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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.

This paper seeks to present an acceleration‐based force‐impedance controller, applied to a six‐dof parallel mini‐manipulator: the robotic controlled impedance device (RCID).

The proposed control strategy involves three cascade controllers: an inner acceleration controller, built as a set of six single input/single output acceleration controllers (one per manipulator axis), an impedance task‐space controller, and an outer force controller.

The control strategy enables two kinds of manipulator behaviour: force‐limited impedance control and position‐limited force control. The type of behaviour depends only on the chosen manipulator trajectories.

The RCID may be used as a force‐impedance controlled auxiliary device, coupled in series with a position‐controlled commercial industrial robot. The two manipulators combined behave as a single manipulator, having the impedance and force control performance of the RCID, as well as the workspace and trajectory tracking performance of the industrial manipulator. The industrial manipulator should perform free space motion trajectory tracking, the RCID being kept in a “home” position, preserving its small workspace for impedance and force control.

A robust control strategy that enables good performance, while the robot executes tasks that involve interaction with the environment, is being proposed. Experimental results on a force‐impedance controlled six‐dof parallel mini‐manipulator are presented.

This article focuses on “born globals” (Knight and Cavusgil 1996) and interfirm resources to explain international entrepreneurship. The theory posed here challenges the traditional image of international business as a long, gradual process not occurring until later in the life cycle, and applying only to large multinational corporations (MNCs). Increasingly, new ventures must expand their operations internationally early in their history in order to be competitive (Oviatt and McDougall 1994), and require infrastructure (Van de Ven 1993), or interfirm resources, for success. Specifically, firms may rely on three factors to expand internationally: cost factors, unique global resources, and networks.

Elasto‐plastic models based on critical state formulations have been successful in describing many of the most important features of the mechanical behaviour of soils. This review paper deals with the applications of this class of models to the numerical analysis of geotechnical problems. After a brief overview of the development of the models, the basic critical state formulation is presented together with the main modifications which have actually been used in computational applications. The problems associated with the numerical implementation of this type of models are then discussed. Finally, a summary of reported computational applications and some specific examples of analyses of geotechnical problems using critical state models are presented.

Gives a bibliographical review of the finite element methods (FEMs) applied for the linear and nonlinear, static and dynamic analyses of basic structural elements from the theoretical as well as practical points of view. The range of applications of FEMs in this area is wide and cannot be presented in a single paper; therefore aims to give the reader an encyclopaedic view on the subject. The bibliography at the end of the paper contains 2,025 references to papers, conference proceedings and theses/dissertations dealing with the analysis of beams, columns, rods, bars, cables, discs, blades, shafts, membranes, plates and shells that were published in 1992‐1995.

Avant‐propos sous les auspices de l'Institut international de Coopération intellectuelle, paraissait en 1934 le t. I, consacré à l'Europe, du Guide international des Archives. Le questionnaire envoyé à tous les États européens comportait sous les points 4 et 6 les questions suivantes: ‘Existe‐t‐il un guide général pour les diverses catégories d'Archives ou des guides particuliers pour l'une ou l'autre d'entre elles?’ et ‘Existe‐t‐il des catalogues imprimés, des publications tant officielles que privées, susceptibles de constituer un instrument complet de référence pour tout ou partie importante des fonds d'archives?’ Les réponses des divers pays à ces questions, malgré leur caractère très inégal, ont fait du Guide international un bon instrument d'information générale sur les Archives. Malheureusement les circonstances ont empêché la publication du volume consacré aux États non européens, tandis que le temps qui s'écoulait tendait à rendre périmés les renseignements fournis sur les Archives européennes.

Evolution and stationarity are key time series empirical concepts which need theoretical assessment by extant research. This study presents a model to explain brand sales dynamics in emerging markets using two dimensions: sales behavior in time (stationary or evolution) and final position (negative, neutral or positive).

A three-step methodological approach was performed. First, individual brand sales series were classified (stationarity or evolution) after unit root tests. These series were then regressed against a time variable. These two steps enabled a qualitative classification of six proposed positions, ranging from the worst to the best scenario for marketing managers. A final multinomial model identified the marketing effect to these positions.

Descriptive statistics reveal an insignificant prevalence of stationary sales series and a small number of positive brand sales series (ascending or promising). The multinomial model shows that price is negatively associated to positive brand sales positions, the important effect of service strategies and how product decisions can lead to an avoidance of negative positions.

The model is limited to short time series of a unique transactional dataset from a multinational energy company based in Brazil.

The research provides a rational empirical framework to managers involved with decisions regarding brand sales dynamics in emerging markets.

The approach advance into the development of models to uncover conditions for market evolution and stationarity in a context marked by the shortage of data.

The increasing economic importance and the number of born global firms make it worthwhile to study what leads to their success in the international market. To better understand this international business phenomenon, we conducted in‐depth interviews with managers, coupled with public database and Web site searches. Research propositions were developed based on an extensive qualitative method. The relationship between organizational culture, information technology capability, and performance is proposed in the context of born global firms, based on viewing the concept of IT capability from the resource‐based view. We further provide recommendations for managers, theoretical contributions and suggestions for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the role of firms’ internationalization on the relationship between intellectual property right (IPR) protection and their technological innovation. While recent studies provide a negative relationship between IPR protection and technological innovation, this paper argues that firm’s internationalization weaken the negative relationship. This research is a meaningful step to clarify the theoretical conflict and empirical ambiguity of the effect of IPR protection on technological innovations.

This paper empirically analyzes the theoretical arguments with 204 US firms, which registered their patents in the United States Patent and Trademark Office and have been listed in the Compustat database between 2007 and 2010.

The paper suggests that IPR protections brings more benefit to firms with high multinationality and are more export-oriented in terms of developing technological innovation, whereas the effects of international knowledge stock is unclear in the relationship between IPR protection and technological innovation.

This study shows the effects of internationalization factors, which provide the benefits of cost efficiency and of more resource accessibility on the relationship between IPR protection regime and a firm’s technological innovation. The implication for policy makers and firm managers is that utilizing internationalization resources and capabilities is essential in developing their firms’ technological innovation under a strong IPR protection.

This paper enriches the literature of IPRs and offers the direction for future research on how a firm’s internationalization matters in its innovative activities under IPR protection.

While the number of global alliance terminations in the business world has grown steadily during the past few decades, the scholarly literature on strategic alliance (SA) termination remains limited. This research paper aims to perform a bibliometric analysis of the literature on alliance termination and propose a model for future research agenda that links the termination phase to the pre-alliance termination phase and post alliance termination phase.

A search query on global alliance termination identified a total of 69 research papers from the Scopus database, and a bibliometric analysis was performed using the bibliometrix R-package and VOSviewer. The analysis further used the TCCM framework to review the set of papers.

This research analysis reveals that, compared to the pre-formation, formation, and process stages of alliances, limited research has been undertaken on global alliance termination. The bibliometric analysis and TCCM framework provide a complete view of the extant literature on global alliance termination from different dimensions and act as the which as the foundation for a developing the research agenda that links pre-alliance termination phase and post-alliance termination phase to that of alliance termination phase.

The proposed research agenda is unique as it integrates multiple phases in the alliance lifecycle with global alliance termination phase and develops a distinct view for future research that emphasizes on the post-alliance termination phase.

The bibliometric analysis provides a precise snapshot of the state of the literature on global alliance termination. The research agenda developed provides a direction for further academic research that links alliance termination not only to pre-alliance termination phase but also to the post-alliance termination phase that is nascently explored in the literature.

This study is among the few to review and synthesize the literature on global alliance termination. It, therefore, functions as a catalyst to draw global scholars' attention. Further, it provides global researchers with direction by proposing a global research agenda.