This thesis consists of four individual essays and an introductory chapter. While independent from each other, these essays share some common properties. They are all empirical and focus on the interaction between inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI) and host country characteristics. The primary focus of the thesis lies in how inflows of FDI affect developing and transition economies. Macro-level data are used in all essays. The first essay analyses the FDI inflows that the transition economies of Eastern Europe have attracted and tries to find determinants of these inflows. The following two essays compare the effect of FDI between developing and developed economies. The second essay studies the relationship between corruption in the host country and the volume of FDI inflows. The third essay explores the effect of FDI inflows on host country economic growth. The fourth and final essay analyses the relationship between FDI and trade, focusing on the link between FDI flows and host country exports in eight East Asian economies.

This thesis emphasizes the technological evolution of technologically advanced foreign subsidiaries of multinational corporations, in order to examine specific and related research questions as to what is the nature of the advanced modern MNC regarding technological growth. In particular, evolutionary paths and potential limits to the development of technological capabilities at the level of individual foreign subsidiaries, and to what extent these subsidiaries serve as significant sources of technological capabilities for other actors in the multinational group are highlighted. More specific, longitudinal patterns and pace in the emergence and diffusion of new technological capabilities by advanced foreign subsidiaries are studied.   Event history analysis of the complete U.S. patenting activity of 23 Swedish multinationals over the 1893-1990 time period reveals accelerated emergence of new technological capabilities by advanced foreign subsidiaries, but at moderate hazard rates. The results also show that there are substantially different probabilities of introducing new technological capabilities depending on the type of entry mode and that acquired subsidiaries are much more important than greenfield subsidiaries as growth engines for the technological renewal of the MNC. Moreover, the findings suggest the presence of an increased pace in reverse diffusion, hence the later into the time period a technological capability emerges in an advanced foreign subsidiary, the faster it is diffused to headquarters. The results also demonstrate that the type of subsidiary has a significant influence on diffusion patterns of new technological capabilities and thus how capabilities are leveraged throughout the MNC network.   To conclude, a balanced view on the creative capabilities of the MNC seems to be called for. The modern MNC does have and display many of the features of the modern MNC as identified in previous literature, but the expectations traditionally and generally expressed in the literature may have been an overstatement of actual conditions and developments. The ultimate technological limits of advanced foreign subsidiaries seem far from reached, and the final word on the ultimate importance of these subsidiaries as significant sources of new technological capabilities for other actors in the MNC is still to be spoken.

Since the 1990s and the Swedish membership in the European Union in 1995, the presence of Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) has increased radically in the Swedish economy. The objective with this study is to analyze MNEs effects in different regions within the Swedish manufacturing industry in terms of productivity. Is a region with more MNEs, more pro-ductive than a region with a lower share of MNEs? The theory claims that productivity spillovers of MNEs occurs through three channels namely, via R&D, increased competi-tion and transmission of technology. By observing 81 regions which consists of all 290 municipals in Sweden and taking the average value of productivity and the explanatory variables trough 1997-2004, a cross-sectional analysis is conducted. The results evidently showed signs of productivity spillovers of MNEs on local firms in the manufacturing in-dustry. Findings suggest that (1) a regions with higher share of MNEs did face a higher re-gional productivity. However the spillovers was not successfully absorbed by regions with a industry structure that was not dominated by a the manufacturing industry. (2) Larger re-gions, in terms of population, tend to show a lower productivity level compared to the av-erage levels of the rest of the regions, since their structure was dominated by the service sector. (3) Regions with small technological difference compared to the MNEs, tends to hold the skills and knowledge needed to efficiently exploit the productivity spillovers, hence MNEs influence on regional productivity was greater in these regions than regions with a lower level of technical capability.

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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

Qu'est-ce que l'interculturalisme québécois? Voilà une question actuelle à laquelle peu d'éléments de réponse ont été apportés jusqu'à présent. D'ailleurs, la Commission Bouchard Taylor recommandait récemment à l'État québécois d'allouer des fonds de recherche pour l'étudier et d'adopter une politique qui le définisse et l'établisse officiellement comme modèle de gestion de la diversité. Ce mémoire s'inscrit dans cette perspective. Adoptant la forme de l'essai critique, il propose une définition de l'interculturalisme reposant sur trois postulats: sa caractéristique principale est qu'il a été conçu pour répondre aux défis particuliers auxquels le Québec est confronté à titre de société d'accueil majoritairement francophone se trouvant en contexte de minoritaire en Amérique du Nord et dont Ie statut politique renvoie à celui d'une entité fédérée; reconnaissant le Québec en tant que nation, il en fait son cadre d'opération; il correspond à la fois à une politique publique, à un idéal-type et à une pratique politique. Le premier chapitre examine le modèle canadien de gestion de la diversité (le multiculturalisme) afin de comprendre pourquoi le Québec a décidé de se doter de son propre modèle (l'interculturalisme). Pour leur part, les chapitres suivants explorent l'interculturalisme comme politique, idéologie et pratique politique. Voici les principales conclusions dc notre étude. Étant donné que le multiculturalisme canadien dans un cadre bilingue ne reconnaît pas le caractère distinct et national de la communauté politique québécoise, celle-ci n'a eu d'autre choix que de mettre en place sa propre politique de gestion de la diversité. Après avoir retracé son historique, notre étude montre que celle-ci en est à l'étape d'une reformulation, mais qu'au-delà des divisions partisanes, un consensus significatif se dégage: le Québec est une nation libérale, démocratique, pluraliste, inclusive et majoritairement francophone. Approfondissant ensuite ce consensus, notre étude propose une conception normative de l'interculturalisme reposant sur cinq principes ainsi que sur une représentation de la nation compatible avec ceux-ci. S'interrogeant, par la suite, sur les conditions de développement d'une telle représentation, notre étude montre que le mode de co-intégration est tout désigné pour relever ce défi. En guise de conclusion, l'interculturalisme québécois est comparé au multiculturalisme canadien afin d'identifier les éléments de convergence et de divergence et quelques perspectives de développement sont également proposées à l'endroit du premier. ______________________________________________________________________________ MOTS-CLÉS DE L’AUTEUR : Interculturalisme, Multiculturalisme, Politique publique, Modèle de pluralisme, Nation québécoise, Mode d'intégration, Diversité culturelle, Minorités ethnoculturelles, Minorités nationales, Majorité franco-québécoise, Immigration.

In this paper, we examine the relationship between political risk as an international environmental determinant of capital structure as well as other factors that contribute to capital structure including leverage, foreign exchange risk, agency costs of debt, and collateral value of assets. We conducted this research on a sample of 200 Singaporean, non-financial, listed domiciled multinational firms over the period of 2005 to 2009. The results suggest that political risk is irrelevant to the multinational capital structure, foreign exchange risk, agency costs of debt, and (netted) collateral value of assets. We find that the results remain unchanged after controlling for size and industry. The findings produce evidence that foreign exchange risk, as another international factor is also irrelevant to the Singaporean multinational capital structure choice. Additionally, agency costs of debt and (netted) fixed assets have a negative association with leverage for Singaporean multinational corporations.

Foreign direct investments that come with globalization bring benefits with them if opportunities are handled in the best manner. One opportunity rises with the institutional difference issue. Different countries have different institutional profiles. Institutional profiles briefly include culture, social norms or governmental regulations. When investing abroad, the bigger the institutional difference gets between the home country and the host country, the harder it gets to acquire the local institutional knowledge. This may result in a negative effect in the firm performance. To make the right decisions managers, being an important part of the decision making process, are required to have a profound understanding and knowledge of the local institutional environment. In here the investing companies have two options; either to use local managers or to acquire knowledge through the accumulation of experience. Building on the institutional theory, sixteen multinational companies operating in the manufacturing industry in Turkey are analyzed with the aim to contribute to the understanding of whether native managers or company experience is creating a better firm performance in consideration with handling the institutional differences. The results of this study point out that, the manager origin indeed influence the firm performance and native managers have a positive effect on the firm performance.

Vietnam is a developing country in South-East Asia with borders toward China, Laos and Cambodia. As other countries in the same area are far more developed, Vietnam can gain a lot from international trade. It is an important factor for a country to build prosperity and gain economic growth and thereby reach a higher standard of living. But for a company to succeed in the international market is a demanding task. Both internal and external factors that influence a company’s competence need to be taken into consideration. The awareness of Corporate Social Responsibility is increasing every day and it is becoming a more and more important factor for the end-customer as well as the buyers and suppliers. This Master Thesis deals with the relationship between Vietnamese suppliers and their international buyers and how Corporate Social Responsibility affects that relation. The result of the study shows that there are advantages for both the Vietnamese supplier and the international buyer. Companies that work together and care for each other will end up with a strong and long-term relation. Both the quality and the productivity increased and that the staff turn-over decreased when introducing CSR. One also has to understand that the international customers are in command and that the suppliers are merely following the customer’s demands. Furthermore, quality, price and delivery time are the most important factors when choosing a supplier but by working with CSR these factors will also be affected positively. It was also, apart from the main focus of this thesis, interesting to discover how corruption and cultural differences affected the supplier-buyer relation and also the discussion about whose responsibility it actually is to work with these issues; the buying rich customer or the relatively poor supplier?

The global flows of foreign direct investment (FDI) to Africa have increased steadily in recent years but the research on what determines the location of these investments is scarce. Research focusing on FDI flows from small and open economies such as Sweden is even more uncommon. From the locational factors found in the OLI paradigm we developed a model that was tested on a dataset of 25 African countries over the period of 2007 to 2010. The model proved inadequate in explaining the African inward FDI flows from Sweden. However, it well explains the aggregated inward FDI flows from firms around the world to Africa. Our results implies that the locational determinants derived from the OLI paradigm are inadequate in explaining Swedish FDI flows to Africa and maybe even in explaining flows from a small and open economy to developing countries. The answer to the question of what locational determinants are important for Swedish companies investing in African countries should perhaps be sought for elsewhere.