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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.

The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence regarding the springboard regionalization strategy implemented by multinationals entering Latin America and the organizational networks developed to serve this end.

Using the organizational network approach, a typology is developed to explain the Springboard network. Quantitative analysis is used, in the form of logistic binary regression, to study these networks composition.

From a sample of 154 subsidiaries extracted from the AMADEUS intelligent database, three categories for multinational’s networks are created, with the Spanish subsidiary acting as the leader: strategic centers (SCs), administrative centers (ACs) and regional headquaters (RHQs). Findings provide evidence of cultural features, industry behavior and the multinational’s size and entry mode influence these networks organization.

It is proposed that culture and historical ties have evolved together and management scholars should be aware of this phenomenon. Specific limitation that this study exhibits is the data provided by AMADEUS and the fact that R&D information for both the Spanish and the Latin American subsidiary were not available.

Staffing composition and expatriate corporate policy should consider the springboard effect to manage springboard networks.

Industries and authorities in all countries involved should be aware of their role in MNC strategies for regional expansion.

It is argued that a network of subsidiaries within the multinational can participation in the springboard behavior, which is determined by the culture that the multinational originates from, as well as the Spanish culture, creating a particular type of leadership.

To better understand the relationship between the headquarters and subsidiaries of multinational corporations, we introduce and test a theoretical framework that builds on and extends the positive agency theoretic corporate governance literature. Results indicate that there are three types of subsidiary bundles of corporate governance mechanisms that are used by multinational corporations. In addition, the following factors can help predict what type of subsidiary bundle a multinational corporation will use to align the interests of its headquarters with a particular subsidiary: the multinational corporation’s international strategy, its subsidiary’s importance, environmental uncertainty faced by its subsidiary, and its subsidiary’s age.

The purpose of this paper is to provide new empirical evidence on the performance of multinational banks as a subset of the eclectic theory.

The paper employs the least square method of random effects model (REM). The opportunity to use a random effects rather than a fixed effects model has been tested with the Hausman test. To control for cross‐section heteroscedasticity of the variables, the study employs White's transformation.

The empirical findings indicate that credit risk, overhead costs, income from non‐traditional sources, and loans intensity contribute positively to the profitability of the foreign subsidiaries. The results seem to suggest that the parent bank's branch networks exert positive influence on their foreign subsidiaries in India, while the size of the parent banks negatively influences their Indian subsidiaries’ performance.

Due to its limitations, the present study could be extended in a variety of ways. First, future research could include more variables such as taxation and regulation indicators, and exchange rates as well as indicators of the quality of the offered services. Second, future studies could also examine the differences in the determinants of profitability between small and large or high and low profitability banks. Third, in terms of methodology, frontier optimization techniques such as the data envelopment analysis, the stochastic frontier analysis, and/or the Malmquist productivity index methods are recommended to examine the performance of the foreign subsidiaries of multinational banks operating in the Indian banking sector.

Studies on the potential benefit of foreign bank entry have been studied extensively. Still, little is known about in which type of country, and under which circumstances, foreign banks have an advantage over their domestic bank peers. Furthermore, Claessens and van Horen point out that the recent financial crisis has highlighted risks associated with cross‐border banking and foreign banks presence. These developments have led to greater interest among policy makers and academicians for more analyses to help guide regulatory reform.

The empirical works concerning multinational banking have mainly focused on the determinants and methods of multinational banks entry into foreign markets. On the other hand, empirical evidence on the performance of multinational banks as a subset of the eclectic theory is scarce. By using the whole gamut of foreign subsidiaries of multinational banks operating in the Indian banking sector during the period 2000 to 2008, the paper contributes to this line of the literature.

This paper provides a primer on European multinational business groups (BGs) and their subsidiaries. Firms in these BGs appear to have higher sales performance than firms in domestic groups (15% higher). This leads us to investigate which elements increase the likelihood that a group will transition towards multinational status. BGs’ characteristics matter for foreign acquisition: groups becoming multinational are usually larger, have a more hierarchical structure with respect to the number of layers in a group, and are more diverse in terms of sectors. Groups tend to expand into bordering countries or countries providing particular advantages, such as a large internal market. The first acquisition is a corporate-level decision that appears to be made by the group’s controlling firm and is often a diversification into a different industry.

The purpose of this paper is to discover whether factors responsible for the existence of non‐local competences in emerging multinationals are different from those of traditional multinationals.

Survey of 66 subsidiaries of Brazilian multinationals (BrMNes). This represents 70 percent of the 93 subsidiaries originally sampled.

The factors responsible for the development of non‐local competences in BrMNes are: the relationship between subsidiaries and business networks, the initiatives of subsidiaries and the support of the entrepreneurial orientation of subsidiaries by the headquarters.

Even though emerging multinationals require more resources developed abroad and although some studies revealed that different management models had been adopted during the internationalization process, the factors required to develop non‐local competences in BrMNes are very similar to those required by traditional multinationals.

Subsidiary innovation in partnership with the business network in the foreign country is essential to develop non‐local competences.

The paper supports the results of studies of traditional multinationals and demonstrates that despite the differences of Brazilian multinationals the factors required to develop non‐local competences are very similar. This is an interesting result to consolidate knowledge about global competitive advantages in multinationals: the management model to develop non‐local competences seems to be the same, in order of importance, regardless of multinational origin.

This chapter contends that the international business (IB) and strategic management (SM) fields have many commonalities that should be considered in a turbulent globalized business context. IB studies refer to the need for local integration and local adaptation whereas empirics in SM pinpoint the complementary effects of central planning and decentralized decision-making. We present and synthesize these rather field specific perspectives and try to synthesize insights from both fields in an adaptive strategy-making model including the effects of autonomous subsidiary initiatives and intended mandates from corporate headquarters. The model considers local subsidiary actions of both operational and strategic nature and we argue that it may be futile to distinguish between these effects as incremental operational responses can cumulate into more substantial changes over time with dimensions of strategic adaptation. The model provides a foundation for further considerations about how to combine central intent and direction with decentralization and autonomous initiatives in the multinational corporation.

The purpose of this study was to approach issues such as what type of value chain activities are carried on by the subsidiaries of multinationals located in Spain, where and how their resources and capabilities are generated and how these are transferred within the multinational. Creating resources and capabilities within a subsidiary of a multinational company enables it to gain competitiveness and therefore greater power of decision within the corporation.

This research conducts a descriptive analysis of the value chain in Spanish subsidiaries. A population of 1,072 firms has been identified. To gather primary data, a questionnaire was designed based on international value chain and resources and capabilities literature.

Analysis of the data gathered from 125 subsidiaries has enabled researchers to map out the profile of the value chain in these companies. The results indicate that the principal source of resources and capabilities is the subsidiary itself. Moreover, the experience built up over time is basic to the creation of skills in all the activities in the value chain.

This is a matter of the subsidiaries identifying new opportunities to attain a new position or broaden their existing one.

Subsidiaries should benefit from favourable local policies to help them develop and strengthen their capabilities to obtain major international competitiveness.

Although numerous studies assess the country's foreign direct investment flows, works concentrating on the presence of foreign capital in Spain are scarce. The growing interest in the international literature on the subsidiary as a unit of analysis makes this study interesting.

A number of interesting studies have emerged recently in the area of worker participation. Many of them discuss and analyse structures of representation and hypothesise on appropriate structures for different decision areas and for different decision levels within the organisation. They do not, however, take into account the structure of decision‐making in the organisations under discussion. Assumptions are not tested. One exception here is the study of Peccei and Warner. They examined levels of autonomy and centralisation of decision‐making in the subsidiaries of a multinational company. The present study extends this exercise (using the same methodology) to subsidiaries of a range of other larger companies, including multinationals. The purpose was to see whether the Peccei and Warner results were confirmed, secondly to examine non‐multinational subsidiaries for similar results and, thirdly, to check whether defined patterns in the decision‐making structure emerged which could be useful in discussing appropriate structures of worker participation. Some deviations from the Peccei and Warner results were noted with respect to degree of centralisation/autonomy. In particular, in the present study, highly similar patterns of centralised decision areas emerge, also the overall ranked correlation of centralised and non‐centralised decisions is highly significant for various types of decisions over a wide range of different subsidiaries. In contrast to Peccei and Warner, I would conclude that the pattern of centralisation is much more highly predictable than their conclusions imply.

This chapter aims to investigate the relationship between levels of subsidiary autonomy and the performance of a subsidiary’s subunit (factory) in Japanese manufacturing subsidiaries in Thailand. We conducted ordinary least squares regression analysis based on a questionnaire survey of 50 Japanese manufacturing subsidiaries in Thailand and multiple case studies to investigate the causal relationship between subsidiary autonomy and factory performance. We have three main findings. First, the autonomy level of Japanese manufacturing subsidiaries is linked to the subsidiaries’ factories’ performance compared to factories in Japan, but not in other foreign countries. Second, high levels of subsidiary autonomy are negatively associated with factory performance. Third, there are two causal relationships: high factory performance leading to low subsidiary autonomy and high/low subsidiary autonomy leading to low/high factory performance. From this, we discussed whether the degree of resource centralization in the home country influences the relationship between the level of subsidiary autonomy and a subunit’s performance in the foreign subsidiary. Moreover, we discussed the possibility that the causal relationships between them are not necessarily direct causal relationships. We identified a new factor determining subsidiary autonomy and investigated the relationship between the subsidiary autonomy and performance of a subunit in the foreign subsidiary compared to the home country. Because this has not been discussed in previous studies, this chapter contributes to the study of headquarters–subsidiary relationships and gives guidelines to practitioners on managing subsidiary autonomy.