Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / Multi National Force (MNF) operations recognize the existence of shared national interests in a specific geographic region. Furthermore, MNF operations seek to standardize some basic concepts and processes that will promote habits of cooperation, increased dialogue, and provide for baseline Coalition/Combined Task Force (CCTF) operational concepts. This thesis and its' recommendation for a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) are aimed at improving interoperability and CCTF operational readiness. The SOP will focus on the spectrum of Information Operations (IO) with regards to Military Operations Other Than War (MOOTW) and Small Scale Contingencies (SSC) during MNF operations. First, existing doctrine and cases will be analyzed to develop a foundation for this study. This thesis will seek to identify the existing IO procedures to be utilized during MNF operations. Next, exercise observations and lessons learned reviews serve as the basis for IO SOP Annex development to support the MNF SOP. / Lieutenant, United States Navy

The intense competition arising from globalisation requires MNCs to manage their HRs globally and strategically to become a source of competitive advantage. Hence, SIHRM acknowledges the need to balance global integration and local responsiveness, together with emphasising the importance of seeking strategic fit between HR policies and business strategy, which in turn leads to superior firm performance. Furthermore, this development also increased awareness and recognition of the role of senior managers and cultural traditions. Therefore, the primary purpose of this research was to explore the relationship between SIHRM effectiveness and firm performance as perceived by senior management coupled with the influence from MNCs' headquarters and Chinese cultural values. Consequently, the researcher selected a case study approach with a triangulation data collection method through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews undertaken in four selected subsidiaries of MNCs. The research findings strengthened the theoretical foundations of several HRM models, together with supporting Analoui's eight-parameter approach (1999) as a functional, coherent and interlinked framework regarding the effectiveness of senior managers. In particular, this research found that quality enhancement of products and service was the preferred and adopted key business strategy amongst the studied MNCs. Whilst they are also seeking to balance globalisation and localisation through reconciling control and adaptation rather than satisfying one at the expense of the other, such that the trend is for Western HR policies to be gradually accepted and internalised by the younger generation of the Chinese managers. Finally, this research made several recommendations to foreign MNCs operating in China.

The purpose of this study is, therefore, to investigate empirically the firm- and location-specific determinants of the magnitude of FDI by Korean manufacturing MNCs--one of the leading Third World MNCs. This study also examines firm-specific characteristics that distinguish Korean MNCs investing in developing countries from those investing in developed countries.

The past decade's globalisation has become an increasingly important topic in international business. Firms, therefore, search for business opportunities in new markets, where the aim is to increase revenue. However, many of the world’s developed economies are becoming more saturated, which leads to firms looking for opportunities in emerging countries. Recent studies and statistics indicate that the West-African region is developing thus leading to increased buying power and population growth. The purpose of this thesis is to research how firms can exploit opportunities which derive from the development in the West-African market, and sub-sequentially how the risks are managed. This study is conducted with a qualitative research method with an abductive approach based on eight MNC’s with experience from Ghana and Nigeria. Due to the lack of previous research on especially how firms exploit opportunities, it was key for the authors to go back and forth between empirical findings and the literature review to achieve a holistic view of the topic and find gaps in the existing literature. The authors further have created a conceptual framework based on previous literature which provided themes combined with the operationalisation to answer the research questions. The analysis discusses the existing literature combined with the empirical findings and the authors’ thoughts in the context of West-Africa. Lastly, a concluding chapter with results, theoretical- and practical implications, limitations, societal contribution and suggestion for further research is presented. The result of the thesis has provided further knowledge of how firms exploit opportunities and manage risks as well as how important the network is for firms entering West-Africa. The most significant finding shows that a firm needs to access the correct network upon entering Ghana and Nigeria in order to exploit any opportunity. The authors suggest that managers need to access the correct network via an agent providing them with local specific knowledge to overcome a lack of knowledge and initial risks. Further building upon the initial agents’ network will enable them to explore further opportunities within the West-African region.

<p>The primary objective of this study was to gain an understanding of the impact of psychological empowerment and job satisfaction on organizational commitment amongst employees in a multi-national organization. For the purpose of this study a quantitative, non-probability convenience sampling design was used to assess the three variables. The sample consisted of (N = 120) permanent employees were employed in the following departments namely: Administration, Engineering, Production, Quality and Commercial.</p>

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is an important subject in business administration, and has been for many years. Over the past few years it has been become an increasingly debated topic. The CSR subject mainly focuses on multinational enterprises (MNEs), resulting in a research gap concerning CSR in small and medium size enterprises (SMEs). SMEs outline the majority of all companies on the European market; therefore, it is empirically interesting to further investigate how SMEs perceive CSR commitment. The purpose of this dissertation is to explain how CSR commitment of internal and external stakeholders influences CSR commitment in SMEs. The research was conducted with a quantitative survey. The data collected with the survey was tested and analyzed with both an explanatory and exploratory research strategy. Explanatory research was performed in order to test the derived hypotheses and explain the research question. Exploratory research was then performed in order to provide a further understanding of how SMEs view stakeholders and their CSR commitment. These two research strategies revealed that internal and external stakeholders influence CSR commitment in SMEs. However, SMEs perceive some stakeholders similarly because of their relationship with the company. There are three main concepts of CSR commitment: environmental, social and financial responsibility. Results showed that financial CSR is considered distinctly different from the two other measured CSR concepts. The theoretical contributions may be of importance to owners of SMEs and MNEs in order to gain a deeper understanding of CSR as a subject. Also, findings can help scholars interested in further researching CSR commitment in SMEs. The methodological contributions of this dissertation are of relevance for future research on the subject, since the developed instrument for measuring CSR commitment was successful. Without an established measure for this area, this instrument enables further development and thereby more valid research regarding CSR commitment and SMEs.

The aim of this thesis is to critically examine and analyze multi-national corporation´s work with corporate social responsibility when it comes to environmental protection and sustainability. This study is therefore a case study, where empirical material about a multinational corporation, the company of Wärtsilä, is studied. These include annual sustainability reports and other official material available, as well as qualitative interviews with eight employees at Wärtsilä. This material is then analyzed through the theoretical framework of Corporate Social Responsibility (e.g., Caroll, 1979) and through the theory of Corporate Citizenship (Mirvis and Googins, 2006). The results show that Wärtsilä has come far when it comes to integrating and improving its product environmental performance, but there appears to be inconsistencies between the information collected from the reports etc. and the information gathered from the interviews. These inconsistencies show that there is a need for further integration of the goals for environmental protection and sustainability, presented in the official material, into all levels and departments of the company.

Finally, Taiwan was acceded into the World Trade Organization (WTO), opening up the gate for Taiwan to globalization. Therefore, businesses in Taiwan must brace for any challenges imposed by global competition caused by WTO. However, although globalization has created new opportunities in the international market, it will also give rise to increasingly intense competition for domestic market opportunities. Businesses must ponder and redefine how to stand up to an increasing number of competitors in the wake of globalization. This study was designed to investigate how multi-national businesses ¡V the vanguard of the international market ¡V use their sources of competition advantage, knowledge management and global layout strategy, as their chips to win over others in competing for international market share. This study also offers suggestions in this regard for multi-national businesses. After collecting and analyzing solid data, this study has come up with findings that follow: I. There exist no significant differences between business characteristics in the sources of competition advantage, knowledge management issue, global layout strategy, and the mechanism to implement knowledge management. II. There exists a significant positive correlation between each pair of these variables: the sources of competition advantage, knowledge management issue, global layout strategy, and the mechanism to implement knowledge management. III. Do such variables as the sources of competition advantage, knowledge management issue have predictive power for the mechanism to implement knowledge management and global layout strategy? 1. There exists significant influence between the sources of competition advantage and the mechanism to implement knowledge management. 2. There exists significant influence between knowledge management issue and the strategy of global layout. 3. There exists significant influence of knowledge management issue on the mechanism to implement knowledge management. IV. The sources of competition advantage, through the intermediate effect of knowledge management issue, can affect the strategy of global layout. V. The sources of competition advantage, through the intermediate effect of knowledge management issue, can affect the mechanism to implement knowledge management.

During the past planned economy in China, the local government established too many and too small-scale state-owned enterprises, and disregarded market faculty in order to be self-sufficiency. After carried out the market economy in China, those medium, small-scale state-owned enterprises would have faced harsh competition and test, and the scale economy in the market would be leading the industrial structure transforming of China in the future. The main purpose of this research is probing into the problems of the foreign-invested enterprises merger with the Chinese state-owned enterprises, because this research would like to know how the government of China to regulate those activities of the foreign-invested enterprises merger with the state-owned enterprises of China, and will help the foreign-invested enterprises to choose the most potential state-owned enterprises to merger with under the laws and decrees of China. After reformed and opened of China, and during joining the WTO, the main developed goal is how to attract more foreign investments, innovate state-owned enterprises, and fuse with the international market. Under insisting opening to the outside world, attracting more foreign investments tactics, China must adapt to the world tide, and encourage the state-owned enterprises and the multi-national corporations to work together, lead in advanced technologies, funds, managing and selling modes, and build R & D center to increase the international competitiveness of the state-owned enterprises by cross-border modes. However, the foreign-invested enterprises in order to contend for the Chinese market, will get the market share quickly by M & A mode, and this will cause the activities continuing expanding of the foreign-invested enterprises merger with the state-owned enterprises of China.

Due to the trend of globalization, Auto-parts industry in Taiwan is facing the challenge of market liberalized and global car companies¡¦ tactical regroup that cause the structural readjustment. In order to maintain market competitive capacity, Auto-parts companies in Taiwan head into internationalization gradually and set up overseas subsidiaries in different investing types, creating so-called multi-national enterprises. The overseas subsidiaries will not only present their different tactical missions they should undertake that are different from their headquarter¡¦s during expanding market share, but also play different roles in monolithic value chain. Under internationalized operation, how to keep track of transcendental international knowledge-management tactics and generate innovative motivity continuously will be a great challenge to reputed traditional industry- Auto-parts in the future. Through questionnaire-inquire method, this research reports explore the connection of the knowledge management and the ability of organization innovation in Auto-parts industry. Adding the view of internationalized tactics to search the above influence of otherness in order to find out the most optimum international knowledge-management operation mode. After this research is studied and verified, the main points of it as follows: 1. The analysis of otherness: This research points out that the level of internationalization to the Auto-parts firms does not cause any notable difference in knowledge management and organization innovation. 2. Influential analysis: In the part of affection of knowledge management to organization innovation, this research notes that other variable of knowledge management to management innovation and technology innovation exists positive connection aside from knowledge management tactics. The ¡§learning culture¡¨ is the most forecasting factor to management innovation and technology innovation. Besides, both ¡§knowledge-supporting information system¡¨ and ¡§knowledge-transfer advancement¡¨ get marked forecasting to the management innovation of Auto-parts industry. ¡§Multinational-integration-knowledge innovation¡¨ has notable forecasting to technology management. Only value-chain-activity causes influence in variable to the part of knowledge management and organization innovation in internationalized tactics. The research to Auto-parts industry remarks that learning culture, knowledge-supporting information system, knowledge-transfer advancement and multinational-integration-knowledge innovation enable knowledge management to create positive affection in organization innovation. Thus, as my suggestion, enterprises have to get the effort in cultivating learning culture, establishing knowledge-supporting information system, advancing knowledge transfer and using the method of integration to create knowledge.