scholarly journals Adaptation Strategies of Multinational Corporations, State-Owned Enterprises, and Domestic Business Groups to Economic and Political Transitions: A Network Analysis of the Chilean Telecommunications Sector, 1958–2005

2014 ◽  
Vol 15 (03) ◽  
pp. 534-576
Author(s):  
Marcelo Bucheli ◽  
Erica Salvaj

This paper compares the corporate network strategies between multinational corporations of two different origins (United States and Spain), business groups, and state-owned enterprises in the public utility sector of a developing country going through economic and political transitions. The transitions we consider are from an import substitution industrialization model to an open market economy and from a democratic regime to a dictatorial one and back to democracy. We analyze the Chilean telecommunications sector between 1958 and 2005 and find that during a democratic regime all firms sought to build more networks with each other, while incentives decrease under an authoritarian regime. In the protectionist era, US investors built links with Chile’s corporate elite, while in times of an open economy, Spanish investors built these links with the government. State-owned corporations did not attempt to build links with other actors at any time, and business groups sought to build most networks among members of the group. Our findings challenge two commonly held assumptions: first, that open economies decrease incentives for domestic actors to build links with each other and, second, that close political regimes increase incentives to build networks among economic actors.

2010 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 350-399
Author(s):  
Marcelo Bucheli

This article analyzes the long-term strategies employed by multinational oil corporations in a late industrializing country with powerful business groups when faced with economic nationalism. I study the case of Royal Dutch-Shell in Chile from 1913 to 2005, where two oil multinationals controlled 100 percent of the Chilean market until forced by the government to accept a domestic private company, COPEC, into a new three-member cartel. The multinationals accepted this arrangement reluctantly, but in the long term it proved beneficial. COPEC's involvement in Chilean business groups protected the multinationals from hostile actions by the government and gave legitimacy to the cartel. These benefits ended when Chile abandoned its import substitution industrialization strategy in the 1970s.


2008 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-256 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert E. White ◽  
Robert E. Hoskisson ◽  
Daphne W. Yiu ◽  
Garry D. Bruton

Prior research has suggested a number of potential benefits to firm membership in business groups. These benefits include availability of capital and other resources not readily accessible in an open market, the facilitation of entrepreneurship, plus information and risk sharing advantages. We suggest that another important benefit is the assistance of group control systems in helping the firm to manage conflicting pressures in the institutional environment and facilitate coevolution of these conflicting pressures. To empirically demonstrate the relevance of this viewpoint, we examine the case of China where business groups facilitate institutional transition, actively balancing market pressures to increase levels of innovativeness in firms with institutional pressures emanating from the government to maintain high employment levels. Using data from a broad sample of more than 1,000 Chinese affiliate firms in more than 200 business groups, we find that government policy, ownership and managerial mindset influence the political goal of maintaining high employment levels, while interdependence among group affiliate firms is related to lower employment levels. However, while government ownership and the government managerial mindset were negatively related to market innovation activities, group financial and cultural control systems positively affected the tendency of affiliate firms to focus on market innovation.


Author(s):  
Simon Ville

Business groups have been limited in number and influence for most of Australia’s modern history. Several entrepreneurs managed a diversified portfolio of interests, and business families often cooperated with one another, but this rarely took the form of a business group. When the Australian economy diversified into manufacturing from its initial narrow resource base, multinational corporations formed a dominant presence. Governments built infrastructure but did not facilitate groups. Maturing capital markets negated the need for in-house treasuries. Business groups temporarily dominated the corporate landscape for several decades towards the end of the twentieth century, but their business model was flawed in relation to the Australian environment and most failed to survive the downturn of the late 1980s and early 1990s.


2002 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 737-758 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Maman

This paper examines the emergence of business groups in Israel and South Korea. The paper questions how, in very different institutional contexts, similar economic organizations emerged. In contrast to the political, cultural and market perspectives, the comparative institutional analysis adopted in this research suggests that one factor alone could not explain the emergence of business groups. In Israel and South Korea, business groups emerged during the 1960s and 1970s, and there are common factors underlying their formation: state-society relations, the roles and beliefs of the elites, and the relative absence of multinational corporations in the economy. To a large extent, the chaebol are the result of an intended creation of the South Korean state, whereas the Israeli business groups are the outcome of state policies in the economic realm. In both countries, the state elite held a developmental ideology, did not rely on market forces for economic development, and had a desire for greater economic and military self-sufficiency. In addition, both states were recipients of large grants and loans from other countries, which made them less dependent on direct foreign investments. As a result, the emerging groups were protected from the intense competition of multinational corporations.


2016 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 15-25
Author(s):  
V. Obolenskiy

The development of Russian foreign trade during the previous five years is analyzed. It is stated that, in terms of value, exports of services and imports of goods and services steadily grew during the first four years of the period under review. Exports of goods also rose during three years, but in 2014 both exports and imports again fell in comparison with the previous year as was the case five years ago. The composition of the Russian exports and imports of goods did not change radically during the previous years. The main items of export are, as always, mineral products, metals and fertilizers. Import is prevailed by foodstuffs, chemicals and heavy engineering equipment. The current situation is featured by the reduction of world oil prices, slump of the domestic economy and war of sanctions with the Western countries. All this substantially impairs the conditions of Russia’s foreign trade activities and inhibits its development in the upcoming years. In the author’s view, the implementation of measures worked out by the government – correction of tariff liabilities before the WTO, redirecting of trade streams from the European to the Asian markets, import substitution and export support – will unlikely improve the situation. Revision of the liabilities before the WTO in the conditions of the decrease of the internal demand and serious devaluation of Ruble is considered as inappropriate and counterproductive. “Asiatic turn” is only capable to compensate to a certain respect the loss of supplies of some food products from Europe, but cannot fully offset the loss of potentialities of the acquisition of modern technologies and equipment from the developed countries. It is doubtful that it will be possible to dramatically cut the import dependence. It is necessary to replace many kinds of foreign goods, but it is impossible to implement a frontal substitution of import in all directions. Excessive stress on the import substitution might lead to the emergence of shortages and poorer availability of some goods at the internal market and, at the worst, to self-isolation and economic autarky. The attempts to build up an effective system of export support might be successful only in the conditions of the establishment of the large-scale production of goods and services which would be comparable with the foreign analogues in respect to the criteria of price and quality. Taking this into consideration the technological renovation of production processes, first of all in the manufacturing industry, and on this basis rising up of the competitiveness of plants and factories are the most important prerequisites for encouraging export activities and formation of the new export specialization of the country.


Author(s):  
O. V. Varentsova

Contemporary political regimes in Venezuela and Bolivia led by late Hugo Châvez (now by his successor Nicolas Maduro) and Evo Morales are considered by foreign and Russian scholars as part of the third wave of populism. In the 20th century Latin America already witnessed two waves of populism which coincided with significant political transitions, namely a transition from oligarchy to mass politics accompanied by implementation of import substitution industrialization policies, and a transition from authoritarian rule to democracy during the third wave of democratization which triggered neoliberal reforms inspired by Washington Consensus. This article presents common characteristics of Latin American populist regimes that emerged in different historical periods which help identify the origins as well as distinctive features of Venezuelan and Bolivian political regimes. It is stated that the Châvez and Morales left populist regimes resemble classic populist regimes in that they rely on incendiary anti-establishment discourse. Therefore, left populist regimes are characterized by high levels of polarization as well as weak institutionalization and class or indigenous orientation. Election of left populist leaders may lead to institutional deadlock, uneven playing field and transition to competitive authoritarianism.


2014 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 8-17
Author(s):  
Stuart Locke ◽  
Geeta Duppati

This paper explores the impact of corporate governance reforms and changing ownership patterns of core public sector enterprises. A number of reforms were introduced by the Government of India in 1991, and intensified in 2004 with the aim of improving efficiency and financial performance across state owned enterprises. The core state enterprises provide a unique opportunity to consider two aspects of the reforms. First, did the reforms have an impact, and second, is there a distinguishable difference between wholly government owned and partially-public shareholding enterprises? The public listed companies provide a suitable reference point for comparison. A comprehensive dataset of 123 SOEs and matching listed public companies for 10 years was collected for the study. A regression approach is adopted with agency cost as the dependant variable and several corporation-specific governance variables. Size and industry are the independent variables. The findings of the study indicate that the agency costs for mixed ownership models tend to be lower than those of the concentrated state-owned firms because they operate in an open market with the market facing the regulatory framework of a competitive environment.


2009 ◽  
Vol 43 (02) ◽  
pp. 97-119 ◽  
Author(s):  
KIM MING LEE ◽  
CHING YIN CHENG

Rising economic inequality becomes an important concern for both advanced and developing countries. Nonetheless, political and business elites around the world never question the neoliberal agenda, despite economic crises happening every now and then. The year 2007 may mark the turning point of neoliberal globalisation. As the global financial tsunami kicked off from the burst of the subprime mortgage bubble in the United States in 2007, the global economy is facing an economic hardship never heard of since the Great Depression in the 1930s. Hong Kong as a highly open economy is also severely hurt by the financial tsunami. In every economic recession, all Hong Kong people suffer, but lower classes suffer most. This raises a serious question about whether the current social protection system adequately protects people against an increasingly risky global economic environment. By examining the social policy package adopted by the HK government in fighting against the financial tsunami, we show the lack of long-term strategies and commitments of the government in protecting HK people against globalisation risks and economic insecurity. By drawing experiences from other countries, we suggest that active labour market policies (ALMPs) may be the social policy tools the government can use to reform the social protection system.


Author(s):  
S. Bodrunov

The article investigates the problems that Russian industry has encountered during the period of economic reforms. The author explores the reasons for the competitiveness decrease and contradictions that hinder the modernization of the domestic industry. Based on the analysis the principal concept is posed of the need in the implementation of the strategy of re-industrialization in Russia on a new technological basis. The basic directions of re-industrialization, the mechanisms of its implementation, as well as the impact on import substitution are considered. Substantial attention is paid to the risks inherent in a re-industrialization of Russia and the ways to overcome them. In recent years, geo-political and geo-economic challenges to the Russian economy and society greatly exacerbated the contradictions that emerged in the previous decades of economic evolution. During a long period of time the country tried to implement an economic policy intended, in principle, at achieving the strategic goal of creating a modern socially-oriented market economy on the base of modernization. However, the practical tools for implementation of this course – first of all, the ideology of “market fundamentalism” combined with the remaining powerful black market and “hand steering” by the government – caused stagnation and further de-industrialization of the country with inevitably negative implications for the manufacturing, science, education, human capital. Most recently, the Russian economy faced additional problems, namely, the Western sanctions, world economic slump and decline in world oil prices. That is why significant changes in the objectives and tools of economic policy are so urgent.


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