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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.

Few research studies have been done to investigate the issue of new service development (NSD) in an emerging market. To address this gap in the literature the aim of this paper is to document a study of the NSD process and the strategy of business‐to‐business financial service firms in India.

The author conducted surveys of 148 multinational service firms operating in India and 126 local and indigenous Indian service firms belonging to the financial services industry.

The findings suggest that significant differences exist between multinational service firms operating in India and local/indigenous Indian firms. That is, service firms belonging to these two varied groups use different strategies to compete in the industry and emphasize different sets of development stages in service innovation.

The analysis has been restricted to one emerging market, i.e. India. This suggests the need for further studies of NSD in other emerging markets of the world.

The findings of this research validate the initial contention that NSD practices vary from company to company, and thus there cannot be a “one size fits all” approach to service innovation. The insights from this study can help service managers to better understand and manage their NSD programs in an emerging market such as India.

To the best of the author's knowledge, this research represents the first attempt to investigate empirically the NSD practices of financial service firms in India.

Given the importance of understanding the dynamics of the internationalisation and expansion process, it is surprising that – in reviewing the extensive literature – that little attention has been paid to service organisations. This paper attempts to shed light on business strategies and the international entry modes of the services sector in general, and the area of banking which form a significant and substantive proportion of global trade. Therefore, this paper aims to address this omission by exploring the behaviour of Malaysian multinational financial and banking service industries in their international expansion in terms of their motivation, mode of entry strategies, selection of target markets, and their strategic thrusts.

The paper follows an exploratory approach utilising qualitative multiple case studies. Empirical data are presented from case study of four large Malaysian‐based multinational commercial banks through interviews with managers from the banks' headquarters as well as managers responsible for and/or engaged in the development and implementation of international marketing strategies.

It is inferred that Malaysian multinational commercial banks are entering foreign markets, employing a foreign direct investment entry mode, by creating branches and representative offices, and in some cases by acquiring part of the share or the whole capital of existing local financial institutions. These expansions have been motivated by several factors related to both their domestic markets (push factors: government initiatives, small size, low and limited growth) and the attractiveness of their target markets (pull factors/location advantages: high market growth, low to moderate levels of competition).

The case study has inherently limited the capacity to offer generalisations concerning other service companies.

This paper is rich in its practical implications. As this study was concerned with the practical experience and behaviour of Malaysian‐based multinational banks on their choice of entry modes and organisational forms when internationalising, Malaysian banking and marketing practitioners can use the analysis and results as a means of comparing their current tactical and strategy foreign entry behaviour with that of other internationalising banks.

The paper offers new insights into the emergence and international expansion of Malaysian‐based multinational commercial banks, and sheds light on the internationalisation process associated with services per se.

The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence regarding the springboard regionalization strategy implemented by multinationals entering Latin America and the organizational networks developed to serve this end.

Using the organizational network approach, a typology is developed to explain the Springboard network. Quantitative analysis is used, in the form of logistic binary regression, to study these networks composition.

From a sample of 154 subsidiaries extracted from the AMADEUS intelligent database, three categories for multinational’s networks are created, with the Spanish subsidiary acting as the leader: strategic centers (SCs), administrative centers (ACs) and regional headquaters (RHQs). Findings provide evidence of cultural features, industry behavior and the multinational’s size and entry mode influence these networks organization.

It is proposed that culture and historical ties have evolved together and management scholars should be aware of this phenomenon. Specific limitation that this study exhibits is the data provided by AMADEUS and the fact that R&D information for both the Spanish and the Latin American subsidiary were not available.

Staffing composition and expatriate corporate policy should consider the springboard effect to manage springboard networks.

Industries and authorities in all countries involved should be aware of their role in MNC strategies for regional expansion.

It is argued that a network of subsidiaries within the multinational can participation in the springboard behavior, which is determined by the culture that the multinational originates from, as well as the Spanish culture, creating a particular type of leadership.

The chapter investigates the determinants of the extent of foreign services multinationals originating SMOPECs. An inverted U-shaped relationship between the level of technological knowledge and extent of foreign services provision is found, stemming from the facilitating and inhibiting effects of technological knowledge on foreign services provision. Standardization of services and their automation positively moderates this relationship. Overall, the chapter highlights the increased importance of relatively small global service providers from SMOPECs as a new type of multinational that is likely increase in its dominancy in the near future.

More professional service firms are increasing their role in modern economies, both as employers and as economic value providers. Although there is a quite extensive literature explaining the importance of management and managerial abilities for a firm's competitiveness, the studies focusing on the same issue in professional service businesses are rare. Hence, this paper aims to expand knowledge on this issue and to present a framework for studying managerial abilities in professional service firms.

The research is constructed as a multi‐case study and includes six cases. The cases were selected among the members of the Turkish Association of Advertising and only full‐service advertising agencies were included in the sample. Three multinational and three national agencies are included in the sample.

It was found that multinational agencies show significant differences according to their top managers' status and credibility. Managerial knowledge has a different impact on the competitiveness of both agency types.

The paper offers a framework to study the role of managerial capabilities in competitiveness of professional service firms.

The use of expatriates to transfer individual and organizational know-how and knowledge is a practice widely used by multinational enterprises (MNEs). However, for service firms, the mobility of employees across national borders depends on the commitments made by countries under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). In particular, the Mode 4 form of supply under GATS can limit the ability of professionals to enter a particular country and can restrict the intra-organizational transfer of knowledge in multinational service firms. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how MNEs attempt to overcome these barriers and transfer knowledge through their global network.

Using Nonaka and Takeuchi’s SECI model of knowledge transfer, the authors study the intra-organizational knowledge transfer practices of an Indian multinational service firm. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 key informants involved with the organization.

The company uses global teams to transfer tacit knowledge and facilitates inpatriation through an internship program that helps the firm overcome nationality requirement that restricts the movement of their managers to other countries, which in turn limits their ability to transfer knowledge in the intra-organizational setting. The company uses the services of a not-for-profit youth organization that helps recruit interns for the program and also facilitates the relationship with the Indian Government, which provides support for this initiative by reducing barriers to entry for the interns.

This study takes the unique approach of studying barriers to movement of professionals and a firm’s strategic response. It identifies the pressures and barriers that companies face in the global economy and highlights the role of government agencies and other stakeholders in facilitating or restricting the transfer of knowledge within a firm’s international network. The paper articulates the implications for policy and practice, and a future research agenda.

The aim of this paper is to deal with the purpose, process and prospects pertaining to the rapid internationalization of the Indian information technology (IT) services multinational corporations (MNCs) with a view to explore the issues, challenges and strategies of MNCs from emerging economies.

The paper presents the key findings of in‐depth interviews with the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of the top three Indian IT MNCs on a range of issues pertaining to international management.

The findings suggest that the Indian IT multinationals are typical born‐global MNCs that have successfully leveraged on the availability of large and low‐cost Indian IT talent pools and have pioneered the global services delivery model from a global network of development centers. They are currently diversifying into emerging markets where they realize that they need to localize their workforce and business models. They face several challenges in globalizing their talent pool and becoming truly global corporations.

The MNCs from emerging economies are adopting a different growth trajectory and strategic mindset as compared to traditional, western MNCs. They bring several distinct country‐ and firm‐specific advantages to the twenty‐first century global economy and are eager to establish themselves as innovative global players in their own right.

The CEOs play a defining role in shaping the strategy, destiny and direction of a firm. By looking at the internationalization of the top three Indian IT multinationals from the perspective of their CEOs, the strategic apex, we get invaluable, though incomplete, insights into the motives and constraints behind their strategy formulation and implementation.

The aim of this paper is to analyse and examine the factors affecting the international expansion and market entry of foreign multinational banks (MNBs) in Malaysia. 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 multinational banks.

The paper employs multi‐method approaches combining both questionnaires survey data and qualitative interviews.

The findings reveal the fact that profitability, trade financing, following the customers, diversifying the risk and pursuing new market opportunities are among important factors for the presence of foreign banks in the country.

The paper highlights relevance of further research on multinational banking and outlines research avenues.

The paper offers important insight and practical implications for local regulators and policy makers and bankers to understand the behaviour of foreign multinational banking in emerging markets.

The objective of this paper is to fill in some gaps in the literature regarding this research area. The paper provides preliminary research evidence and a framework to suggest hypotheses for further research.

This paper aims to contribute to the regionalisation–globalisation debate in international business (IB) by providing a longitudinal analysis of firm-level multinationality. The analysis uses a unique hand-collected data set of both accounting (sales) and non-accounting (subsidiaries) data. The percentage of foreign sales is also used as an additional measure of multinationality.

This paper categorises constituent firms of the Financial Times Stock Exchange 350 index over an 18-year time period from 1998 to 2015. Firms are categorised using the multinationality classification system developed by Aggarwal et al. (2011). The paper also conducts an industrial analysis across ten industries.

The evidence shows increasing multinationality over time that suggests a “trans-regional” operational strategy rather than a global or regional one. The results also show that UK firms are more multinational based on subsidiaries than sales. This contradicts the traditional stages theory of internationalisation where firms first expand sales, then subsidiaries. While some support for triad regions is found, there is also evidence of firm-level operations expanding beyond the triad regions of North America, Asia and Europe to non-triad regions such as Africa, Oceania and South America. The industrial analysis shows that non-service firms are more multinational than service firms.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to provide an in-depth longitudinal analysis of the geographical dispersion using both sales and subsidiaries data for UK firms. This paper provides a unique perspective on the regionalisation–globalisation debate in IB and presents evidence contrary to traditional stages theories of firm-level internationalisation.