The foundational international business (IB) scholarship grappled with whether multinational enterprises (MNEs) are largely efficiency-enhancing or market-power inducing institutions. Contemporary scholarship, however, often associates foreign direct investment (FDI) with efficiency-enhancing properties and thus neglects the market-power interpretation of the MNE. Such an imbalance is problematic given that the theoretical and empirical justifications behind the field's embrace of the efficiency interpretation are not fully evident. Instead, both efficiency and market-power effects are seemingly present in cross-border investment activity. Based on a comprehensive sample of up to 4,361 cross-border investments materializing between 1986 and 2010, we present theoretically-grounded hypotheses with regard to when market-power effects will tend to dominate efficiency effects. We find that cross-border investments undertaken by emerging-market MNEs in both developed and emerging markets tend to involve substantial efficiency effects and minimal market-power effects when compared with the cross-border investments undertaken by developed-country MNEs in both developed and emerging markets.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo analisar os determinantes do processo de internacionalização das empresas brasileiras do setor de carne bovina, tendo como fundamentação teórica os modelos de internacionalização disponíveis na literatura econômica. O trabalho baseia-se na hipótese de que as empresas brasileiras do setor de carne bovina adotaram estratégias bem sucedidas de internacionalização, evidenciadas pela posição de destaque que atingiram nos rankings de internacionalização em menos de uma década. A estrutura do estudo consiste no desenvolvimento de um modelo analítico de Estudo de Caso, aplicado às três maiores empresas multinacionais de carne bovina do Brasil, conforme identificado em rankings de internacionalização de multinacionais brasileiras: JBS, Marfrig e Minerva. A partir de informações coletadas via entrevistas aplicadas às empresas e dados levantados em relatórios disponíveis nos respectivos websites, artigos acadêmicos, revistas e periódicos, conclui-se que essas empresas possuíam diversas vantagens específicas em um setor que o Brasil apresenta vantagem comparativa de produção. Tais vantagens, alinhadas à busca por matéria-prima, acesso a novos mercados e fortalecimento das vendas em mercados considerados estratégicos, foram os principais determinantes para o seu processo de internacionalização. Apesar de a JBS e Marfrig se beneficiarem, por meio de aporte de capital do BNDES, de uma política ativa do governo para promover a consolidação e expansão da liderança brasileira no mercado internacional de proteína animal, não se pode dizer que este foi o único determinante da internacionalização, uma vez que a Minerva não se utilizou desse instrumento e, mesmo assim, conquistou posição de destaque no ranking de multinacionais brasileiras. O trabalho busca, também, identificar prováveis impactos da internacionalização sobre alguns indicadores das empresas. Conclui-se, ainda, que as estratégias de internacionalização adotadas pelas três empresas estão em linha com os principais modelos de internacionalização da literatura econômica, com destaque para os de Dunning (1977) e de Cuervo-Cazurra (2007), que combina o modelo de Uppsala e Dunning. / The current paper aims at analyzing the main drivers for the internationalization process of the Brazilian beef muntinationals enterprises, based on the internationalization teoretichal models available in the economic literature. The paper relies on the hypothesis that these enterprises have adopted successful internationalization strategies, whice are evidenced by the leading position that the companies have reached in the internationalization rankings in less than one decade. The structure of the paper is comprised of the development of a Case Study analytical model, which is applied to the three largest muntinational beef companies from Brazil, as identified in internationalizion rankings of Brazilian multinationals: JBS, Marfrig and Minerva. Based on information collected via enterview with the companies, data rose in reports available in ther respective websites, papers, journals, academic magazines and articles, it was possible to conclude that these companies had several specific advantages in a sector that Brazil already presents comparative advangate regarding production. Such advantages, in line with the search for raw-material supply, access to new markets and for strengthening the sales in strategic markets, were the main drivers for the internationalization process of the companies aforementioned. Although JBS and Marfrig benefited, via capital injection from BNDES, of an active policy of the Brazilian government to promote the consolidation and expansion of Brazil\'s leadership in the international animal protein market, it\'s not possible to infer that this was the only driver for the internationalization, given that Minerva didn\'t rely on these resources and still managed to acquire a leading position in the Brazilian internationalizion ranking. The paper also analyzes likely impacts of the internationalization on some indicators of the companies studied. On top of that, the current paper concludes that the internationalization strategies adopted by the three companies are in line with the main internationalation models available in the literature, highlighting the one from Dunning (1977) and Cuervo-Cazurra (2007), which combines both the Uppsala and Dunning model.

Abstract -   Background: Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been a concept related to corporations for decades and is still highly relevant. The concept has been developed throughout the years, resulting in an extensive concept. This thesis, however, defines CSR as a corporation’s willingness, engagement and ability to participate in societal objectives.   Purpose: The purpose of this master thesis is to analyse business management of CSR. More specifically, in the context of MNEs subsidiaries implementation and management of CSR in practice relating to services, retailing and manufacturing industries.     Method: A qualitative multiple case study was conducted in order to carry out the purpose. The empirical data was collected by doing 14 semi-structured interviews from five MNEs in three different industries.    Findings: Common findings in all five MNEs are, a global management team in all organizations, that the organizational goal is in line with the organizational standard and that all MNEs encounter a local demand. Moreover, all five MNEs were found to measure, track and evaluate their processes by using one or a couple evaluation methods. Lastly, it was clear that all responsibilities within Carroll's pyramid of CSR were valued within the participating MNEs and that CSR is believed to become increasingly more important in the future.    Conclusion: The final conclusion of this thesis is that the importance of CSR will increase in the future for MNEs and its subsidiaries based on the current market situation. Furthermore, MNEs tend to manage and implement CSR in subsidiaries based on a global framework. The amount of local adaptation differs between industries and MNEs, however, if the CAGE distance is bigger the local adaptation tends to be bigger. / Sammanfattning -   Bakgrund: CSR har varit ett koncept förknippat med företag i årtionden och det är fortfarande mycket relevant. CSR har utvecklats genom åren, vilket har resulterat i ett brett koncept. I denna avhandling definieras CSR som företagens vilja, engagemang och förmåga att delta i mål som gynnar samhället.   Syfte: Syftet med denna magisteruppsats är att analysera företagsledningen av CSR. Närmare bestämt i kontexten av multinationella företags dotterbolags utförande och förvaltning av CSR i praktiken, i relation till företag inom, tjänste-, återförsäljnings och tillverkningsindustrin.   Metod: Flera kvalitativa fallstudier har utförts för att uppfylla syftet med denna uppsats. Empirin är baserad på 14 semistrukturerade intervjuer med fem multinationella företag i tre olika industrier.   Resultat: De gemensamma resultaten för alla fem deltagande multinationella företagen är, ett globalt ledarskapsteam i sin verksamhet, att verksamhetsmålet är i linje med organisationens standard och att de alla upplever en lokal efterfrågan. Vidare fann man att alla fem multinationella företagen mäter, spårar och utvärderar sina processer genom att använda ett eller ett par utvärderingsmetoder. Slutligen var det tydligt att alla ansvarsområden inom Carroll´s CSR-pyramid värderades inom de deltagande företagen och att de alla tror att CSR kommer att bli allt viktigare i framtiden.     Slutsats: Slutsatsen i denna avhandling är att CSR kommer att öka i framtiden för multinationella företag och dess dotterbolag baserat på den nuvarande marknadssituationen. Dessutom tenderar multinationella företag att hantera och genomföra CSR i dotterbolag baserat på en global ram. Mängden lokal anpassning skiljer sig mellan branscher och multinationella företag, om CAGE-avståndet är större tenderar den lokala anpassningen att vara större.

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.

<p>The pressures of increased foreign competition can persuade a company to expand its business into international markets. In most cases, the motive is a search for improved cost efficiency or looking for the chance to expand and achieve growth. Swedish firms often develop their international operations in small steps rather than by making large foreign production investments at single points in time. Typically firms start exporting to a country via an agent, later establish a sales subsidiary, and eventually, in some cases, begin production in the host country. Such process was called Uppsala Model or Internationalisation Stage Model. The aim of this thesis is to investigate whether Uppsala Internationalisation Model apply to transition market such as Poland. The year 1989 was an important turning point in the history of the Polish economy. After a long period of isolation to the Western world, Poland opened its boarders not only for visitors and tourists, but also for foreign companies. Many of them have invested in production in Poland during the transition period. One of the Swedish investors present in Poland almost from the beginning of the transition process is Scania. Scania holds fourth position in the world in manufacturing trucks and buses, and the second place in Europe in sales of heavy trucks. Poland as a transition market attracted Scania for many different reasons such as market size, geographical location and future growth perspectives. Company's activities confirmed the assumption that Internationalisation Stage Model can be applied to transition country and can explain MNE's initial steps in the unknown environment.</p>

The pressures of increased foreign competition can persuade a company to expand its business into international markets. In most cases, the motive is a search for improved cost efficiency or looking for the chance to expand and achieve growth. Swedish firms often develop their international operations in small steps rather than by making large foreign production investments at single points in time. Typically firms start exporting to a country via an agent, later establish a sales subsidiary, and eventually, in some cases, begin production in the host country. Such process was called Uppsala Model or Internationalisation Stage Model. The aim of this thesis is to investigate whether Uppsala Internationalisation Model apply to transition market such as Poland. The year 1989 was an important turning point in the history of the Polish economy. After a long period of isolation to the Western world, Poland opened its boarders not only for visitors and tourists, but also for foreign companies. Many of them have invested in production in Poland during the transition period. One of the Swedish investors present in Poland almost from the beginning of the transition process is Scania. Scania holds fourth position in the world in manufacturing trucks and buses, and the second place in Europe in sales of heavy trucks. Poland as a transition market attracted Scania for many different reasons such as market size, geographical location and future growth perspectives. Company's activities confirmed the assumption that Internationalisation Stage Model can be applied to transition country and can explain MNE's initial steps in the unknown environment.

This paper reviews and summarises the results of selected studies on performance gaps between multinational enterprises and their domestic counterparts. Performance gaps arise in such fields as productivity, technology, profitability, wages, skills and growth. While these gaps are often attributed to foreign ownership of the affiliates, the theory of the Multinational Enterprise argues that these gaps are due to being a Multinational rather than the nationality of the firm. Empirical evidence on the existence of performance gaps between foreign and domestic firms is supportive of this view: foreign ownership turns out to be a much less important explanatory factor than normally assumed. Firm-specific assets and firm characteristics like industry, size, parent country and multinationality per se are more important. Such results are broadly consistent with those derived in the literatures on ownership change, on foreign entry and on spillovers. We conclude that there is little case for foreign direct investment promotion policies to discriminate between firms on the basis of ownership. / Series: Department of Economics Working Paper Series

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.

This study describes the factors that drive competitiveness between local firms and multinational enterprises (MNE) in a retail consumer market of an emerging country. It also seeks to identify the approaches and strategies the competitors consider and adopt to maintain the advantage in the consumer market.The objective of this study is to identify the factors local firms and MNE’s will consider when competing with each other. The study also wants to identify the preferred mode of entry of MNE’s.The study will be a quantitative study where relationships between competitors and their performance in the market are measured.The results revealed that local firms do have a competitive advantage over MNE’s in the retail consumer market due to the local firm’s knowledge of the market, rather than the technology and skills. It’s also clear that MNE have a preferred mode of entry and they chose to compete in the industries where they are stronger than the local firms. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Culture is a social phenomenon that affects the daily lives of individuals. How we view the world is often reflected by our national culture forming our values, beliefs, and assumptions about what reality looks like. Since the globalization trend has paved the way for organizations to broaden their horizons, and because markets are no longer bound to geographical locations, culture plays a bigger role than ever before. For organizations being introduced to an increased number of cultures, the requirements of flexibility and adaptability drastically increase for both management and individuals working within these organizations. The organization further creates its own organizational culture, which is present alongside the different national cultures, and guides employees in their daily operations. Further, culture, to a great extent, determines the behaviors of individuals, and thus how one chooses to communicate and collaborate. In previous research, the emphasis on culture is extensive. The influences culture has had on large, international organizations have been widely debated in the academic world, and many practices in global organizations make use of the findings of such research. In addition to cultural research, communication and collaboration have been debated as correlated with culture in separate ways. Since the emphasis on culture has been great, additions have been made of how culture determines how one communicates or collaborates but not enough focus has been on the two and their relationship, and the combination of the three topics. There have also been calls within the academic world for more research on the phenomenon of culture. The authors of this thesis aimed to contribute to research with an attempt to fill this gap, increasing the existing knowledge on culture, communication and collaboration, which individuals and organizations can find useful. This thesis contributes with interesting results that confirmed, added to, and contradicted existing theory. The findings suggest culture as significantly impacting the multinational enterprise through its paradoxical influences, simultaneously affecting the organization in both positive and negative ways. Within the topics affected, communication and collaboration, four central themes were identified. These themes were decision-making, hierarchical and power structures, managing emotions, and managing change. In combination with the theoretical framework of this thesis, a conceptual model of the influences of culture on the topics of communication and collaboration, and on the four themes, was created. In the model, whether the paradoxical influences of culture are primarily positive or negative, is determined by the management of such influencess. This thesis further hints at directions for future research, as interesting findings can benefit from being further researched in detail. The findings of this thesis can be utilized in several ways, applying to an individual as well as an organizational level. By bringing cultural differences to light, one can overcome barriers and benefit from insights and different perspectives in operations, resulting in an increase of effectiveness and reproduction of positive emotions in the workplace. As understandings of culture could diminish barriers and increase humbleness towards individuals' dissimilarities, one seeking development could be greatly enlightened through such understandings.