Litigations with the home State and internationalization

Purpose This paper aims to investigate whether Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) can be driven by the creative compliance knowledge that firms gather in their home country through litigations with the government. Design/methodology/approach The authors draw on the knowledge-based view and organizational learning theory to argue that there is an inverted U-shaped relationship between experience in litigating with the home State and a firm’s level of FDI. The authors test this hypothesis using negative binomial regressions on a sample of Spanish listed firms for the period between 1986 and 2008. Findings The findings of this study confirm the hypothesized inverted U-shaped relationship between a firm’s experience in litigating with the home State and its FDI levels. Firms seem to face an exploration–exploitation dilemma regarding their compliance with domestic regulation. Once they have accumulated a certain amount of creative compliance knowledge, it would be better for them to exploit it both domestically and internationally in the form of creative compliance routines, instead of continuing to push the limits of regulation. Originality/value Firms willing to explore the gray areas of the law are usually forced to litigate with the State. As a result, they develop creative compliance knowledge that they can incorporate into their legal routines and capabilities so that they can later exploit it in foreign countries. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper that attempts to understand the influence of creative compliance knowledge on a firm’s international investments.

A Study on Attracting Local And International Investments and Improving an Integrated Logistics System Allows Local Products to Reach Global Markets

This paper studies how local non-oil Omani products could reach global markets by attracting local and international investors and improving the integrated logistics system in Oman. Therefore, the scope of this research is investment agencies in Oman, which are the Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Investment Promotion and the Public Authority for Investment Promotion and Export Development. This study targets the leading logistics companies in Oman, such as Asyad Group. The study used an online survey and direct interview targeting specialists and experts in investment agencies and logistics companies. The results of the research showed that challenges are facing attracting local and international investors in local industries. Those challenges are the lengthy, complicated and costly procedures to obtain permits and licenses for investors, weak promotion of investment opportunities and local products at the international level, weakness of the local market, cumbersome regulations of the government, and so on. All these challenges constitute an obstacle to attracting investments. Findings also vindicate that weaknesses in logistical performance represented by the complex export and import procedures, complications in customs clearance operations, and the weak performance of land, sea, and air transport, which constitutes a barrier to exporting local products to global markets. The primary limitations that the researchers faced in conducting this research. First, there were many complications in collecting information through interviews. Some companies refused to conduct interviews due to preventive measures for the spread of the Coronavirus, which may affect the results.

Analysis on the Motivations, Experiences, and Lessons of Chinese Enterprises’ Overseas Investment

With the economic globalization, increasing numbers of Chinese entrepreneurs have taken an interest in international investments and acquisitions in order to expand their business territories around the world. Based on various motivations for international investments, this paper analyzed the challenges faced by Wanda, Fuyao Glass, and Fosun in regard to different business backgrounds and models, cultural concepts, as well as the changing global political and economic environments in addition to summarizing their experiences and lessons from international investments.

11. International economic law

International economic law covers a vast range of rules and principles on economic conduct and relations between states, international organizations and private actors, both individuals and corporations. This chapter deals with the most fundamental areas of the law: the international law of trade, international investment law and international monetary law. It introduces the World Trade Organization and the most important principles governing international trade, including those contained in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. It presents international monetary law, with a particular emphasis on the role and activities of the International Monetary Fund. It also discusses the international regulation of international investments and the most important principles thereof, including those that govern expropriation of foreign property.

The Future of Post-Industrial Landscapes in East Lisbon: The Braço de Prata Neighbourhood

East Lisbon is being exposed to large-scale urban regeneration processes, where luxury residential projects and mixed-use spatial developments are already underway. Thus, it is a living laboratory for “smart”, “creative” and “green” projects, as well as related urban public space interventions. Braço de Prata is an urban space overlooked by developers, being surrounded by obsolete industrial buildings. Concerning the recent interest in international investments in brownfield regeneration and greenfield developments, it represents an attractive urban terrain as a post-industrial working-class neighbourhood, where “smart” and “green” suggest transforming space so that both new and old residents can live and work together and share public space regardless of analysis on their environmental recognitions. The aim of this paper is to present an empirical evaluation model that examines the possible impacts of environmental negligence through the reorganisation of the physical and social fabric. The analyses focus on dwellers’ moral understanding of their changing environment as site-specific domains to address the unique conditions that affect transiently defined presumptions about the collective needs. Taking an evaluative approach in the Braço de Prata case, this paper demonstrates the specific socio-ecological implications of urban inequality in post-industrial neighbourhoods that could be threatened by new decisions, both through urban planning approaches and instruments.

Romanian Equity Investments and Currency Risk: A Euro-Based Perspective

This paper assesses the benefits and risks of international investments made on the Romanian stock market, from the perspective of euro-based investors. We investigate the contribution of exchange rate volatility to the total risk of these investments over a period of nine years, between January 2011 and December 2019, by using monthly values for the exchange rate between the Romanian leu and Euro and monthly values of the Romanian stock index. Our findings indicate that, on average, Romanian leu depreciated against euro, causing currency losses for the euro-based investor, counterbalanced by the Romanian index mean return, higher than euro countries index mean return during the period under analysis. However, comparing the exchange rate volatility with the volatility of the local index market, we find that that exchange rate returns have lower standard deviations values, which may suggest that the exchange rate volatility does not seem to be an additional factor to the total volatility of the Romanian stock market returns denominated in euro. This conclusion is supported by the values obtained for lambda, a synthetic indicator which measures the proportion of the volatility attributable to exchange rate fluctuations from the total volatility of the euro-based investor returns. Combined, these results imply that currency risk has only a moderate and controllable influence on international investments made by a euro-based investor on the Romanian stock market

Mapping ‘wild zones’ of globalisation: on private actors and the rule of law

While private corporations have become increasingly influential in the global economy, a comprehensive legal framework for their activities is missing. Although international and regional legal instruments may govern some aspects of, for instance, international investments and the supply of goods and services, there is no overarching structure for assessing the impact of large-scale private projects. In the absence of such a comprehensive framework, specific rules of private law allow profit-seeking companies to expand their activities on an economic basis, mostly without having to heed social concerns (Pistor, 2019). This is particularly problematic insofar as multinational companies have obtained power to set the rules for their engagement with states, organisations and individuals, for instance in the form of transnational investment contracts. Given the fragmented nature of the legal sphere in which such contracts are elaborated and performed, those who face the harmful consequences of such investments may not be able to participate in decision-making processes. The contracts remain in ‘wild zones’ of globalisation (Fraser, 2014, p. 150), where powerful private companies rule.