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The Nature of Business Policy Business policy — or general management — is concerned with the following six major functions:

The focus of this paper is the emergence of Russia's multinational companies. It aims to analyse their motives to internationalise as well as the approaches to internationalisation. While relevance of the theoretical perspectives is highlighted, the purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of the present‐day phenomenon of emerging Russian multinationals.

The paper relies on a qualitative approach for the analysis of the nature of Russian multinationals. The phenomenon of the emerging Russian multinationals is analysed through the prism and using insights from a number of subjects, namely transition studies, politics, innovation studies and international business studies.

The paper traces the evolution of Russian companies; the idiosyncratic path of their formation serves as a background for understanding of their internationalisation strategies. A special attention is devoted to the R&D activities of Russian multinational companies, and access to foreign technology is found to be an important driver of internationalisation.

The paper highlights relevance of further research on Russian multinationals and outlines research avenues.

The paper is rich in its practical implications. Specifically, it elaborates on the European Union‐Russian bilateral relations and the role of Russian multinationals in the European economies. The issue of political involvement is raised, and the paper seeks to identify whether Russian companies serve as tools of foreign policy, or they operate as business agents.

Despite their increasingly important role in the global economy, Russian companies have been largely overshadowed by the emergence of Indian and Chinese multinationals and not sufficiently addressed, even neglected, in the literature. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to fill in some gaps in the literature regarding this research area.

This study of multinational companies in China focuses on the role culture plays in relationship cultivation. The author interviewed 40 participants from 36 multinational companies in China. The findings revealed that characteristics of Chinese culture, such as family orientation, guanxi, relational orientation (role formalisation, relational interdependence, face, favour, relational harmony, relational fatalism and relational determination) had an influence on multinational companies’ relationship cultivation strategies. Multinationals from Western countries were found, however, to be more persistent in maintaining their own cultural values in relationship building than multinational companies from Asian countries.

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 investigate factors affecting the position of multinationals versus domestic companies.

With the strong interest of multinationals in non‐alcoholic drinks, and the relatively solid position of local firms, the non‐alcoholic drinks industry in Poland is the focus of this study. The author conducted numerous trade interviews. Data from various sources such as trade magazines, trade associations was also the component of research approach.

Domestic companies proved their ability not only to sustain their position, but also to expand within Eastern Europe.

More insight into cultural sensitivity and financial crisis is required in order to better understand factors affecting the position of multinationals across international markets.

In‐depth study that highlights sins committed by multinationals. Local companies could transform themselves into regional players and threaten multinationals within Eastern Europe.

Presents some of the key points, strategy, brand, new product developments, cultural sensitivity, learning, that are significant enough to draw the attention of global managers.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the operations of the quality management systems (QMS) in multinational companies, and develop a framework for classifying the QMS features based on the global operational and marketing structures arising from their expansion process. This paper is based on doctoral research conducted at the Department of Statistics, University of Haifa, Israel in 2007–2015.

This study used the innovative approach of adopting a systems perspective in analyzing the operation of a global QMS. In total 18 multinational companies at different levels of global expansion were studied in depth using observations, longitudinal studies, content analyses and depth interviews.

The result of this study is the global hierarchical model (GHM) that presents a classification of representative global operational and marketing structures deriving from the expansion process of multinational companies, and the extrapolated features of the respective global QMS.

This classification serves as a diagnostic tool for identifying the proper globalization level of a QMS, thereby helping plan global quality strategy and identifying the steps necessary for its effective implementation.

This research seeks to fill a lacuna in the field of global quality system development with regard to modes of competition and challenge. Integration of strategic, operational and marketing rationales into the QMS’s processes augments the functional level of management and supports the development of a strategy for global quality management that is derived from and supports the company’s global strategy.

This research aims to compare the environmental information that is disclosed in the annual reports of the American and European multinational companies. Eventually, it also aims to try to show the factors which explain the differences.

This paper analyzes the annual reports of 72 multinational companies, thanks to the index developed by Wiseman. The paper then uses regression analysis in order to explain the differences.

The study finds that European multinationals reveal more environmental information than those that are American. Equally, it finds that the nationality of multinational companies seems to have an effect on the level of environmental communication.

The quantitative data are based on a small sample of multinational companies. However, findings will bring efficient contributions to the other studies dealing with the accounting harmonization.

The study aims at enriching the debates on this question, comparing the environmental information (obligatory and voluntary) showed by the annual reports of the American and European multinational companies.

Purpose – This study examines whether or not holding a greater percentage of real assets significantly impacts the risk and risk‐adjusted return of U.S. based multinational companies. Design/methodology/approach – A series of rolling Two Stage Least Squares (2SLS) regression models are used to analyse the relationships among corporate real assets, systematic risk (beta), and risk‐adjusted return. Findings – The results of this study show that U.S. based multinational companies do have lower betas. However, U.S. based multinational companies’ cross border real asset holdings do not affect diversification and do not provide significantly higher risk‐adjusted returns to stockholders. Originality/value – This study builds upon the prior work of Seiler, Chatrath and Webb to consider multinational firms. This had never been done previously.

The Gemba‐Kaizen approach is a key business process strategy employed by companies (multinationals also) to enhance their manufacturing performance. However, whilst there is significant research information available on implementing management systems in a sequential manner, there is little information available relating to the application of this approach to provide a single and highly effective methodology for process innovation in the context of the Gemba‐Kaizen approach in multinational companies. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to develop and apply a process innovation framework in terms of methodology for multinational companies. The research question that governs the study is: How is the Gemba‐Kaizen approach applied in an organisational context such as that of a multinational food company in Mexico?

An exploratory case study was conducted. One multinational food company (chocolate) which has been established in Mexico for at least 19 years was selected. The paper chronicles the design and application of a process innovation framework in the context of the Gemba‐Kaizen approach. In total, four methods were used to gather data: direct observation; participative observation; documentary analysis; and semi‐structured interviews.

This paper proposes a process innovation framework using the Gemba‐Kaizen approach. The development, refinement and implementation of a process innovation framework in the context of the Gemba‐Kaizen approach has been achieved, working closely with a multinational food company. Consequently, as a result of the application, a conceptual framework was established, based on the results of comparing theory and fieldwork: this provides a glimpse into the relationship of the Gemba‐Kaizen approach with other improvement methodologies, known as Process Redesign, in the organisation analysed.

Derived to describe the case study on how to apply the Gemba‐Kaizen approach through process innovation methodology, the paper may prove to be of value to practitioners and managers involved in the field. Similarly, a section on managerial implications has also been included.

The paper contributes to the limited existing literature on the Gemba‐Kaizen system and subsequently disseminates this information in order to provide impetus, guidance and support towards increasing the development of companies, in an attempt to move the Mexico manufacturing (food) sector towards world‐class manufacturing performance.

This chapter develops a multi-path theory of diversified international expansion that explains how multiple wave-shaped performance curves are created as multinational companies expand into increasingly distant and dissimilar countries. According to this theory, multinational mobile network operators (MNOs) recover from over-diversified expansion by improving their local adaptation strategies by means of reconfiguring the value chain and entering local partnerships, by improving their global replication capabilities or by concentrating expansion to clusters of similar country markets. Three dynamic propositions are developed and exemplified concerning MNOs’ diversified international expansion. Implications for international diversification research finalize the chapter.