Multinational Activity - Publications - Faculty & Research

Research Summary

Intra-Industry Foreign Direct Investment (joint with Andrew Charlton)

We identify a new type of vertical foreign direct investment (FDI) made up of multinational subsidiaries producing intermediate inputs, which are of similar skill intensity to the final goods produced by their parents, and which are overwhelmingly located in high skill... View Details

11 Oct 2010
Research & Ideas

It Pays to Hire Women in Countries That Won’t

co-wrote with Lynn Pyun of MIT and B.Y. Cheon of Hanshin University and the Korea Labor Institute. Focusing on South Korea, the team interviewed scores of multinational and local executives to find out whether a firm could raise its... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

09 Dec 2002
Research & Ideas

Unilever—A Case Study

This article considers key issues relating to the organization and performance of large multinational firms in the post-Second World War period. Although foreign direct investment is defined by ownership and control, in practice the... View Details

Keywords: by Geoffrey Jones; Consumer Products; Entertainment & Recreation; Food & Beverage; Manufacturing; Retail

Louis T. Wells

Professor Louis T. Wells is the Herbert F. Johnson Professor of International Management at the Harvard Business School. He has served as consultant to governments of a number of developing countries, as well as to international organizations and private firms. His... View Details

Keywords: mining; telecommunications; utilities

21 Sep 2007
Working Paper Summaries

Intra-Industry Foreign Direct Investment

Keywords: by Laura Alfaro & Andrew Charlton

29 Jun 2010
First Look

First Look: June 29

foreign direct investment (FDI) in determining micro economic performance. Using a new worldwide dataset that reports the activities of more than 12 million establishments before and after 2008, we investigate how View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

24 Oct 2005
Research & Ideas

IPR: Protecting Your Technology Transfers

accelerate the transfer of technology between countries. Given my long-standing interest in the activities of multinational firms, I wanted to see if there was any empirical evidence for this latter claim.... View Details

Keywords: by Cynthia Churchwell

16 May 2018
HBS Seminar

Juan Carlos Suárez Serrato, Duke University, Economics

12 Sep 2016
Research & Ideas

What Brands Can Do to Monitor Factory Conditions of Suppliers

you might fail—that fear helps you study harder,” Toffel says. However that learning occurs, Toffel and his colleagues see hope in the potential for foreign factories to change and get better over time. If multinational brands want to... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

03 Apr 2006
Research & Ideas

The Competitive Advantage of Global Finance

In the process, he shows how organizations can best equip themselves to take advantage of potential sources of competitive advantage that arise in the global setting. In International Finance: A Casebook, Desai provides case studies on how large View Details

Keywords: by Sean Silverthorne; Financial Services

13 Feb 2007
First Look

First Look: February 13, 2007

deployment of their technology abroad. The paper demonstrates that when firms want to exploit technologies abroad, multinational firm (MNC) activity and foreign direct investment (FDI) flows arise... View Details

Keywords: Martha Lagace

Research Summary

Overview

A growing body of strategy and management literature emphasizes the importance of non-market strategy, not only as a stand-alone strategy but also as a part of integrated strategy in dealing with frequent regulatory change and political/regulatory actors and agencies.... View Details

Keywords: Non-market Strategy; Lobbying; Business ＆ Government Relations; Global Strategy; Institutions

V. Kasturi Rangan

Kash Rangan is the Malcolm P. McNair Professor of Marketing at the Harvard Business School. Formerly the chairman of the Marketing Department (1998-2002), he is now the co-chairman of the school's Social Enterprise Initiative. He has taught in a wide variety of MBA... View Details

Keywords: advertising; agribusiness; apparel; automobiles; computer; consumer products; e-commerce industry; high technology; industrial goods; marketing industry; pharmaceuticals

2007
Chapter

Microeconomic Determinants of Location Competitiveness for MNEs

By: Christian H.M. Ketels

The concept of microeconomic competitiveness based on the frameworks developed by Michael Porter since 1990 are popular with policy makers interested in improving the attractiveness and economic performance of their countries and regions. This concept also has many... View Details

Keywords: Microeconomics; Geographic Location; Multinational Firms and Management; Growth and Development Strategy; Competition

Citation

21 Feb 2007
Op-Ed

What a U.N. Partnership with Big Business Could Accomplish

by raising incomes and giving people a stake in a more promising future. Our research also shows that many multinationals find that their activities in regions struck by poverty act as powerful magnets for... View Details

Keywords: by George C. Lodge & Craig Wilson

2014
Chapter

Firms and Global Capitalism

By: Geoffrey Jones

This chapter forms part of the two-volume Cambridge History of Capitalism, a definitive new reference work that traces the history of capitalism from its origins to the present day. The chapter focuses on the role of business enterprises as powerful actors in... View Details

Keywords: Political Economy; American History; Economic History; Business History; Labor History; Slavery; Numeracy And Quantification; Science And Technology Studies; History Of The Book; International Investment; International Business; International Marketing; Globalization; History

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September 2015
Article

Codes in Context: How States, Markets, and Civil Society Shape Adherence to Global Labor Standards

By: Michael W. Toffel, Jodi L. Short and Melissa Ouellet

Transnational business regulation is increasingly implemented through private voluntary programs—like certification regimes and codes of conduct—that diffuse global standards. But little is known about the conditions under which companies adhere to these standards. We... View Details

Keywords: Transnational Regulation; Labor Standards; Consumer Politics; Codes Of Conduct; Compliance; Governance Compliance; Operations; Globalization; Labor

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30 Jan 2023
HBS Seminar

Martine Haas, Wharton

2012
Chapter

The Confederacy of Heterogeneous Software Organizations and Heterogeneous Developers: Field Experimental Evidence on Sorting and Worker Effort

By: Kevin J. Boudreau and Karim R. Lakhani

Software development occurs in a patchwork or "confederacy" of different types of institutions (universities, small start-ups, multinational enterprises, government agencies, etc.) utilizing varied work approaches. Here we speculate on one possible explanation for this... View Details

Keywords: Innovation and Invention; Applications and Software; Product Development; Organizations; Employees; Behavior; Competition; Cooperation; Creativity; Information Technology Industry

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June 2011 (Revised November 2014)
Case

Vehbi Koç and the Making of Turkey's Largest Business Group

By: Asli M. Colpan and Geoffrey Jones

The case describes the creation of Turkey's largest business group by Vehbi Koç. The foundation of this group in the interwar years, and its subsequent diversification into many industries, including automobiles, household goods, and services, is analysed. The case... View Details

Keywords: Emerging Markets; Entrepreneurship; Globalization; Organizational Structure; Diversification; Manufacturing Industry; Turkey

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