• East Asian Journal of Business Economics (EAJBE)
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.53-61
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• 2021

Purpose - This study aims to understand the phenomenon called "regional multinational" in the geographical expansion of multinational enterprises and to find some evidence whether globalization of multinational enterprises tends to have a strong home region bias. Research design, data, and methodology - Through an in-depth case analysis, we analyze the series of strategic behaviors Wal-Mart made in South Korea from its entry in 1998 to its withdrawal in 2006. Then, we discuss the plausible causes of this exit, seeking to provide some evidence on the "regional multinational" phenomenon. Result - This study finds some evidence on the regional-based expansion of multinational enterprises. Our case study shows that Wal-Mart in South Korea focused on global standardization strategy and made an exit from the market as they were faced with increasing localization demands. From the perspective of multinational enterprises' globalization strategy, Wal-Mart's exit from the South Korean market can be considered as a strategic exit. Conclusion - The findings of this study suggest that while national responsiveness and localized adaptation are considered as a panacea for penetrating international markets, in reality most multinational enterprises attempt to add value primarily by capitalizing on similarities across markets and remain as regional multinationals.

• Journal of Korean Society of Industrial and Systems Engineering
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.103-112
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• 2016

As supply chains are globalized, multinational companies are trying to optimize distribution networks using a hub and spoke structure. In this hub and spoke network structure, multinational companies locate regional distribution centers at hub airports, which serve demands in their corresponding regions. Especially when customers put higher priority on the service lead-time, hinterlands of international hub airports become ideal candidate locations for the regional hub distribution centers. By utilizing excellent airport and logistics services from hub airports, regional distribution centers in the hub airports can match supply with demand efficiently. In addition, regional hub distribution centers may increase air cargo volume of each airport, which is helpful in the current extremely competitive airport industry. In this paper, we classified locational preferences into three primary categories including demand, service and risk and applied the analytic hierarchy process methodology to prioritize factors of locational preferences. Primary preference factors include secondary factors. Demand factor contains access to current and prospect markets. Service factor comprises airport and logistics perspectives. Service factor in terms of airport operations includes secondary factors such as airport service and connectivity. Service factor in terms of logistics operations contains infrastructure and logistics operations efficiency. Risk factor consists of country and business risks. We also evaluated competitiveness of Asian hub airports in terms of candidate location for regional hub distribution centers. The candidate hub airports include Singapore, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Narita and Incheon. Based on the analytic hierarchy process analysis, we derived strategic implications for hub airports to attract multinational companies' regional hub distribution centers.

• Journal of the Economic Geographical Society of Korea
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.399-416
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• 2016

The main aim of the research attempts to identify value relations appropriated and realized in the coffee frontier of Vietnam by investigating the ways in which it is integrated into coffee global value chains driven by multinational companies, and to provide some implications of the integration of the frontier into sustainable coffee global value chains for creating shared value in Dak Lak, Vietnam. Recently Dak Lak has gone through the transition of value relations from exploitative value chains based upon conventional coffee production into shared value chains relied upon the production of sustainable or certified coffee in Dak Lak. The transition has been expected to result in sustainability in the creation of value by enhancing regional competitive advantages and regional bargaining power in global value chains driven by multinational companies. However, the reality has shown the intensification of hierarchical profits allocation among stakeholders such as farmer, middlemen, and multinational companies in the region. The main reasons for this could be found in two perspectives. Firstly, the formation of exclusive relations among farmers, middlemen, and processors has led to stakeholders to secure market, but resulted in the intensification of hierarchy among them in global value chain, because multinational companies could control indirectly over the farming system through exclusive middlemen. Secondly, social and ecological costs imputed by multinational companies to coffee farmers in the name of creating shared value has deteriorated the economic profits of stakeholders such as farmers and middlemen. As a result, it has led to the configuration of systematically hierarchical and subordinated global value chain in Dak Lak.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.68-87
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• 1996

This paper investigates spatio-temporal changes in the international system of linkages among multinational corporate domestic decision-making centers and their overseas subsidiary centers for the period 1974-1991. During this period advances in information technologies and an ever increasing interdependent world economy have permitted the globalization of resource transfers, production techniques, service provision and financial transactions. Based on a network theory of internationalization, the study idenifies the dispersion of multinational control centers and the diversification of their linkage patterns. These tendencies are led by small and medium sized quaternary places as well as the rapid growth of service industries. Corporate headquarters cease to be tied together to big corporate and governmental centers but will disperse over time at global, national and regional level. Using information statistics, this paper confirms the dispersion patterns of capital flows and diversification of multinational control linkages. With an increasing trend toward a multicentric world system and the associated diecline of the global hegemony of a small number of largest cities, multinational control linkages should continue to disperse.

• Journal of the Korean Regional Science Association
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.103-116
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• 1999

As Asia becomes increasingly integrated economically, opportunity particularly in managing financial flows, as bases to coordinate regional production networks, and as staging points for the penetration of new markets. The paper argues for a path-dependent logic to understanding the efforts of the Singapore State in hosting hub functions. As a city-state without a national economic hinterland, Singapore's response to increasing business costs and regional competition has been to create a set of policies designed to encourage multinational companies to keep administrative control functions in Singapore while moving the more labour and land intensive production functions to nearby Malaysia and Indonesia. An understanding of the competition among cities in the Asia Pacific for hub functions must also take into account corporate strategy within particular industry dynamics. The second half of the paper provides a number of case studies to show this interplay between corporate strategy, industry dynamic and government policy.

• The Korean Journal of Air & Space Law and Policy
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• v.8
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• pp.297-332
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• 1996

It is well observed in the satellite telecommunication policy of several States that legal constraints imposed upon the service coverage of satellite telecommunication as well as broadcasting are to be relaxed in a progressive way. Major aspects of such policy change lie in the adoption of policy refusing traditional concept of national frontier. In the case of direct broadcasting satellite service, while a debate upon the legal issues regarding the spill-over effect of that service is no more major concern of the States, many multinational enterprises are looking for strategic alliance for regional or global DBS project. On the other hand, an implementation plan for connecting the world through global mobile personal communication satellite system is being pursued by several joint effort of multinational firms. Legal issues arise regarding the regulatory competence of each State, Especially, a controversial issue is concerning the sovereign right well recognized upon the regulation of telecommunication. This study is focusing upon the evolution of such policy change for the purpose of allowing us to expect future develpment of worldwide satellite telecommunication policy environment.

• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.131-152
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• 2015

Environmental differences across countries such as socio-cultural, political, economic, and technological differences require business strategies of multinational corporations to vary business practices across regions. Despite the keen awareness of the necessity for strategic adaptation to local context, IS management and strategy tend to remain similar across countries. One of the reasons is to maintain the stability and compatibility of information technology infrastructure. After a careful observation of retail business practice, this study finds IS strategy should also be highly responsive to the local context. This study shows how information resources including systems architecture, processes, human resources, and national context are interlinked together. Despite global excellence in general systems management, failure in such alignment can be a serious problem in extending competitive advantages across regions. This study aims to reveal issues to be taken care of in order to accomplish global technological alignment. Results of this study provide senior management with guidelines and a framework for aligning IT with regional strategic thrust that can improve local responsiveness of multinational companies.

• Journal of the Korean Regional Science Association
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.79-91
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• 1995

As an exit to solve the economic depression of the development countries in the early twentieth century, the 'old international division of labor' developed. The economic crisis(i.e., under-consumption crisis) was due to the absence of the mode of regulation compatible with the extensive regime of accumulation(i.e., "Fordist" regime). The crisis was solved by the state intervention through the creation on institutions in order to increase the level of consumption. Until the late 1960s when "high Fordism" reached(i.e., a harmonious relation between the monopoly mode of regulation and the intensive accumulation of capital), the developed core countries enjoyed a remarkable economic growth. The external market was not a necessity for the economic growth because there were increases in labor productivity and proportional increases in real wages and thus increases in consumption level. In the 1970s, however, the core faced with economic crisis again. Due to the breakdown of the postwar "Fordist" regime of capital accumulation and the post 1973 world depression, the core needed the Third World as a solution for their internal and international economic crisis. Thus the 'new international division of labor'(NIDL) arose. The "Fordist" method of production(i.e., the divisions of production process) led to the territorial division of labor and to the detailed division of labor. The aim of the NIDL is to exploit reserve armies of labor on a world scale and thus to reduce production costs. According to the NIDL model, the Third World countries have been developing by the core countries' investment on mainly labor-intensive industries and thus have been playing an important role in the global economy. And the NIDL theorists argue that multinational corporations have increasingly invested in the Third World nations and contributed to the economic growth in those regions. Tables presented in the paper show that the global trend since the 1970s does not follow the argument exactly as the NIDL theorists predicted. On the contrary, the core countries focus on developing technology, adopting the automation of production process, and trading within the core countries rather than on investing in the periopheral countries. The continuing investment of multinational corporations into the periphery is not because of cheap labor force but because of the market potentials in the regions. Majority of corporations of the core tries to reduce production costs by investing in technological development more intensively and also by changing regional strategies (i.E., investment from metropolitan areas to medium - or small - size cities, focusing on agglomeration economy, boosting regional diversification, etc.) within their own countries. The main purpose of the paper is to review and to criticize the NIDL theory based on some empirical data.IDL theory based on some empirical data.

• Journal of the Korean Regional Science Association
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.31-60
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• 1995

The distribution of economic activity over a mutually exclusive and exhaustive categorical industry-region matrix is modeled as a composition of two random components: the probability-like share distribution of jobs and the dynamic evolution of absolute aggregates. The former describes the individual activity location choice by comparing the predicted profitability of the current industry-region pair against that of all other alternatives based on the available information on industry-specific, region specific, or activity specific attributes. The latter describes the time evolution of macro-level aggregates using a dynamic reduced from model. With the seperation of micro choice behavior and macro dynamic aggregate constraint, the usual independence and identicality assumptions become consistent with the activity share distribution, hence multi-regional industrial migration can be represented by a set of probability evolution equations in a conservative Markovian from. We call this a Micro-Macro Composition Approach since the product of the aggregate prediction and the predicted activity share distribution gives the predicted activity distribution gives the predicted activity distribution which explicitly considers the underlying individual choice behavior. The model can be applied to interesting practical problems such as the plant location choice of multinational enterprise, the government industrial ploicy to attract international firms, and the optimal tax-transfer mix to influence activity location choice. We consider the latter as an example.

• Asian Journal of Business Environment
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.1-13
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• 2024

Purpose: This study explores the level of relevance of liability of foreignness (LOF) in foreign firms' decision to relocate or to expand their regional headquarters (RHQ) in Singapore. Research design, data and methodology: The research question is: what are the mitigating factors of LOF for RHQs operating in Singapore? This explorative study uses various resources from the government agencies: Singapore Economic Development Board such as annual reports between 2012 and 2022, investment programs and published interviews with RHQ's CEOs, Singapore Department of Statistics such as economic, socio-economic and investment data. Results: My study shows that years of nation-building toward a world-class infrastructure, identifying key-industries and conscientiously enhancing workforce skills and competency, developing and reviewing investment programs to attract and retain RHQs were the mitigating factors of LOF. Conclusion: This implies a low level of relevance of LOF in foreign firms' strategic choice to relocate or to expand their regional headquarters to Singapore. As such, the steady growth of multinational enterprises' (MNEs) RHQs in Singapore presents a challenge to the theoretical postulation of LOF positing that foreign firms are discriminated in host country-environment. As a result, incurring additional costs operating in an unfamiliar environment manifested by varying responses from the local actors. Singapore is a case in point.