Course Description

Understanding globalization has become crucial in almost every aspect of business. In the past, international trade was the main tool for globalization. However, in today’s business environment, International/Foreign direct investment (IDI/FDI) is often more useful for firms and countries to achieve certain strategic goals. This course will help students understand the key issues of FDI and different patterns of overseas investment by MNCs from developed and emerging economies. Based on the comprehensive knowledge on FDI, the course will also deal with competitiveness-building strategies for firms, regions, and nations, in the changing global business environment (e.g., global value chain, sharing economy).

This is an advanced course to provide students with various perspectives and in-depth understanding on the paradigm shift of competition and MNCs’ relevant global business strategies. Both theories and practices will be rigorously analyzed to help students build analytical skills, conduct rigorous research, and make professional presentations.

Grading Policy

•       Grading [total 100%]

-          Professionalism: attitude, attendance, and participation (20%)

-          Contribution homework: (15%)

-          Case study and Group presentations (40%)

-          Final exam (25%)

-           

•       Professionalism (20%)

•          Students should attend all online classes. Those who miss more than two classes may not receive a grade. Tardiness and class disturbances may be reflected in the grade.

•          Students are also required to know the Honor Code and apply it to all work and behavior in the class.

•       Contribution Homework (15%)

•          Students are required to submit a two-page summary based on the learning points at class or out of class to describe the connections between IDI knowledge and their own growth. The knowledge points covered through the first class to the last class. Summaries should be submitted via email to TA at least 24 hours after the end of our last class.

•          The contribution homework summary should (i) suppose you are a MNC, and try to find out some commons in your life which can apply IDI knowledge and (ii) provide constructive and variant views for your growth with the perspectives of MNCs knowledge application. The two-page summary should be approximately 800 to 1000 words in length.

•       Contribution Homework Style and Guideline

Please title your email as “FDI Contribution_homework Class #_Your Full Name and Student number

          Your full name

       Student number

       Class number (e.g., Class in afternoon/at night)

•       Summary of the interesting knowledge points of IDI

•       Uniqueness

•       Main points

•       Etc.

•       Application in your life and Evaluation

•       Possible application and extension

•       Constructive evaluation

•       Case study and Group presentations (40%)

•          For each class, after the main chapter, the group will get their case materials for study and then make the class presentation of important points from case readings and other related information and research. Further information regarding the presentations will be given later.

•          The group should submit the presentation PPT files at least 12 hours before the class of their presentations.

•          The group should prepare PPT handouts for all the students, teaching assistant(s), and the professor (preferably 4 slides per page) in digital forms.

•           

•          Final exam (25%)

•          It will take 45 minutes without books and notes in the last class.

•          Further instructions may be given prior to the final exam.

Syllabus

Chapter 1 Basics: from MNCs to FDI

Course Description

Chapter 1-1 Concepts of MNCs

Chapter 1-2 Concepts of FDI

Groups will be formed for case study and class presentations.

    Case discussion1:

    ——How yahoo china Missed out on the Mainland 

   Q&A for Case Discussion of Yahoo 

    Reading materials:

    http://www.mofcom.gov.cn http://www.safe.gov.cn

  Fortune, Business Weekly, New York Journal, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times

Chapter 2 International Players: to be Global Firms

•          National Interest vs. National Allegiance

•          Global Players and Global Strategy

•          National Culture: Cost vs. Opportunity

Chapter2-1 International Players I

Chapter2-2 International Players II

    Case discussion2:

    ——Google moves Chinese search to Hong Kong 

   Q&A for Case Discussion of Google

   Reading materials:

--Lixin, Solving Paradox by Reducing Expectation

--Moon’s Textbook, Chapter 1 (Changing nature of firms and business landscapes)

--Friedman, T. L. 2012. Made in the World. New York Times, January 28th.

--Economist. 2017. Ford Motors Courts Donald Trump by Scrapping a Planned Plant in Mexico.

Chapter 3 Made in the world：Implication and impact

•          FDI trend

•          Made in the world: country cases

•          Made in the world and civilization competition

 Case discussion3:

    ——In China，Human Costs Are Built Into an iPad 

   Q&A for Case Discussion of IPad

   Reading materials:

-- Pananond, Gereffi, and Pedersen (2020), An integrative typology of global strategy and global value chains: The management and organization of cross-border activities, Global Strategy Journal, 10(3): 421-443.

--A webinar on “COVID-19 And Global Supply Chains: Disruptions And Restructuring,” https://igs.duke.edu/news/covid-19-and-global-supply-chains-disruptions-and-restructuring.

Kano, L., Tsang, E. W. K., Yeung, H. W. (2020). Global Value Chains: A Review of the Multi-disciplinary Literature. Journal of International Business Studies, 51: 577-622

Hernández, V. and Pedersenb, T. (2017). Global value chain configuration: A review and research agenda. Business Research Quarterly, 20: 137---150

Chapter 4 Internationalization: From Trade to FDI

•          Two Means of Internationalization

•          Determinants of National Competitiveness

•          Economic perspectives Vs Business perspectives

    Case discussion4:

    ——PALISER FURNITURE: the China Question

    Q&A for Case Discussion of PALISER

  Reading materials:

--Moon’s Textbook, Chapter 2 (FDI and competitiveness building for firms and nations)

--Moon, H. C., Rugman, A. M., and Verbeke, A. 1998. A Generalized Double Diamond Approach to the International Competitiveness of Korea and Singapore. International Business Review, 7(2): 135-150.

Chapter 5 Strategy of MNCs

•          Strategic triangle

•          MNCs strategy

•          Red Ocean strategy Vs Blue Ocean Strategy

Chapter5-1 Strategy triangle and its implication

Chapter5-2 Strategy category and instrument

    Case discussion5:

    ——Wanxiang Group: A Chinese Company’s Global Strategy (B)

    https://www.docin.com/p-691251989.html

    Q&A for Case discussion of Wanxiang Group

    Reading materials:

--Robert W. Keidel (2010), the Geometry of strategy,

--W.Chan Kim Renee Mauborgne, 2005. Blue Ocean Strategy: how to create uncontested market space and make the competition irrelevant.

Chapter 6 FDI theory of Monopolistic Advantages

    Reading materials:

     --Steve Hymer: The international operation of national firms: a study of direct foreign investment(the first 3 chapters)

     --Srilata Zaheer: Overcoming the Liability of Foreignness

Chapter 7 FDI theory of Internalizatio

     Case discussion6:

    ——Dupont Teflon: China Brand strategy

    Q&A for Case Discussion of Dupont Teflon

 Reading materials:

--Shih-Fen S Chen: Extending Internalization Theory

--Shih-Fen S Chen: A General TCE Model of International Business institutions

Chapter 8 FDI theory of Eclectic Paradigm

    Case discussion7:

    Louis Vuitton in India—Cluster

  Q&A for  Case Discussion of Louis Vuitton

     Reading materials:  

--John H. Dunning: The eclectic theory of international production-a case study of the international hotel industry

--John H. Dunning: Reappraising the eclectic paradigm in an age of alliance capitalism

Chapter 9 FDI theory of combined perspectives

    Case discussion8:

    ——Officials ask industry how administration can help secure ICT supply chain

   Q&A for  case Discussion of Baden G Case

    Reading materials:

Bibliography: Kojima Kiyoshi

--Direct foreign investment by Kojima Kiyoshi, 1978

--Terutomo Ozawa: International Investment and Industrial Structure

--Mie Augier/David J. Teece: Dynamic Capabilities and Multinational Enterprise: Penrosean Insights and Omissions

Chapter 10 Unconventional FDI theory

    Reading materials:

Hwy-Chang Moon, Thomas W. Roehl: Unconventional foreign direct investment and the imbalance theory

Hamid Hosseini: An economic theory of FDI: A behavioral economics and historical approach

Classic References:

1.       Buckley, Peter J., and Mark Casson, The future of the Multinational Enterprise. London, 1976.

2.       Coase, Richard H., “the nature of the firm”. Economica, N.S., Vol.4, London, 1937. Pp.386-405.

3.       Chesbrough, H., Open innovation: the new imperative for creating and profiting from technology, Boston: Harvard Business School Press 2003.

4.       Dunning, J.H. & Lundan, S.M. 2008. Multinational enterprises and the global economy. 2^nd edn. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

5.       Hymer, Stephen H., The international operation of national firms: a study of direct foreign investment. M.I.T. Monographs in Economics, 14, Cambridge, Mass., 1976.

6.       Hwy-Chang Moon.2016. Foreign Direct Investment-A global Perspective. World Scientific, Singapore.

7.       Kojima, K. 1978. Direct foreign investment: a Japanese model of multinational Business operations, London: croom helm.

8.       Pensore, E. T., the theory of the growth of the firm, 3^rd edition, Oxford: Oxford university press 1959/1995.

9.       Williamson, O.E., The economic institutions of Capitalism, New York: Free Press 1985.

10.   《Journal of International Business Studies》by  the Academy of International Business, Palgrave Macmillan.

11.    《The International Library of the New Institutional Economics》,By Claude Menard, University of Paris Pantheon-Sorbonne, France. Edward Elgar Publishing House.