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The purpose of this paper is to analyse the impact of major structural changes on the conceptualization of the transnational corporation (TNC) based on foreign direct investment (FDI) and on indicators of transnationality.

Analysis of three major structural changes which impact the current conception of transnationality. They are: the rise of digital companies; the increased role of finance in the economy; externalization of activities via non-equity modalities (NEMs) with an impact on FDI and on the labour market.

The paper finds that the current concept of transnationality needs widening to take account of companies with a low degree of fixed assets abroad such as the digital and the financial companies and those internationalizing via NEMs, as well as to take account of the evolving relationship between TNCs and labour.

Future research along the lines proposed should consider: working explicitly with the new, inclusive concept of transnationality and arrive at an empirical estimate of the proposed indices of transnationality which modify and amplify the current United Nations Conference on Trade and Development indices.

Useful for understanding the nature of transnationality in the twenty-first century and for developing policies.

The paper proposes a new concept of transnationality and of the TNC, one that allows for new ways of organizing direct business activities abroad. It also proposes broadening the list of indicators of transnationality.

Despite the well-established impact of consumer ethnocentrism (CET) on purchase intentions, extant literature offers limited evidence on actual purchase behaviour. The purpose of this paper is to address the gap by investigating the factors underlying variations in CET behaviour using reported brand purchases. Product category, product cost and visibility, brand and country of origin (COO) of purchased products are investigated for their impact on the differences in the behavioural effects of CET.

This study uses survey data collected in the USA from a sample of 468 consumers. Self-reported brand purchases are used and involve ten product categories, 432 brands, and 22 countries of origin. Logistic regressions for repeated measures are used to test the hypotheses formulated.

The results confirm that product category is an important determinant of the behavioural effects of CET. CET also has a significant impact on purchases of the most expensive product categories rather than frequently purchased convenient items. Contrary to existing empirical evidence, cultural similarity does not mitigate the negative effects of CET and product visibility does not strengthen the behavioural effect of CET.

The study results should enhance managers’ understanding of the determinants of ethnocentric behaviour. The results caution managers about the value of self-reported measures and indicate that product features other than COO may be more effective in mitigating the negative effects of CET.

This study contributes to extant literature on CET and COO by investigating, for the first time, the problem of inconsistent predictions of purchase behaviour in the context of foreign vs domestic brands. For this purpose, the study adopted a novel methodological approach to investigate actual brand purchases.

This study provides a deeper insight into the performance effects of internationalization of the most international multinational enterprises (MNEs). Most MNEs perform their business activities within their home-regional block of the world – North America, Europe or the Asia-Pacific block. Whether these regional strategies pay off is explored by means of two analyses: first, the impact of internationalization in terms of the transnationality index, and second, the impact of foreign intra-regional sales on performance is examined. Results indicate that regional strategies smooth performance declines in the early stages of internationalization but also smooth performance increases during a phase of high-foreign expansion.

Using a sample of 76 US‐based multinational firms, this study tests two hypotheses: whether top management teams' national diversity, and the number of countries of operation worldwide are related to other established indicators of internationalization. Results suggest that both hypothesized indicators are aspects of the nomological network for a firm's internationalization.

The purpose of this paper is to review and analyse the World Investment Report 2010 in the context of all the previous World Investment Reports (WIRs) and their historical background.

The paper presents a historical analysis, the structural features of all WIRs, and an analysis of content and limitations of WIR 2010.

The paper starts with considering the historical background leading to successive units dealing with transnational corporations (TNCs) within the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The commonalities in structure, content and methodology among all WIRs are discussed. The essay then analyses the World Investment Report 2010. The conclusions make suggestions for revisiting some of the themes of earlier WIRs.

As a review essay, the paper does not present new empirical results.

The paper makes suggestions for possible content in future WIRs and for revisiting some of the earlier themes in the context of the new economic, political and technological environment. It also argues that tackling problems related to damages to a global public good – the environment – requires the cooperation of both developed and developing regions as well as the development and implementation of global strategies.

The WIR has always had a developmental and policy focus. This is also the case of the WIR 2010. However, given the topic – FDI in low‐carbon products and processes – there are limitations in considering possible policies for developing countries, first because dealing with the environment requires more focus on the developed countries, and second because there is still no international agreement on global strategies towards climate change.

The paper presents a historical analysis of the World Investment Report. It presents an analysis of the common structural, content and methodological features of all WIRs, and of WIR 2010 in relation to development and policies in the world economy. The paper stresses the relevance of dealing with a global public good – the environment – at the global level not at the level of single nations or regions. It also highlights the need to consider the problem and related policies in relation to developed countries. It discusses the limitations in terms of strategies and policies due to lack of international agreement.

The pervasiveness of the globalization phenomenon has triggered a significant number of studies related to the measurement of globalization and its implications for firms. Interestingly, most of the work is based on objective data, neglecting the importance of subjective and perceptual measures of degree of company globalization (DoCG). This study reviews the preliminary attempts to develop a subjective construct and a perceptual measurement tool for company globalization. Based on the work of Cavusgil, Yeniyurt, and Townsend (2004) a confirmatory factor analysis with partial least squares (PLS) path modeling illustrates relevant factors that capture the degree of globalization from a sample of multinationals. Post-hoc tests for the applicability of the generated framework are conducted to examine the consistency of results from the factor analysis. We also test the relationship between subjective and objective measures of company globalization. Although the small sample size does not allow the generalizability of the findings, this study contributes to the body of research aspiring to clarify the nature of a global company, offers a subjective measure for this phenomenon that can stimulate survey-based research with corporate elites, and thus provides a platform for further research.

The purpose of this paper is to present a framework for analyzing home and host country determinants and outcomes of emerging multinationals (EMNCs).

The paper applies a conceptual approach combined with analyses of statistics and secondary material.

The paper identifies changing trends and features of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) from emerging economies and identifies in particular differences between outflows from Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC).

The paper puts forward a framework for analyzing determinants and outcomes of structures and strategies of multinational companies from emerging economies and surveys contemporary trends and features of outward FDI from these economies.

The expansion of South‐North and South‐South foreign direct investment (FDI) reflects the rise of cross‐border capital flows, a distinguishing feature of the contemporary global economy, together with the increasing size and complexity of emerging market multinational corporations. Against this background, in emerging economies, governments have become increasingly aware of the role outward FDI (OFDI) can play as an instrument to deepen the integration into the world economy. The purpose of this paper is to analyze recent trends in OFDI from Brazil and China.

Using annual data for the period 1980‐2006 for both countries, the authors test the investment development path hypothesis, according to which the net outward investment position of a country depends on its level of development.

Results show that both China and Brazil are moving towards the third stage of the path, where domestic firms have acquired ownership and other advantages to go abroad and become leading outward investors.

The role of governments, institutions and the characteristics of domestic firms in both countries are considered to be crucial factors in determining the movement along the path.