Showing papers on "Internationalization published in 1983"

Firm internationalization, transaction costs and strategic choice

Abstract: Export expansion is usually conceptualized as a progressive organizational commitment ultimately leading to an international enterprise. However, such deterministic export behavior models are irreconcilable with a perspective which sees businesses as developing export structures to fit existing and potential foreign market opportunities. This paper examines how the formal administrative arrangements that firms use for conducting foreign trade are peculiarly fitted to achieve specific export performances. It shows how changes in these arrangements represent primarily organizational strategies for handling export transaction costs more efficiently.

The Japanese Financial System: Past, Present, and Future

Abstract: At the end of a survey of the Japanese financial system, Wal-lich and Wallich described it as being "in a process of rapid transition, not only under the influence of growing international competition and integration (internationalization), but also under the rapid progress... of the economy itself."1 Their view proved correct, as the facts show in the half-decade since the publication of their paper.

The “Internationalization” of the Japanese Economy:

Abstract: Foreign businesspeople have experienced difficulty in selling to or investing in the Japanese market. Often, they explain their frustration in terms of Japan's allegedly “closed” economy. This arti...

The internationalization of south african capital: south african direct foreign investment in the contemporary period

Abstract: WHILE THERE HAS BEEN considerable analysis of foreign investment in South Africa, there exists no overall study of South African investment abroad. There are possibly two major reasons for the absence of such an analysis. First, South African foreign investment is a very small fraction of the totality of foreign investment world-wide. But, second and more centrally, the fact is that for most South African companies investment abroad is a very recent phenomenon. This article attempts to delineate and explain the major features of contemporary South African private investment abroad. The first section is concerned with the overall picture and particularly contrasts South African direct foreign investment (DFI) with that emanating from other non-advanced capitalist countries. The second section presents a case study of the Anglo American Corporation and associated companies. Anglo American is simultaneously-and the connection is, as we shall see, far from fortuitous-South Africa's largest company and its largest foreign investor. According to Forbes Magazine, Anglo American now ranks No. 1 amongst foreign investors within the US economy.1 It therefore merits a more detailed consideration. An examination of South African foreign investment will first help illuminate the current trajectory of South African capitalism and, second, reveal something of the nature of the contemporary internationalization of capital. On the one hand, South African capital has many characteristics in common with capital in the advanced countries. On the other hand, South Africa remains a nonadvanced capitalist country. As a consequence, it will be argued, South African DFI differs in important respects from the DFI emanating from both the non-advanced and the advanced capitalist countries. A necessary caveat is to stress the data limitations. Data was derived from press reports, company reports, brokers' reports and interviews primarily with company managements. There are limitations imposed by these sources, as

Foreign Direct Investment in U.S. Food and Tobacco Manufacturing and Domestic Economic Performance

Abstract: Over the last two decades, the U.S. foodand tobacco-manufacturing sector has increasingly participated in the internationalization of the U.S. economy. Exports and imports have increased simultaneously for a number of U.S. food and tobacco products (Pagoulatos and Sorensen 1979). This growth, in contrast to raw agricultural commodities, has not been the most prevalent feature. Rather, the greater international involvement of the U.S. food sector has resulted from the rapid growth of U.S. direct investment abroad during the 1960s and the equally rapid growth of Canadian and European investment in the United States during the 1970s.' This paper concentrates on this trend of increased inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) into U.S. foodand tobacco-processing industries. The determinants of FDI inflows and their domestic performance implications are issues that require increased attention by agricultural economists. Analyzing this topic presents a challenge because it requires bridging the gap between international trade theory and industrial organization. Understanding the issues surrounding FDI in the United States, however, is an essential step toward comprehending the longer-term adjustments facing the U.S. food system as it becomes more integrated in the world economy. In what follows, the evidence regarding the extent of FDI in the U.S. food-processing sector is provided, and the existing theories and empirical evidence regarding the determinants of FDI are evaluated in light of the experience of the U.S. food sector over the last decade. The implications of FDI inflows for the domestic economic performance of the food sector complete the paper.

The New Spatial Organization of the European and American Automotive Industries

Abstract: The internationalization of production has destroyed previous national and regional schemes of organizing labor and capital. It has given birth to a new spatial organization of accumulation, closely linked to the new international division of labor. This chapter examines some examples of how the spatial organization of the automotive industry has changed as a result of the process of global integration of production over the last decade. The first part focuses on the recent history of Ford in Europe, as a specific example of how an automobile firm has planned to use its worldwide network of operations to restore its competitive position. The second part of the chapter examines the parallels between Ford’s response to changing conditions in Europe and the restructuring of the U.S. automotive industry.

The Internationalization of Capital and the Spatial Organization of Agriculture in Mexico

Abstract: The internationalization of capital is gradually transforming the economic structures of most countries participating in the world capitalist system. The process involves the integration of individual countries and their constituent regions into an increasingly unified whole, in which each unit is expected to contribute to the needs of the whole. With the resulting greater freedom for international investment and trade, the market is expected to allocate resources efficiently to ensure higher levels of economic activity and income. Economists postulate that, ideally, the internationalization of capital will lead to an effective national and regional integration based on comparative advantages, which will improve the welfare of all participants.

Regional analysis and the new international division of labor : applications of a political economy approach

Abstract: 1 Regional Political Economy: An Introduction and Overview.- I Theory, Method, and Concepts.- 2 The Theories and Methods of Regional Science and Regional Political Economy Compared.- 3 Social Spaceness and the Concept of Region.- 4 Regions and Regionalism.- 5 Commodity Production and Interregional Transfers of Value.- II Applications to Developing Countries.- 6 Mode of Production and Spatial Organization in Peru.- 7 The Internationalization of Capital and the Spatial Organization of Agriculture in Mexico.- III Applications to Developed Countries.- 8 The Implications of Industry Restructuring for Spatial Organization in the United States.- 9 The New Spatial Organization of the European and American Automotive Industries.- 10 Labor Migration and the Role of the State: The Immigration Policy of the Belgian Government.- List of Contributors.

Urban Policy and National Political Economy

Abstract: This article reviews theoretical and research problems in both ecological and urban political economy perspectives on cities. Several specific areas are identified-generic historical processes of the internationalization of the economy, uneven development within and between urban regions, economic concentration, political centralization, changes in family and community organization, and environmental limits to spatial differentiation. The connection between these structural issues and urban policy areas (social welfare policy, housing, transportation, and industrial structure) are discussed.

Le capitalisme fondé sur la connaissance et le changement dans les stratégies des entreprises industrielles

Abstract: This paper explores the changing nature of contemporary capital accumulation focusing in particular on the increasing importance of knowledge inputs in the production process The growing knowledge-intensity of production reflected in the role of design, research and development, marketing, management and advertising in the growth strategy of the firm, has had numerous consequences for the nature of competition amongst firms and for the internationalization of production As increased knowledge-intensity of production gave rise to ever more rapid technological change in industry, the need for greater flexibility in production and labour processes became acute, more so as the global economic crisis deepened and competition from newly industrializing countries rose Automation and sub-contracting were important new strategies So too was the segmentation and delocalization of production processes to cheap labour countries in the Third World and Eastern Europe More recently, as the costs and risks involved in R&D escalated, large corporations have also begun to decentralize knowledge production itself by funding research and development activities outside the MNC, and by internationalizing knowledge production itself through the establishment of research laboratories abroad or the implementation of a System of world product mandates for selected manufacturing subsidiaries

Health services in the Socialist Republic of Romania: structural features and cost-containment policies.

Abstract: E S S is known in the United States about the health services of Romania than those of any other Communist country in Eastern Europe, excepting perhaps Albania and Bulgaria. The only recent source of information p 9 published in this country was prepared by a representative of the Romanian Ministry of Health in conjunction with a conference on international trends in health spending sponsored by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (1). Additional sources are limited to broader geopolitical surveys compiled under State and Defense Department auspices (2,3). Otherwise, health-specific information is limited to a larger study of Eastern European health services published in England (4). Along with describing some of the principal organizational features of Romanian health services, this article seeks to interpret recent policy changes in the light of demographic and financial strains prevalent today in industrialized nations. The pervasiveness of the belief now found among policy makers in highly developed countries that modem medicine has reached the stage of diminishing returns (i.e., that it is costing more and more to accomplish less), coupled with a growing frustration over the ability of the health economy to thwart cost-containment measures, may signal a greater receptivity to the sharing of ideas and experiences than was previously popular. New competitive realities stemming from the internationalization of finance and trade provide policy makers with an incentive to become better informed about what is happening elsewhere in the world. Moreover, the relaxation of cold-war tensions initiated by the pursuit of detente in the 1970S has legitimized scientific and cultural exchanges which extend the opportunities to learn how countries with command economies seek to