow of investment has caused important changes in the Brazilian industrial arrangement. An increase in competition, new strategies, changes in the number of people occupied in the industry are a few of the more remarkable results. The main objective of this work is to investigate the reasons of entry, encountered mainly in the characteristics of the Brazilian market, and the impacts on the local industry, and to signal the long-run effects of these recent changes.

Esta pesquisa apresenta as vantagens competitivas de propriedade e de localização e as motivações na internacionalização bancária de países desenvolvidos e em desenvolvimento, abordando a internacionalização dos bancos americanos, alemães, ingleses, espanhóis, asiáticos em geral e chineses, além dos bancos brasileiros. O objetivo é compreender porque apenas quatro bancos brasileiros se internacionalizaram. Para tanto, foram pesquisados os conceitos de internacionalização, o papel dos centros de serviços financeiros, as características de internacionalização das empresas manufatureiras e do setor de serviços, além do paradigma eclético e do modelo de Uppsala. Dentre as muitas motivações e determinantes para a internacionalização bancária, constatou-se que, no Brasil, a quantidade total de bancos é pequena e os bancos nacionais compõem pouco mais da metade deste total. O número de bancos grandes é diminuto e são estes que normalmente se internacionalizam nos países desenvolvidos e em desenvolvimento. Ou ainda, em menor grau, os bancos pequenos e médios com nichos de especialização e competências para a internacionalização, o que não há no Brasil. O apoio governamental sob a forma de políticas, financiamentos, seguros e outros incentivos não existe para a internacionalização bancária e nem para a das empresas, de um modo geral. Faltaram os fatores propulsores do lado real da economia, como a exposição internacional do país através de exportações, participação em cadeias de valor globais e os investimentos diretos externos da indústria manufatureira. Aliada a todos estes fatores, a economia brasileira é voltada para o mercado doméstico. As elevadas taxas de juros e elevados spreads aumentam o custo de capital para bancos e empresas, o que, para os bancos, não incentiva a exportação de capital para países com taxas de juros menores porque o lucro é uma finalidade por si mesmo e o que importa é o retorno ajustado ao risco do capital. No mercado interno, a competição entre os bancos é acirrada, independentemente da origem do capital dos mesmos. No passado recente novos concorrentes surgiram, as fintechs, que operam com menos regulação do que os bancos, e cujos negócios tem crescido rapidamente. Esta é uma pesquisa qualitativa baseada em fontes secundárias. / This research presents the competitive advantages of ownership and location and motivations in the banking internationalization of developed and developing countries, addressing the internationalization of American, German, English, Spanish, Asian and Chinese banks, as well as Brazilian banks. The purpose is to understand why only four Brazilian banks have internationalized. In order to do so, the concepts of internationalization, the role of financial services centers, the internationalization characteristics of manufacturing companies and the services sector, as well as the ecletic paradigm and the Uppsala model were researched. Among the many motivations and determinants for banking internationalization it has been verified that in Brazil the total number of banks is small and national banks make up slightly more than half of this total. The number of large banks is tiny and these are usually the banks that internationalize in developed and developing countries. Or, to a lesser degree, small and medium-sized banks with niches of specialization and skills for internationalization, which do not exist in Brazil. Government support in the form of policies, financings, insurance and other incentives does not exist for the internationalization of banks or for companies in general. There was a lack of drivers on the real side of the economy, such as the country\'s international exposure through exports, participation in global value chains and foreign direct investments of the manufacturing industry. Allied to these factors, the Brazilian economy is geared towards the domestic market. High interest rates and high spreads raise the cost of capital for banks and companies which, for banks, does not encourage the export of capital to countries with lower interest rates because profit is a purpose in itself and what counts is the risk ajusted return on capital. Locally, the competition amongst banks is fierce, regardless of their origin. In the recent past new competitors have emerged, fintechs, which operate with less regulation than banks and whose business has grown rapidly. This is a qualitative research based on secondary sources.

Orientadores: Sergio Robles Reis de Queiroz, Ionara da Costa / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Geociencias / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-05T05:23:11Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Carvalho_FlaviaPereirade_M.pdf: 610006 bytes, checksum: 894bd6020abdf7c46e94513971a72d7e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005 / Resumo: O objetivo do trabalho é discutir os fatores determinantes dos transbordamentos tecnológicos - os chamados spillovers - oriundos do investimento direto estrangeiro (IDE). Num primeiro momento, faz-se uma síntese do conceito, com base nas visões, nem sempre convergentes, apresentadas pela literatura consultada. A partir dessa conceitualização inicial, são analisados de forma detalhada os mecanismos por meio dos quais o fenômeno se manifesta na economia receptora do IDE. Num segundo momento, o trabalho procura levantar os fatores que determinam a ocorrência e a magnitude do spillover, considerando a particularidade de cada caso. Tais fatores estão relacionados ora com características específicas do IDE, ora com aspectos inerentes ao ambiente onde o investimento se instala. A importância dessa diferenciação reside na necessidade de compreender porque os transbordamentos tecnológicos não se manifestam de maneira uniforme em todas as localidades. Esse debate permanece em aberto na literatura, pois os métodos de análise, em sua maioria quantitativos, não esclarecem a questão. Por fim, estabelece-se uma discussão sobre a efetividade de políticas e ações governamentais de atração IDEs com maiores probabilidades de ocorrência de spillovers, partindo das evidências obtidas na análise dos fatores determinantes do fenômeno em estudo. A conclusão do trabalho é que a ocorrência de spillovers tecnológicos não é automática, predeterminada pela presença das EMNs. As capacidades acumuladas pela economia local são determinantes para que o conhecimento disponibilizado seja efetivamente absorvido pelos agentes; além disso, o IDE intensivo em atividades tecnológicas tende a criar maiores possibilidades de geração de spillovers. Em decorrência disso, políticas que queiram gerar maiores benefícios sob a forma de transbordamentos devem considerar esses aspectos, agindo em busca da ampliação de capacidades e focando na atração de investimentos com atividade inovadora interna / Abstract: The aim of this dissertation is to discuss the determinants of technological spillovers generated by foreign direct investment (FDI). There are many, and often opposing, definitions and views concerning the concept of technological spillovers in the literature. For this reason, the first objective is to review the literature and to strive to synthesize the plurality of views available. Having done that, the work proceeds to discuss in depth the mechanisms through which spillovers take place in the host economy of the FDI. In particular, the determining factors of the occurrence and the extent of technological spillovers in specific situations. These factors are closely related to the characteristics of the FDI and also to peculiar aspects of the host economy. The discussion of the determinants is of utmost importance to help the comprehension of why spillovers happen in certain situations and not in others. The traditional approaches to the matter (most of the time econometric models) fail to shed light on such issues. In conclusion, we summarize the previous questions and analyze if government policies are capable of influencing and facilitating the incidence of technological spillovers / Mestrado / Politica Cientifica e Tecnologica / Mestre em Política Científica e Tecnológica