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Purpose – Study the firm-level and country-level determinants of US institutional investors' holdings in American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) from emerging markets.

Methodology/approach – We use a sample of 112 firms from emerging markets that listed as ADRs between 1990 and 2005. Rather than adopting the issuer's perspective, we take in this study the point of view of the investor and we focus on the US institutional investors' participation in ADR firms.

Findings – We find that institutional investors hold higher stakes in foreign firms that are listed on more restrictive exchanges, in large, privatized, more liquid, and more transparent firms. Mutual investors and other institutional investors also prefer firms from countries with weaker institutional environments and from civil law legal tradition. Controlling for country-level determinants increases significantly the explanatory power of the model.

Social implications – Our results have important implications for firms from emerging markets seeking to attract foreign institutional investors.

Originality/value of the chapter – We focus on the motivations of investors when they choose to invest in the ADR, rather than on the ADR issuer motivation. In addition, we consider all types of institutional investors that acquire a participation in an ADR firm.

This chapter focuses on donating to the church on the part of Wesleyan Methodists in the Kingdom of Tonga. It illuminates the dynamism and tension emerging between religious faith and economic practice. Quantitative analysis of income and expenditures are combined with qualitative observations of villagers' actions and discourse in this microanalysis of donating events, which seeks to comprehend the situation from point of view of the local adherents. It concludes that what might appear in Tonga on the surface to be a purely competitive practice is actually a complex blend of competition and cooperation, with the latter probably having a larger role than the former in these transactions.

Purpose – The global surge in institutional investors in the past decade or so has aroused interest in the role institutions play, or should play, in regard to the monitoring of the company financial performance. This study explores the nature of the relationship that exists between institutional ownership, corporate governance, and company financial performance.

Methodology/approach – Using Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression technique on 391 company-year observations between 2005 and 2010 to examine the nature of the relationship that exists between firm performance (PER) and ownership variables, and test whether this relationship is significant.

Findings – Our evidence provides support for the view that top five institutional shareholders take a longer-term view and are more involved with governance suggesting that the size of shareholdings has an effect when it comes to monitoring managerial decisions.

Research limitations/implications – Due to the small sample size, caution should be exercised when interpreting the results of this study. Also, it is to be noted that this study is based on a small country with an open capital market where there is high proportion of institutional ownership.

Practical implications – The results provide useful insights into the role different types of institutional investors play in terms of enhancing both governance and firm performance. Our analyses suggest that in mitigating principal-agent conflicts, size of ownership has an influence.

Originality/value of chapter – Our study adds to the literature by focusing on the role institutional investors’ play in New Zealand. Our study adds to the theory by showing that ownership type is important for mitigating agency conflicts.

This study traces the internationalization strategy of Hering, a Brazilian-based apparel company active in manufacturing and retail.

The data set and analysis is presented in chronological order and decisions taken by the company are viewed based on internationalization theories. It presents two main internationalization frameworks, the production network and the value chain models.

While the company started the internationalization process in the 1960s and reached a consistent global presence in distinct markets, it has now retracted from main markets in Europe and North America and is focused on its own distribution network in South America. Hering has changed its strategy of a global production network player into a leader in the retail value chain model with regional distribution. This strategy change has been possible by valuing brand management and distribution instead of manufacturing capacity.

BRIC countries are known for exporting commodities but have poor performance in selling its own branded consumer goods abroad. This study provides such a rare case of a Brazilian consumer good company operating abroad.