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Aim of the present monograph is the economic analysis of the role of MNEs regarding globalisation and digital economy and in parallel there is a reference and examination of some legal aspects concerning MNEs, cyberspace and e‐commerce as the means of expression of the digital economy. The whole effort of the author is focused on the examination of various aspects of MNEs and their impact upon globalisation and vice versa and how and if we are moving towards a global digital economy.

Among the prominent economic trends in recent decades is the exponential increase in flows of goods and capital driven by technological progress and falling of restrictions. A key driver of this phenomenon has been the cross-border production, foreign investment, and trade both final and intermediate goods by multinational corporations. Research has sought to understand how foreign direct investment (FDI) affects host economies. This paper reviews the main theories and empirical evidence of two streams of literature: the mechanisms by which multinational activity might create positive effects and externalities to countries and the role of complementary local conditions, also known as “absorptive capacities,” that allow a country to reap the benefits of FDI paying particular attention to the role of factor markets, reallocation effects, and the linkages generated between foreign and domestic firms. The survey focuses mainly on work related to developing countries.

Based on a review of over 450 articles on multinational enterprises published in leading management journals from 1990‐2000, we identified eighteen issues that had engaged the attention of academic scholarship and evaluated their topical relevance. Ironically, very few of them addressed two of the most pressing issues facing business and society at the turn of the last millennium: terrorism and socio‐economic inequality. These glaring omissions suggest a gap between academic scholarship that focuses on “what is,” and research that speculates as to “what could be.” Suggestions are offered on how to close this important gap in the fi eld of international business.

Since China initiated its “go global” policy that promotes its overseas investment, China’s Outward Foreign Direct Investment (OFDI) has increased almost twenty times during the last 10 years, reaching $55.9 billion in 2008. The issue of internationalization of Chinese OFDI has attracted increasing attention of researchers from a business perspective. This article systematically reviews the previous studies on overseas investments by Chinese MNEs and discusses the characteristics of Chinese internationalization behavior at both firm level and country level. The internationalization of Chinese companies cannot be understood as a simple game of “catch up” with established MNEs, and more firm‐level empirical studies should be carried out on how these characteristics influence firms’ strategic decisions.

This chapter aims to provide a descriptive analysis and a theoretical interpretation of the challenges for international expansion of four large multinationals of each of the BRIC countries (JBS from Brazil, VimpelCom from Russia, Tata Motors from India, and Lenovo from China).

This study employs a qualitative approach, following a multiple-case study methodology, by analyzing four prominent cases of the internationalization of BRIC multinationals.

The internationalization process of the studied BRIC multinationals was influenced by the type of inputs and resources that each company had in their home country and the search for needed resources in other firms abroad that may have helped them to complement their business assets. The international expansion of these firms have been characterized by overcoming of several obstacles through the possession of firm-specific advantages, mainly composed of managerial capabilities, expertise, and knowledge about the markets and their companies.

This paper examines the challenges facing multinational enterprises (MNEs) in finding competent managers to staff operations and subsidiaries in emerging market economies (EMEs).

The key question examined is – who is going to manage the business expansion of MNEs in EMEs? Will it be host country nationals who know and understand the local business environment; parent country nationals (PCNs) who are sent on an overseas assignment by the parent corporation; or third country nationals (TCNs) recruited for their unique set of skills and expertise?

There is no “one size fits all” solution; for most multinational corporations (MNCs), a combination of strategies will work. One approach is to seek out EME nationals that are currently working or studying in the MNCs home country. Other MNCs seek recruits directly in the EMEs and then put the recruits through an intensive training program. An alternative is to improve the cross‐cultural training provided to expatriate PNC and TNC managers. However, despite calls for improved training that have been made over decades, there is little evidence that MNCs are investing the necessary resources in training their expatriates in the soft skills that are essential to success. With a growing need for good managers to staff their overseas operations and not enough local managers to do the job, at least in the short to medium term, MNCs will continue to use a combination of staffing strategies, in the hope that they will be able to build up a cadre of culturally competent international managers, regardless of national origin, who can operate effectively in EME environments.

Unless there is a marked shift in the quality and rigor of the cross‐cultural training programs currently being provided to PCNs and TCNs, we foresee plenty of storm clouds developing in the blue skies of emerging markets.

This paper provides a current and practitioner focused discussion of the specific cultural challenges of EMEs and develops the concept of managerial cultural competence.

The purpose of this paper is to explore avenues of corporate accountability in disasters, using the Samarco chemical sludge disaster, which took place in 2015 in Brazil, as case study.

The paper considers possible ways of enhancing corporate accountability in disasters, focusing on one particular international mechanism on multinational enterprises (MNEs), which addresses both human rights and environmental issues. The research is based on the location and assessment of a variety of written sources (i.e. normative instruments, academic literature, publications by practitioners, civil society organizations, and the media). The paper makes suggestions on the potential of using existent international accountability mechanisms in similar disasters.

The paper identifies key measures taken by national authorities to address the disaster. It also considers how the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Guidelines for MNEs could be used to pursue corporate accountability.

This is a desk-based research, chiefly conducted on documental analysis rather than fieldwork.

The paper might provide useful insights for organizations and communities facing similar challenges linked to multinational corporate activities that adversely affect human rights and the environment.

The study brings to attention normative standards relatively unknown to the disaster community, which may help raise interest on them, and lead to their potential use in future disaster situations. Furthermore, to date the Samarco chemical sludge has received scant attention from the academic literature.

This paper explores the major factors influencing multinational companies’ (MNCs) propensity to change the level of resource commitments during financial crises in emerging markets. Favorable changes in the host government policies, market demand, firm strategy, and infrastructural conditions are hypothesized to influence the MNCs’ decision to increase resource commitments during a crisis. The hypotheses are tested with data collected in a survey of 82 MNCs during the recent Argentine financial crisis (late 2002). While all the above variables are considered by the respondents as generally important reasons for increasing resource commitments during a crisis, only favorable changes in government policies significantly influence MNCs’ decisions to change the level of resource commitments during the Argentine financial crisis. The research, managerial implications, and policy‐making implications are discussed.