Background: Companies often invest in foreign subsidiaries and that gives rise to translation exposure. Translation exposure arises with the consolidation of the foreign subsidiary and depends on the rate of exchange that are used for translation of the foreign subsidiary. In time several different methods of translation and recommendations has been developed. Companies listed on OM Stockholmsbörsen shall follow RR8. According to RR8 a classification of foreign subsidiaries as indipendent or integral to the parent company determines which method of translation that should be used. Therefore it is important that the classification is made correct. Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to examen how the classification of foreign subsidiaries as independent or integral to the parent company is done, what criteria that are being used and if RR8 has had any influence on the classification. This should answer the question of whether RR8 is being observed or if there is a need of further explanations within the field. Demarcations: Only companies listed on OM Stockholmsbörsen are included. Branches are not included and not special recommendations for foreign subsidiaries in countries with high rate of inflation. Accomplishments: A questionnaire to 75 companies. Before that a small study of ten annual reports was carried out. Results: RR8 is not being observed and there is a big spread in how the indicators in RR8 is being used. The companies do not consider the concequences of the classification. Only a few companies have reclassified their foregn subsidiaries since RR8 came into force. The companies do not seem to give any importance to the classification and therefore the effectiveness of RR8 can be questioned.

In 1993 the Swedish stock exchange opened up for foreign buyers. Since then, more and more Swedish companies have become foreign owned, which in turn means that more and more employees are getting foreign employers. The ongoing globalization process is indicating this trend will continue. The question is if the foreign investor will prioritize development in Sweden or if the research and development departments will be moved out from Sweden. A common effect of foreign acquisitions of Swedish companies has been the move of head offices out from Sweden, which can cause Sweden to lose competences in how to lead a large organization. Moreover, most foreign owned companies are controlled by a foreign company or investor from any of the countries Norway, the USA, United Kingdom or Denmark. The purpose of this study is, from a management perspective, to investigate and discuss if and how a manager’s role and leadership style is influenced by having a foreign owner. As a part of the discussion the study will also examine which impact a foreign owner has on a Swedish subsidiary according to its leader. To accomplish the purpose of the study a qualitative approach has been applied. Telephone interviews of a semi structured character have been conducted with six managers with leading positions within middle-sized and large-sized companies. Foreign owned subsidiaries tend to be managed rather independently from within the parent companies. In general, the subsidiaries have autonomy to a certain degree decided by the frames which have been set up by the parent company. Any larger cultural differences have not been found, which appear to be a result of the subsidiaries’ independency. To summarize, having a foreign owner do not seems to have a direct influence on the managers’ role and leadership style.

Background International trade has dramatically increased during the last half of the 20th century and it is now of significant importance to most eco-nomies. International trade is especially crucial to countries such as Sweden, with a small domestic market. It has been said that a com-pany needs to have a committed management, as well as a strategy for it’s export and it’s marketing to reach long-term success. Never-theless, companies sometimes use a “strategy of least involvement”, leaving the international marketing strategy decisions in the hands of foreign agents and distributors. Purpose The purpose with this thesis is to investigate how the export and marketing strategies have been developed and implemented by suc-cessful Swedish export companies. Method Winners of the Export-Hermes Prize and Stora Exportpriset have been used as a sample of successful export companies. Qualitative semi-structured interviews with four of them were conducted to col-lect the empirical data. Conclusion The export companies in this study showed great differences con-cerning their original export ambitions, the methods they used to se-lect foreign markets, the modes that they used to enter new markets and the pace in which the international expansions were carried out. There were however strong similarities between the successful ex-port companies in other areas. All four companies had owners and top management who had been, and in most cases still were, highly involved and driving forces in the export activities. The companies also shared a belief in working with clear goals and having a strict control over subsidiaries and intermediaries. The authors are of the opinion that this control and monitoring are crucial for the success of the implementation of the export and marketing strategies.

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

We derive empirical predictions from the standard investment-cash flow framework on the functioning of internal capital markets (ICM), but circumvent its criticism by focusing on parent cash flow and investment opportunities. We test these predictions using a unique data set of parent firms and their listed and unlisted subsidiaries in 90 countries over the period 1995-2006. We find that company and country institutional structures matter. (1) Ownership participation of the parent firm in the subsidiary plays a crucial role for the proper functioning of ICMs. The larger the ownership stake of the parent, the better the functioning of the ICM. (2) The best functioning cross-border ICMs can be found in the sub-sample of firms with parents from a country with "strong" institutions and subsidiaries from a country with "weak" institutions. (3) Unlisted subsidiaries are much more dependent on the ICMs their parents provide than listed subsidiaries. Thus, ICMs are not per se "bright" or "dark", their proper functioning depends on how they are set up. (authors' abstract)

Introduction: Nowadays firms must focus on maintaining healthy finished goods inventory stocks in order to be able to decrease inventory costs, meet customer requirements and to obtain competitive advantage. However large decentralized manufacturing companies often face the problem of sub-optimization in inventory management in subsidiaries due to several different reasons. As a result, company loses its competitiveness. Thus, there is a need to coordinate inventory activities of subsidiaries to prevent sub-optimization. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to investigate whether coordination mechanisms highlighted in academic literature are used in practice on the example of manufacturing company with decentralized decision-making structure for optimization finished goods inventory stocks. Frame of reference: This research is based on theoretical framework and empirical findings. Empirical data were collected through personal interviews and retrieved from organisational documents. Methodology: The research strategy for this paper is a single case study. This strategy allows investigating topic in its real life context. The deductive approach is used for this research based on qualitative data. The major source of data collection was semi-structured interviews and the company's documents. For analysing data categorisation approach was applied. Conclusion: The study found that most of coordination mechanisms presented in scientific literature are used in practice. To achieve better results these mechanisms should be applied simultaneously and consistently since they complement each other. We also observed that coordination mechanisms indeed give positive results and are able to optimize inventory management.

With the emergence of China market, MNCs are so attracted by it on one hand, and so afraid of the high failure ratio of entering the Mainland China market. During the process of chasing the Mainland China market, MNCs usually rely on the subsidiaries of Taiwan for support, and utilize it to enter Mainland China. However, with the marker of Mainland China turning bigger and bigger, lots of MNC Taiwan subsidiaries seem to face the threat of substitution of China Subsidaries, and come up with the question weather Taiwan subsidiaries should be continued or not. This study has focused on the subsistence of Taiwan subsidiaries and the relationships between the Cross-Strait subsidiaries. This research is under the observation of Taiwan subsidiaries¡¦ value, Cross-Strait subsidiaries¡¦ resource asymmetry, and the nature of value activities, to explore how these variables influence the subsistence of MNCs¡¦ Taiwan subsidiaries. By Use of the strategic role of MNC subsidiaries, subsidiaries¡¦ dependence on MNCs, resource based view, and subsidiary¡¦s network characteristics, this research probe into the independent variable that influence the subsistence of Taiwan subsidiaries and the relation between Taiwan and China subsidiaries. This research uses questionary survey to collect data. The population is the list of foreignenterprises in Taiwan published by Dun and Bradstreet, 1999 / 2000. The subsidiaries belong to manufacturing industry and non-financial service industry and are owned by foreign MNCs. The scale of these subsidiaries is above 30 people and still under operation by now. We use multi-regression analysis, ANCOVA analysis, and binominal logistic regression analysis to examine the effects of independent variables on Taiwan subsidiaries¡¦ threat of subsistence. After analyzing 59 MNCs¡¦ Taiwan subsidiaries, the results reveal that the importance of Taiwan subsidiary, the resource and capability of Taiwan subsidiaries, the integration of Taiwan subsidiaries with MNCs, the local responsiveness of Taiwan subsidiaries , the industrial embracement of Taiwan subsidiaries, the similarity of value activities between Taiwan and China subsidiaries, do have influence on Taiwan subsidiaries¡¦ subsistence. In addation, different kinds of relation between Taiwan and China subsidiaries have its specific combination of dependent variables, and imply different degree of threat of subsistence.

¢Ûanufacturing industry is leaning toward globalization. After year 2000, traditional manufacturing industry has gained some experience toward foreign operations. Consequently, continual investment toward foreign subsidiaries should be studied carefully according to the following three methods: sole ownership, cooperative ownership while retaining control, and investment without majority control of the foreign subsidiary. Careful study of each method is required for multinational corporations in order to avoid wasting time and resource on management. Potential pitfalls include, but are not limited to, losing control of the foreign subsidiary, disagreements between shareholders, inappropriate levels of management. This study is an analysis and discussion of the three different methods. This study for the international netting manufacturer is focussing on ¡§Human Resource Management Utilizing Strategy and Control Model¡¨. This method should be helpful in watching over the operations of the foreign subsidiary. Furthermore, the purpose of this study is to help the business manager, who may be located at the headquarters, to manage the foreign subsidiary in a highly competitive and unpredictable global economy. ¡§Human Resource Management Utilizing Strategy and Control Model¡¨ will also help the manager at foreign subsidiary to evaluate production output, organizational behavior, and local hiring practices. One of the prerequisites for using ¡§Human Resource Management Utilizing Strategy and Control Model¡¨ is the Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP). Using the AHP as a tool to cross compare different key factors, the process will arrive at a conclusion for the most effective way to manage the foreign subsidiary. One of the outcomes from the AHP process is a map for the top manager at headquarters. The manager will need to keep the map in mind at all times and follow through in the office. Whenever AHP is used as part of the practice, the manager can effectively implement ¡§Human Resource Management Utilizing Strategy and Control Model¡¨. The study arrives at the conclusion that global economy is an unstoppable future trend. Formulating a simple management system for multinational corporations can be beneficial for the netting manufacturer. With the simplified management system, distance, cultural, and language barriers can be overcome. With AHP process, a complex problem can be reduced systematically into solvable simple problems. The management system is flexible enough, that the managers using the system can redefine and synthesize new definitions to suit the particular business. Using top-down approach, if both headquarters and foreign subsidiaries use the same ¡§Human Resource Management Utilizing Strategy and Control Model¡¨ thoroughly, the multinational corporation can be come more competitive in all aspects.

Vietnam has been a popular place for Taiwanese businesses to invest in lately. Vietnam¡¦s economy has been growing since implementing a reform policy called ¡§Doi Moi¡¨ (renovation) in 1986. Vietnam is an emerging market and attracts more and more Taiwanese multinational enterprises (MNEs) to engage in foreign direct investment (FDI). Taiwan plays an important role in FDI in Vietnam and is the third biggest investing country there, only behind South Korea and Singapore. The purpose for this research is to investigate what determinants would influence Taiwanese MNEs¡¦ when deciding between joint ventures (JVs) and wholly owned subsidiaries (WOS) when they enter the Vietnamese market. According to the literature review of the resource based view, the eclectic theory, transaction cost theory and institution theory, the framework is developed by two dimensions, parent company¡¦s advantages and environment in the host country. The independent variables under this framework are R&D intensity, firm size, international experiences, debt ratio, ROA, Vietnamese government¡¦s restriction and Vietnamese economy. Through secondhand data, Taiwanese MNEs investing Vietnam were sampled for this research. By the Pearson¡¦s correlation coefficient and the binary logistic regression, hypotheses were tested by which independent variables had significant correlation to the dependent variable, the investment decision (JVs or WOS). The findings of this study reveal that when a Taiwanese parent firm has a lower debt ratio it would be more likely to invest in Vietnam by WOS. Also, Taiwanese MNEs would tend to invest there by WOS when the economy in Vietnam becomes better. But the rest of the variables do not have significant correlations with the investment decision in this research. The result of this study can offer a reference for companies wanting to enter the Vietnamese market in the future.

<p>Background</p><p>International trade has dramatically increased during the last half of the 20th century and it is now of significant importance to most eco-nomies. International trade is especially crucial to countries such as Sweden, with a small domestic market. It has been said that a com-pany needs to have a committed management, as well as a strategy for it’s export and it’s marketing to reach long-term success. Never-theless, companies sometimes use a “strategy of least involvement”, leaving the international marketing strategy decisions in the hands of foreign agents and distributors.</p><p>Purpose</p><p>The purpose with this thesis is to investigate how the export and marketing strategies have been developed and implemented by suc-cessful Swedish export companies.</p><p>Method</p><p>Winners of the Export-Hermes Prize and Stora Exportpriset have been used as a sample of successful export companies. Qualitative semi-structured interviews with four of them were conducted to col-lect the empirical data.</p><p>Conclusion</p><p>The export companies in this study showed great differences con-cerning their original export ambitions, the methods they used to se-lect foreign markets, the modes that they used to enter new markets and the pace in which the international expansions were carried out. There were however strong similarities between the successful ex-port companies in other areas. All four companies had owners and top management who had been, and in most cases still were, highly involved and driving forces in the export activities. The companies also shared a belief in working with clear goals and having a strict control over subsidiaries and intermediaries. The authors are of the opinion that this control and monitoring are crucial for the success of the implementation of the export and marketing strategies.</p>