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Japanese regional banks have actively expanded their overseas business in emerging markets, and this topic is quite important for regional banks that have confronted severe business environments over the decades. An aging population suppresses long-term increases in loan demands, and stagnant economic conditions lead to lowered interest rates in the medium-term. Overseas business is a promising business field for regional banks, but recent developments have not been investigated in detail.

This chapter examines overseas investments using data from regional banks’ financial reports. Our sample comprises 44 regional banks without overseas branches, and a research period from FY2011 to FY2015. We demonstrate different overseas business patterns among regional banks. This investigation uses X-means clustering, which is nonhierarchical, as this method automatically presents an optimal number of clusters, and sorts regional banks into their appropriate clusters.

The X-means clustering method indicates five business patterns among regional banks. This also characterizes respective clusters and demonstrates that medium-sized banks actively develop security investments, which increases overseas business’s contributions to profits. Meanwhile, small banks cannot expand overseas investments, which differ from other banks. These banks must seek other business models to compensate for this decline in their earning power.

International property investments are being considered by many institutional investors as an alternative investment media. Although a new concept for many, some investors (particularly the British and Dutch) have historically held overseas property as part of their investment portfolios. Examines results from 43 international investors who completed a survey exploring the decision‐making process used by international property investors, including investment techniques; motivating factors and the major problems often associated with making overseas investments; and in particular the investors′ attitudes towards currency risk. With little research, investors operate in a vacuum –unaware of attitudes and strategies used by others. Responses detailed provide information not only on how this asset class is perceived by those who are actively holding overseas investments but also by numerous firms who are contemplating the asset class and those who have decided against overseas property investments.

The purpose of this study is to provide a textual approach to quantify the perception of uncertainty from management side and investigate how firms manage their overseas investment dynamics when perceiving an increase in economic policy uncertainty (EPU).

Using a textual analysis approach, the study evaluates firm-level perception of EPU. Based on the data from China's listed firms between 2007 and 2018, it examines the association between firm-level perception of EPU and overseas investment using probit model and fixed effects regression with robust standard error adjusted for heteroscedasticity and clustered by firm.

The study finds that the level of EPU perceived by individual firms is heterogeneous. Moreover, it finds that firm-level perception of EPU is positively associated with firms' overseas investment. When perceiving an increase in EPU, firms are more likely to invest abroad and their overseas investment is more diverse. Further analysis shows that the positive association between firm-level perception of EPU and overseas investment is weaker in firms with higher financing cost, investment irreversibility and management incentive but stronger in firms with more intensive industry competition. However, it does not find significant difference in the impact of firm-level perception of EPU on overseas investment of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and non-state-owned enterprises (non-SOEs). The results are robust to using alternative measures of primary variables and to endogeneity concerns.

First, although the data on outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) at the national and provincial levels are comprehensive, the data on OFDI at the firm level are still relatively scarce. As the firm-level OFDI data become available, future study could be extended to OFDI flow. Second, future study could use other information disclosed by firms to evaluate their perception of EPU from host countries and examine the impact of bilateral EPU on overseas investment. Third, by evaluating firm-level perception of uncertainty in terms of a particular type of economic policies, such as fiscal policy, monetary policy, trade policy and foreign investment policy, future study could probe the sources of EPU affecting firms' overseas investment.

First, although uncertainty increases the volatility of firms' investment activities, firms can recognize and seize investment opportunities in an uncertain economic environment and make profits through resource integration. Second, as the association between firm-level perception of EPU and overseas investment depends on firm and industry characteristics, firms with higher financing cost, investment irreversibility and management incentive should be more cautious when making overseas investment decisions during uncertainty times. Third, governments should increase the transparency and the stability of their economic policies to help firms plan their investment policies.

The study extends the literature related to EPU measurement by constructing a firm-level perception index of EPU based on firms' annual reports using a textual analysis approach. Moreover, it sheds some light on the mechanism of how firms modulate their overseas investment activities under uncertainty.

Reports on a study that examines, by interviews and archival research, the promotional structures which 11 governments in ten countries have put in place to market their economies to foreign investors. Focuses specifically on the various forms through which these governments have conducted their overseas marketing operations. Finds that governments that have been most effective in influencing foreign investors have created overseas offices that “stand alone”, and are unconnected with the governments′ other foreign operations. Also identifies the conditions necessary for a successful overseas investment promotion operation.

Although the focus of this issue is on investment in British industry and hence we are particularly concerned with debt and shares, the transactions and holdings in these cannot be separated from the range of other financial claims, including property, that are available to investors. In consequence this article focuses on an overview of the financial system including in Section 2 a presentation of the flow of funds matrix of the financial claims that make up the system. We also examine more closely the role of the financial institutions that are part of the system by utilising the sources and uses statements for three sectors, non‐bank financial institutions, personal sector and industrial and commercial companies. Then we provide, in Section 3, a discussion of the various financial claims investors can hold. In Section 4 we give a portrayal of the portfolio disposition of each of the major types of financial institution involved in the market for company securities specifically insurance companies (life and general), pension funds, unit and investment trusts, and in Section 4 a market study is performed for ordinary shares, debentures and preference shares for holdings, net acquisitions and purchases/sales. A review of some of the empirical evidence on the financial institutions is presented in Section 5 and Section 6 is by way of a conclusion. The data series extend in the main from 1966 to 1981, though at the time of writing, some 1981 data are still unavailable. In addition, the point needs to be made that the samples have been constantly revised so that care needs to be exercised in the use of the data.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the factors that have influenced the withdrawal of Japanese overseas food industry subsidiaries from Asia.

The data refer to Asian subsidiaries of Japanese companies engaged in food production activities. The data set covers 545 overseas subsidiaries from 2003 to 2014, and the total number of observations is 3,513. A linear probability model examines the factors influencing the probability of a subsidiary withdrawing.

The results show that strong relationships between parent companies and overseas subsidiaries, specifically in terms of personnel and capital, reduce the likelihood of withdrawal. The number of years in business has a positive effect on withdrawal. Additionally, investment aims, such as the establishment of an international production network and acquisition of host country markets, affect the probability of withdrawal. The results are similar for subsidiaries in China and other countries, but there are differences regarding subsidiaries’ histories and investment aims.

There is limited research on food companies withdrawing from overseas markets. This study bridges the gap in the literature by compiling micro-level data and conducting a quantitative analysis of such withdrawals from overseas markets. The originality of this study is that it shows the effects of investment aims on subsidiary withdrawal, representing various aspects of overseas subsidiaries, and compares the estimation results with the recent trends in food markets in Asia.

Examines the phenomenon of cross‐border property lending and some issues regarding lending procedures and decision‐making processes in the context of the relationship between lender and professional adviser. Commences by placing these procedures and processes in the context of the development of cross‐border European property investment and finance. The UK has been a popular destination for overseas investors and lenders over the last decade and is therefore used as a case study to examine the additional institutional risk that overseas lenders may face when operating outside of their own country and obtaining advice from home professionals. The research identified a lack of clarity in roles and relationships between lender and adviser, difficulties in communications both internally and between overseas branches and headquarters and failures in provision and interpretation of advice. Concludes by identifying the issues which may need to be addressed generally by lenders and their advisers, when lenders are operating in overseas markets.

Foreign firms entering into the domestic real estate industry and foreign investment control are significant in global hot markets such as Australia. Despite their market impact and policy sensitivity, developer choice is rarely studied. The purpose of this paper is to study domestic and overseas property developers for their motive and preference in response to market growth and market barriers including regulatory constraint.

International trade theory suggests local and overseas firms can vary significantly for their risk profile when engaging in location-specific development opportunities. Using a comprehensive decision factor system for the residential development process, the authors conducted an experimental survey to collect the prime data to measure stated preference of domestic and overseas developers in the context of the Melbourne residential market.

Results suggest high consistency between the samples of domestic and overseas developers. Possible explanations include vertical integration by innovative contracting, strict regulatory constraint dictates domestic and overseas firms’ preference or sample selection bias. This micro-analysis of developer stated preference highlights their entrepreneurial ability to combine substitution and integration for innovative contractual strategy. This ability to join asset holding and project management enables firm flexibility to mitigate business risk in rapidly globalising capital and factor markets.

These insights of firm-level decision making contribute to the decision literature of real estate developers and are relevant to the broader literature of industrial economics and international trade. Government may evaluate policy strategies based on the explicit entrepreneur (e.g. developer) preference for their “comparative advantage”.

This paper highlights developer’s ability to jointly consider investment and project management for decision making. It found that other than political cost such as national interest and domestic interest group pressure, domestic and overseas developers in the Melbourne residential market actually think quite alike. It suggests that irrespective of property ownership conditions, market integration occurs in the Melbourne residential sector.

The growth in global investment opportunities has seen increased interest in international property investment as an important element in a mixed‐asset portfolio and has generated key international property finance considerations. This survey of institutional investors in South‐East Asia examines the property investment and finance decision‐ making processes used in considering international property. Key issues to emerge from this survey are the desire for portfolio diversification as the primary motivating factor for international property investment and the high awareness of currency risk considerations. This high priority on the financial considerations of currency risk is in marked contrast to the findings of an earlier survey of UK/The Netherlands property investors.

Past research has suggested the influence of family‐oriented collectivistic culture on the behavior and performance of traditional Chinese manufacturing firms. However, insufficient empirical research has been conducted to empirically test the influence. More importantly, insufficient research has been conducted to test how the collectivistic culture in Chinese societies would affect the performance of manufacturing firms. This paper addresses these issues by comparing the behaviors and performance of two groups of firms in China, i.e., investment from overseas Chinese firms and investment from non‐Chinese Western firms, in one of China's fast‐growing manufacturing industries. Interesting differences are found between the overseas Chinese firms and those from other foreign countries. The findings support the influence of societal culture on firms' behavior and performance, but do not support the predictions on performance based on the arguments of cultural distance. This paper concludes with a discussion on implications of the findings for both researchers and practitioners.