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This chapter describes how micro-locational factors affect international alliance formation. The authors focus specifically on the role of global cities, which are studied from a distance perspective. The authors argue that distances must be apprehended not at the country level but at the city level. The chapter is an attempt to provide a better understanding of the complex, multilevel factors that interact when firms select an alliance partner in a particular location. The authors take an explorative methodological approach through a configurational analysis of international alliances made by American companies in 2015. The main contribution is the proposition of a typology of micro-locational characteristics to help understand international alliance formation at a city level.

This paper aims to develop a more nuanced view of subnational location choice with a particular focus on global cities. It is argued that multinational firms may use global cities to establish bridgeheads-subsidiaries at intermediate levels of the ownership chain that enable further international as well as subnational expansion.

Beyond those host country subsidiaries that are directly owned by a foreign multinational, the authors go deeper and focus specifically on the multi-tiered – “subsidiaries of subsidiaries” to examine how the geographic origins and destinations of these investments are associated with micro-location choices in a host country.

The authors find that there are substantial differences between the types, roles, activities and geographic origins of the firms locating in different areas, and in the ownership structures spanning them. The authors propose that this has managerial and theoretical implications which may be understood based on an organizing framework describing a tradeoff between the pursuit of global connectivity and local density on the one hand and cost control on the other.

Empirical work on foreign location choices should take into account ownership structures and take a more fine-grained view of subnational variation.

Managers need to consider the trade-offs between connectivity, density and costs when making foreign location decisions.

Policy makers should think about the unique contributions that various subnational regions such as global and ordinary cities can make to global value chains.

The authors bridge the hitherto separate literatures pertaining to subsidiary mandates and subnational dimensions of foreign location choice by investigating the fine-grained roles and ownership structures from a supranational as well as subnational perspective.

Studying the cultural dynamics of expatriate amateur theater in Brussels, the purpose of this paper is to investigate multicultural marketplace development in global cities.

The paper performs an interpretive analysis of the expatriate amateur scene from an ethnographic perspective, combining observations of rehearsals and performances, in-depth interviews with actors, directors and audience, and secondary data.

The fluidity of global cities allows their inhabitants to engage in creative processes of cultural experimentation, performing a continuous back-and-forth movement between hybridization and pluralization. The former creates enough homogeneity for the expatriates to feel targeted; the latter ensures a level of cultural diversity necessary to satisfy their cosmopolitan aspirations.

The paper points to the important role of global cities for cultural experimentation. Such cities are not only an interesting market for culturally diverse products, but also experimental hubs. Managers willing to address multicultural marketplaces might target these markets with dynamic cultural offers that ensure a balance between rendering a product globally appreciated and recognizable, and maintaining a cosmopolitan appeal for consumers in search of diversity.

Drawing on global cities as markets in continuous reconstruction and subject to cultural experimentation, the paper turns the attention of the research community to the collective, reflexive, and experimental aspects of symbolic consumption. It shows how arts and cultural products represent valuable contexts for international marketing research, providing original insights into market dynamics and cultural experimentation.

The purpose of this study is to examines the pattern of linkage between Korean immigrant business community in the Kansas City area and global forces by focusing on how an immigrant community has transformed and reacted to the global trends of business transaction.

The data on Korean entrepreneurs in the Kansas City area was obtained from the semi-structured and informal interviews with Korean community leaders, Korean businessmen and customers who use Korean grocery markets in the Kansas City area. This study also utilizes documents on Korean and Asian ethnic community and neighborhood relations in news media. It analyzes entrepreneurial strategy and business transactions of Korean immigrant community and its relations to global trends using the Directory of Korean Entrepreneurs of Greater Kansas City Area in different points of time: 1990, 2006 and 2011.

The types of businesses observed in the Directory of Korean Business in Greater Kansas City area have changed significantly over time (see Table I). The number of businesses has increased from 181 in 1990 to 281 in 2006 and 197 in 2011, and the business types became diversified from 29 in 1990 to 38 in 2006 and 36 in 2011. The grocery stores and restaurants in community were adapting to global tends to survive by upscaling and diversifying items and targeting customers. Beauty aid supply business remains solid by maintaining globalized business transactions of purchasing and distribution.

Based on interviews, this study needs to be extended to other Midwestern cities and Chicago, as a global city, to objectively examine the mode of intersection between globalness and ethnic locality within immigrant communities.

This study explores specifically how a transnational community of Korean entrepreneurs in the Kansas City is reacting and adjusting to global trends by probing the strategies of each business segments of grocery store, restaurants and beauty aid supply business.

The purpose of this paper is to use a newly developed Global Liveable Cities Index (GLCI), to assess how Abu Dhabi ranks among global cities. The paper sheds some light on the strengths and weaknesses associated with the city’s emergence as a global city, as identified by the index.

This paper makes use of a new measure of liveability – the GLCI – to rank the world ' s major cities. The GLCI advances the measurement of the “Liveability” construct by taking into account the multi-dimensional sensibility of diverse groups of ordinary persons across 64 cities. The paper also conducts policy simulations to help aid city planners invest in areas with low scores in the GLCI.

The results from the analysis show Abu Dhabi as a city that has a lot more potential than what most conventional city benchmarking exercises have revealed. It is a city with immense potential in the region by not just being the driver of growth but also being a nodal center for attraction of global talent. It is fast growing into a city of opportunity and already satisfies the characteristics of an emerging global city with a lot of regional attention. The empirical results also find that its potential has been clearly under-rated by many existing studies and indices primarily because of their narrow scope in measuring liveability. The GLCI results brought together multiple indicators to devise an index that is strongly based on a combination of analytical and philosophical values. Taking stock of the rankings of Abu Dhabi using the GLCI so far as well as the policy simulations, one can conclude that Abu Dhabi has multiple strengths as an aspiring global city. The results also indicate that one area that has been consistently identified as lacking in Abu Dhabi is that of environmental sustainability.

While cities have always played a historic role in powering economic growth in some form or the other, the scale of expansions and the speed at which it is happening today appears unprecedented. While a considerable number of indices benchmarking cities exist, they are rather narrow in scope. None of them model liveability from the perspective of an ordinary person with multi-dimensional sensibilities toward issues like economic well-being, social mobility, personal security, political governance, environmental sustainability and aesthetics for a more representative coverage of major cities around the world. These factors are critical measures of “liveability” of a city that in turn elevates it to the status of a global city. This paper thus makes an original contribution to the literature on understanding global cities by applying a newly developed GLCI to assess how Abu Dhabi ranks among global cities. The paper sheds some light on the strengths and weaknesses associated with the city’s emergence as a global city, as identified by the index.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between global cities and international tourism with particular reference to the recent experiences of Tokyo which has recently seen a marked increase in arrivals. It addresses questions of the standing of Tokyo as a global city and tourist destination, how the two functions are connected and why changes are occurring.

The methodology employed is that of an empirical case study based on the analysis of published materials drawn from a diversity of sources.

The defining characteristics of global cities are generally conducive to their function as international tourist destinations. They possess a wealth of tourism resources and amenities which facilitate inbound tourist flows. Tokyo is a prominent example of a global city, but has tended to attract fewer visitors than others in that category. The recent significant growth in arrivals is attributed to changes in the tourism industry and wider environment, yet some challenges remain before it can catch up with its counterparts.

Fresh insights are afforded into the implications of global city status for tourism and the development of Tokyo as a destination which tends to have been neglected in the literature.

Cities are host to many of the world’s knowledge intensive research and innovation clusters. As such, they are likely to be attractive locations for emerging market multinational enterprises (MNEs) seeking to engage in knowledge seeking “springboard” type firm-level catch-up strategies. The purpose of this study is to therefore explore whether city-based research-intensive clusters containing deep pools of location bounded (i.e. “sticky”) knowledge are a stronger driver for greenfield research and development (R&D)-related FDI projects for Chinese MNEs than they are for developed market MNEs.

The authors use logistic modelling on 97,163 worldwide greenfield FDI projects to explore the relative likelihoods of Chinese MNEs engaging in R&D-related greenfield (i.e. “strategic asset seeking”) FDI projects as well as how city type (global or research-intensive cluster city) moderates this relationship for Chinese MNEs.

The authors find that Chinese MNEs are more likely to engage in overseas R&D FDI projects (compared with other types of project) than DMNEs and that research-intensive city clusters hold a stronger attraction for Chinese MNEs than developed market MNEs.

The authors discuss how the research contributes to the debate on emerging market MNE catch-up theory, as well as that on sub-national city location choice, by highlighting the growing importance of sub-national geography to understanding strategic asset seeking related greenfield FDI.

Sub-national city location choice is an important driver of strategic asset seeking FDI for Chinese MNEs, one that both national and local city level policymakers should pay attention to.

Chinese FDI via aggressive mergers and acquisitions to acquire key technologies has been restricted in recent years. Policymakers must consider whether they may also wish to restrict Chinese greenfield FDI in R&D-related projects, which now exhibit a pronounced upward trend.

The authors highlight the growing importance of sub-national geography to understanding strategic asset seeking related greenfield FDI in Chinese MNEs (and how it plays, more generally, a central role in their strategies).

Notes how rapid urbanization is transforming the developing world – creating cities, which on the one hand offer opportunities for global economic activity, but on the other hand are beset with serious local civic, economic and social problems. New networks based on information and communication technologies are increasingly being woven into the fabric of these cities supporting the connectedness of powerful groups both within the city and between cities around the world. These flows of global information and communication between powerful groups in the city involved in global economic activity coexist with intense face‐to‐face interactions at the local level. Bangalore in South India presents a major case study of this global/local interaction, being a focal point for software development in the Asian region and globally, but also beset with local problems of civic deficiencies, growing poverty and income inequality. Explores some of the issues which arise as Bangalore serves as a nexus that links global and local networks of exchange. Examines two Bangalore networks which typify global and local duality: the network of software firms located in high technology enclaves in and around the city, and the ostracised network of the slum dwellers of Bangalore, gradually being brought into mainstream discussions of governance in the city. Finds considerable similarities between global networks and local networks and outlines some of these dynamics.