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The internationalisation of Chinese firms has attracted attention worldwide although most of Chinese MNEs are still in their early stage of internationalisation. Chinese firms internationalisation has unique characteristics due to their home country s unique political environment, culture and economic structure. This thesis aims to investigate the implications of both of short-term stock market performance and long-term operating performance of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) by Chinese firms. Drawing on signalling theory and the institution-based view, the thesis firstly examines the extent of stock market reactions to the announcement of cross-border merger and acquisition (M&A) deals from a financial perspective, based on an event study of a sample of Chinese firms during the period 2000-2012. The findings indicate that Chinese firms cross-border M&As result in a positive stock market reaction. The shareholders of Chinese firms that acquire a target firm in a host country with a low level of political risk gain higher cumulative abnormal returns than those firms targeting companies in countries with a high level of political risk. However, the shareholders of Chinese state-owned enterprises experience lower abnormal returns compared with those of Chinese privately owned firms when engaging in cross-border M&A deals. The thesis further examines the impact of M&As on Chinese firms post-acquisition operating performance by integrating organisational learning theory with the institution-based view. The findings indicate that firms with serial cross-border M&As achieve better performance than those engaged in first-time cross-border M&As, and those with horizontal M&As perform better than those carrying out vertical M&As. The positive effects of acquisition experience and horizontal acquisitions on the post-acquisition performance of Chinese acquiring firms are reinforced by the institutional quality and language similarity of host countries. Finally, this thesis investigates from a management perspective how Chinese MNEs adopt different management strategies (e.g. expatriates and subsidiary autonomy) to respond to environmental challenges and improve the performance of overseas subsidiaries. Drawing on the resource dependence theory, this thesis examines the indirect effects of expatriates on subsidiary performance via subsidiary autonomy based on a survey sample of Chinese MNEs. The findings show that an increase in expatriates reduces the level of subsidiary autonomy and thus negatively affects subsidiary performance. This study also finds that the institutional quality of host countries reinforces the negative impact of expatriates on subsidiary autonomy, but reduces the importance of the latter on subsidiary performance.

Outward Bound stands out amongst the rest of the wilderness organizations not only for its time-honored contribution to the field of wilderness education, but for its fundamental process and theories which contribute to its success. Academic attention in the field of wilderness programs largely overlooks the role of organizational culture. To fill the gap in our knowledge, this study synthesizes the academic conversation on Outward Bound programs and integrates it with the most consistent findings about organizational culture. Interviewing the participants and instructors of a 72-day long Outward Bound course conducted in 2015 provides clear insight into the role of organizational culture on Outward Bound, its formation, management, and impacts, as well as overall course outcomes for participants. My research finds that the culture within organizations that are built to dissolve can create meaningful and lasting cultural shifts in its members including increases in interpersonal dimensions such as open-mindedness, patience and improved relationships, as well as in intrapersonal dimensions such as independence, confidence and motivation. Drawing on participant responses, I further find that the role of subgroups, conflict, and exclusion can be contentious, contributing to instability and division in organizational culture. Conversely, shared values, familial themes, and compassion can coalesce to unify the culture so strongly that all participants reflect back on the culture as net positive and their experience with Outward Bound as one of growth and positive transformation.

This thesis explores three important factors that have been central to the pursuit of economic growth, particularly in the developing and emerging economies. These are Outward Foreign Direct Investment, Reverse Technology Spillovers, and Total Factor Productivity. Chapter 2 examines whether India’s Outward Foreign Direct Investment (OFDI) pattern is consistent with Dunning’s Investment Development Path (IDP) sequence using macro data over the period 1980-2010. It tests whether the level of development - proxied by GDP per capita - is the main factor explaining OFDI, and augments the IDP by studying other major determinants such as exports, Inward FDI, human capital, and R&D using the Cointegration and Error Correction Model techniques. The results support the main proposition of the IDP, but also highlight the importance of other factors. We also find that OFDI granger-causes R&D, suggesting a possibility of reverse technology spillover. Chapter 3 analyses the ‘feedback effect’ of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) on Total Factor Productivity (TFP) growth of emerging economies via technology spillovers across borders. We study the effect of R&D spillovers resulting from Outward FDI flows from 18 emerging economies into 34 OECD countries over the 1990-2010 period, comparing the impact with that of spillovers resulting from Inward FDI flows. The result confirms that FDI enhances productivity growth in the home country; however the impact is much larger when R&D-intensive developed countries invest in the emerging economies than the other way round. The country-specific bilateral elasticities also support this outcome. Finally, Chapter 4 studies twofold stages of OFDI – determinants and effects – at a disaggregated level, using data on OFDI undertaken by 34 countries in 10 major sectors of US during 1990-2010. The main aim of this essay is to provide micro evidence in support of outcomes of Chapter 2 & 3. The first stage concentrates on the driving forces of OFDI to understand its macroeconomic determinants, by distinguishing the factors into 3 broad categories: country specific, sector specific and time specific variables. In the second stage, we then study how the home countries benefit from the OFDI that they undertake in the US, in terms of the impact of induced reverse technology spillovers. This stage entails the creation of a foreign R&D capital term as the weighted average of R&D intensity of US with the OFDI undertaken by the home countries into US. It investigates both direct and interaction effects of such R&D spillovers on the growth of home country’s TFP. The analysis also considers a lag structure to allow for a time lag in the transfer and effect of foreign R&D capital. Results for both the stages confirm the set hypotheses.

Diploma thesis on the Investment and Commercial Opportunities for our Enterprises in Selected Territories deals with gradual internalization of Czech enterprises. Author aims to describes development of OFDI in connection with development of IFDI. The work attempts to find out whether the Czech OFDI development corresponds with concept "Investment Development Path" (IDP). Risks of dual economy are also regarded. In the next part the thesis is concerned with need of international supporting policy and its institutional assurance. The last part focuses on investment and commercial opportunities of our enterprises in present and mainly prospective markets. Czech production used to be very well-known in these markets and still has good reputation.

Indoor horticulture offers a promising solution for sustainable food production and is becoming increasingly widespread. However, it incurs high energy and cost due to the use of artificial lighting such as high-pressure sodium lamps, fluorescent light or increasingly, the light-emitting diodes (LEDs). The energy efficiency and light quality of currently available lighting is suboptimal, therefore less than ideal for sustainable and cost-effective large-scale plant production. Here, we demonstrate the use of high-powered single-wavelength lasers for indoor horticulture. Lasers are highly energy-efficient and can be remotely guided to the site of plant growth, thus reducing on-site heat accumulation. Besides, laser beams can be tailored to match the absorption profiles of different plants. We have developed a prototype laser growth chamber and demonstrate that laser-grown plants can complete a full growth cycle from seed to seed with phenotypes resembling those of plants grown under LEDs. Importantly, the plants have lower expression of proteins diagnostic for light and radiation stress. The phenotypical, biochemical and proteomic data show that the singlewavelength laser light is suitable for plant growth and therefore, potentially able to unlock the advantages of this next generation lighting technology for highly energy-efficient horticulture. Furthermore, stomatal movement partly determines the plant productivity and stress management. Abscisic acid (ABA) induces stomatal closure by promoting net K+-efflux from guard cells through outwardrectifying K+ (K+ out) channels to regulate plant water homeostasis. Here, we show that the Arabidopsis thaliana guard cell outward-rectifying K+ (ATGORK) channel is a direct target for ABA in the regulation of stomatal aperture and hence gas exchange and transpiration. Addition of (±)-ABA, but not the biologically inactive (−)-isomer, increases K+ out channel activity in Vicia faba guard cell protoplast. A similar ABA-modulated K+ channel conductance was observed when ATGORK was heterologously expressed in human embryonic kidney 293 (HEK-293) cells. Alignment of ATGORK with known PYR/PYL/RCARs ABA receptors revealed that ATGORK harbors amino acid residues that are similar to those at the latchlike region of the ABA-binding sites. In ATGORK, the double mutations K559A and Y562A at the predicted ABA-interacting site impaired ABA-dependent channel activation and reduced the affinity for ABA in vitro.

Academic literature has increasingly shown escape foreign direct investment (FDI) to be a strategic motive used by firms investing abroad to diversify their risk to their home market. Internationalisation allows firms to mitigate the risk of being based in uncertain environments characterised by underdeveloped institutions and economic weakness (institutional voids), which are seen as comparative disadvantages. By expanding abroad, firms reduce their dependence on the home market for their revenues and profits. To date, most existing research has explored the characteristics, drivers and motivations for outbound FDI from emerging economies, but has paid relatively less attention to the economic consequences of such investments. The aim of this study is to gain an understanding of the economic consequences of escape FDI. Understanding the economic consequences of escape FDI will enable managers of South African multinational firms (MNEs) to develop and implement internationalisation strategies that create value, as measured by an increase in market capitalisation, for the firm. Quantitative, explanatory research methods were adopted in order to gain new insights into the economic consequences of escape FDI. The study adopted a longitudinal, multi-industry design and was deductive in nature. The population was 85 firms, which were investigated over a 5-year period, with an interval between 2013 and 2018. The data was analysed using descriptive statistics followed by confirmatory regression analysis. The key finding was that South African MNEs who invested in emerging markets, particularly in multiple host countries in Africa whilst adopting a “portfolio approach” to their international investments, delivered exceptional performance, creating significant value in the process. The secondary finding was that individual firms who either invested in emerging markets or developed markets created and destroyed value evenly, confirming existing literature that firms are heterogeneous and that a firms place in time and space, and thus context, matters fundamentally. The findings from this research add to the extant literature in the field of international business by introducing the “portfolio approach” to international investment strategy and performance. The implications for management is that firms need to understand their ownership advantages in designing and implementing international investment strategies because escape based FDI and related economic performance can have profound direct consequences for the firm itself, but indirectly on the wider community as a whole. / Mini Dissertation (MPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MPhil (International Business) / Unrestricted

Outward Bound and the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) are two of the United State’s largest providers of outdoor education and adventure recreation programs. While many studies have examined the outcomes of the different organizations individually, there is very little comparative research. This study compared the attributes, consequences, and values obtained by 510 participants of courses 14 days or longer in the Rocky Mountain region during the summer of 2006. Means-end theory was used to analyze data obtained from participants through personal interviews. Means-end theory links the physical objects or services, the means, with the outcomes and the personal values of the individual, the ends (Klenosky, Frauman, Norman, & Gengler 1998). The theory focuses on the interrelationship among attributes, consequences, and values, as three levels of abstraction (Goldenberg, Klenosky, O’Leary, & Templin, 2000). Data were collected using a convenience sampling method from OB schools in Leadville, Marble, and Silverton, Colorado and the NOLS headquarters in Lander, Wyoming, for a total of 162 OB participants and 348 NOLS participants. Interview questions were entered into LadderMap software, a program used to analyze means-end data. Content codes were developed and then tested by an additional researcher to measure intercoder reliability. An implication matrix was then created to tabulate the frequency of concepts being associated with one another. Hierarchical value maps (HVMs) were then created to graphically depict the themes and relationships that surfaced in the implication matrix. Seven HVMs were developed to visually present the data for all participants, all NOLS participants, all OB participants, OB males, OB females, NOLS males, and NOLS females. Though all HVMs were varied, some themes emerged by organization. For example, all NOLS participants had slightly more significant links to hard skills development than did their OB counterparts. NOLS and OB females stated being challenged and interactions as their most significant consequences yet corresponding males had slightly less emphasis on being challenged and more emphasis on new experience. This study produced more similarities than differences among the various subsets of the population. For example all HVMs showed a clear link from multiple attributes to independence, and ultimately to transference and additional values. The HVMs showed that new experiences, being challenged, and group interactions were significant components for all participants. The most common values obtained also demonstrate great similarity among participant demographics. These values include transference, sense of accomplishment, self respect/esteem/confidence, and self-awareness.

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Gain of function of cardiac voltage-gated sodium channel (Nav1.5) leads to Long QT Syndrome Type 3 (LQT3). LQT3 phenotype can be exacerbated by expanding the perinexus, which is an intercellular nanodomain with high density of Nav1.5 in the intercalated disc. Following this finding, we found that elevating extracellular sodium and widening the perinexus synergistically exacerbated LQT3 phenotype, Importantly, we also found that perinexal expansion increases the susceptibility to cardiac arrest in aged LQT3, which demonstrated that perinexal expansion is an arrhythmogenic risk especially in aged LQT3 patients. Furthermore, we observed that the perinexus narrows with aging and conceals LQT3 phenotype, which suggests that perinexal narrowing may have a cardio-protective role during aging in LQT3. Surprisingly, following the finding of the synergistic effect of extracellular sodium elevation and perinexal widening on LQT3 phenotype in drug-induced LQT3 guinea pig hearts, we found that this synergistic effect was not observed in genetically-modified LQT3 mouse hearts, which is due to high sodium also increasing transient outward potassium current (Ito). In summary, the whole project investigated the role of the perinexus in LQT3 from different conditions including sodium, aging and species. The findings in this project discovered the importance of perinexal expansion in LQT3 and also the involvement of Ito in sodium regulating LQT3 phenotype in hearts which functionally express Ito channels. Therefore, a LQT3 animal model which has similar electrophysiology close to human may be a great option for translational purpose. / Doctor of Philosophy / Long QT Syndrome Type 3 (LQT3) is an inherited heart disease with the phenotype of long QT interval in ECG. It has been found that LQT3 phenotype gets worse when a very tiny space in the heart, termed as the perinexus, is wide due to cardiac edema. Following this finding, we also found that increasing sodium concentration together with wide perinexus can further exacerbate LQT3 phenotype in guinea pig hearts. Furthermore, we found that widening the perinexus in aged LQT3 hearts causes cardiac death but not in adult, which suggests that perinexal widening worsens LQT3 phenotype and even leads to cardiac death in aged hearts. Besides, we found that the perinexus narrows with aging and there is no difference in LQT3 phenotype between adult and aged hearts, which suggests that the narrow perinexus during aging may protect the hearts from cardiac death in LQT3. Surprisingly, we discovered that increasing sodium and widening the perinexus together fails to exacerbate LQT3 phenotype when compared with widening the perinexus alone in LQT3 mouse hearts, which is due to high sodium increasing transient outward potassium current (Ito). Notably, Ito channels are not functionally expressed in guinea pig hearts. In summary, the whole project investigated the role of the perinexus in LQT3 from different conditions including sodium, aging and species. The findings in this project discovered the importance of perinexal expansion in LQT3 and also the involvement of Ito in sodium regulating LQT3 phenotype in hearts. Therefore, a LQT3 animal model which has similar electrophysiology close to human may be a great option for translational purpose.