Search results for " corporation"

When are international managers a cost effective solution? The rationale of transaction cost economics applied to staffing decisions in MNCs

2005

Abstract A common claim in the literature of expatriation is the one referring to the high costs of expatriation. In this paper, on the basis of transaction cost economics (TCE), we show how limited this approach is. In particular, we consider a set of costs that, although ignored in traditional expatriation literature, must be accounted for when a MNC is deciding on whether to recruit expatriates or local managers in its subsidiaries. These costs include selection, training, and performance evaluation costs. We also formulate a series of hypotheses around the situations in which the total costs of recruiting expatriates are lower than those generated by local managers. We then test these h…

Intermediate units in multinational corporations: A resource dependency view on coordinative versus entrepreneurial roles

2021

Abstract Due to the dispersion of headquarters’ activities across organizational and geographical boundaries, intermediate units (IUs) are emerging as a key actor of international business. IUs are intermediate structural layers between headquarters (HQ) and local subsidiaries with specific HQ responsibilities. Our study relies on original data of 67 IUs and, taking on a Resource Dependence approach, explores empirically the two HQ roles attributed to IUs: coordinative versus entrepreneurial. According to our results, the main differences between both roles relate to external network embeddedness, internal network position and autonomy. We argue that these differences arise from the dominan…

Innovating across boundaries: A portfolio perspective on innovation partnerships of multinational corporations

2016

Abstract This paper examines how and under what conditions alliance portfolio diversity influences a firm's innovative performance, with special attention being given to potential performance differences between multinational corporations (MNCs) and domestic firms. Analyses of data from 1045 German firms, among which 598 MNCs, revealed an inverted U-shaped relationship between alliance portfolio diversity and MNCs’ innovative performance. Findings also indicate MNCs to be better positioned than their domestic counterparts with regards to translating alliance portfolio diversity into superior innovative performance. Importantly though, this only holds for MNCs equipped with strong internal R…

Access to eHealth language-based services for multinational patients

2015

In more and more countries the number of citizens with double nationality is growing substantially. In their developing stage, current eHealth technologies are oriented towards helping the native patients rather than those speaking a foreign language that limits an access to the medical care. Nowadays, most people search the web for the medical symptoms of their disorders before going to the General Practitioner (GP), however multinational patients have limited chance to access eHealth care services not only owning to the lack of medical knowledge, but specifically due to their language barriers. In this study we investigate eHealth services on multilingual information access and online com…

Intermediate Units in Multinational Corporations: Advancing Theory on their Co‐parenting Role, Dynamics and Outcomes

2020

Multinationality, foreignness and institutional distance in the relation between R&D and productivity

2012

Abstract This paper empirically examines to what extent being foreign and part of a multinational affects the endogenous relation between R&D and productivity. Our findings indicate that multinationals obtain in general higher R&D returns. Also, there is a negative foreignness effect in that domestic-owned multinationals outperform foreign subsidiaries. However, these effects are somehow moderated by the institutional distance between the home and host countries. These results, obtained for a panel of UK firms, are largely consistent with a set of hypotheses derived from the institutional and international business theories.

The geography of foreign news on television

2012

Since the advent of television in the middle of the 20th century, news has been an essential ingredient in TV programming. Often these newscasts are the most heavily viewed programmes, and by and large they are the main source of information for many people. This is particularly true for news from other countries and regions in the world. This immense significance of TV news has made it an important field in communication research. The article presents a new study that is formed from a multinational project. The project investigated foreign TV news in 17 countries from five regions in the world: Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Egypt, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, Japan, Poland,…

Born under a lucky star? Latin American CEOs' perceptions about their own career development

2014

This article explores Latin American Chief Executive Officers' (CEOs') perceptions about the influence of career self-management practices and chance events on their career pathways. Through an edited topical life story approach, we investigate the relationship between those variables throughout CEO's career trajectories in the Latin American context. Semi-structured in-depth interviews with 22 CEOs working for multinational companies were conducted. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed with the aid of QSR NVivo 7 software. The study showed that even in volatile macroeconomic environments, typical of Latin American countries, CEOs do plan their careers. Career planning constitutes the b…

Seniority rules, worker mobility and wages : evidence from multi-country linked employer-employee data

2018

We construct multi-country employer-employee data to examine the consequences of last-in, first-out rules. We identify the effects by comparing worker exit rates between different units of the same firms operating in Sweden and Finland, two countries that have different seniority rules. We observe a relatively lower exit rate for more senior workers in Sweden in the shrinking firms and among the low-wage workers. These empirical patterns are consistent with last-in, first-out rules in Sweden providing protection from dismissals for the more senior workers among the worker groups to whom the rules are most relevant. Similarly, we observe a steeper seniority-wage profile in Sweden, suggesting…

Digital channels in the internal communication of a multinational corporation

2014

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine how digital communication tools are used for internal communication (IC) in multinational corporations (MNCs). Specifically, the study illustrates the role of digital channels in IC, the benefits they bring and the difficulties involved in using them. Design/methodology/approach – This research features a single-case study focusing on a listed Finnish multinational industrial corporation with a long history. Data for the study come from semi-structured theme interviews and a workshop in which the results were discussed. Findings – Digital IC tools are able to facilitate IC in MNCs, although some challenges may arise in relation to planning …