Developing Host Countries Research Articles

International contractors and structural changes in host country construction industries: case of Singapore

The construction programmes of developing countries have constituted a significant part of the international construction market. However, while international contractors seek to exploit these opportunities, the host nations also wish to develop their construction industries over time. This paper shows how conflicting objectives of international contractors and host countries can be correlated for mutual benefit. It outlines strategies adopted by international construction enterprises and contrasts the approaches they adopt in industrialised countries with those in developing ones. It then compares the objectives of international construction enterprises to those of host countries. It uses Singapore's experience to illustrate likely future developments in the construction industries of emerging countries. Finally, it offers suitable approaches that international and local construction enterprises, and governments, should adopt at various stages of development of host countries' construction industries.

An ethical argument for host country workforce training and development in the expatriate management assignment

This paper seeks to establish the ethical foundation of MNCs' responsibility for providing host country workforce (HCW) preparation and training attendant to the new expatriate management assignment. It argues that such moral responsibility arises from a set of correlative duties which MNCs acquire as business institutions. They include duties involving the expatriate manager, the HCW, and the host nation to (1) assist all employees, including the expatriate manager, in the successful execution of their assignments; (2) avoid the semblance of discriminatory treatment; (3) encourage full status integration into a global economy; (4) foster personal enlightenment and self-enrichment; (5) help individuals develop useful, marketable skills; (6) contribute to the development of a greater and more functional national labor skill base; and (7) encourage a long-term focus on creating enduring value for a maximum number of stakeholders, rather than upon short-term and shortsighted profit for only a few. Some important cautions and considerations related to HCW training implementation are then discussed.

Development-environment interactions in the export of hazardous technologies: A comparative study of three multinational affiliates in developing countries

We reconstruct case histories of siting hazardous manufacturing facilities in India and Thailand by three multinational corporations: Du Pont, Occidental Chemical, and Xerox. The analysis focuses on the interactions of the host country development agenda, corporate culture, and the nature of business arrangements between parent and joint venture partner to explain decisions and tradeoffs during the siting process. The cases provide the foundation for a four-stage model of key determinants of management and regulatory actions in four phases of the facility life cycle. Six themes emerge: parent company preservation of environmental and occupational health management responsibilities; forces leading to responsible corporate behavior; downstream consequences of upstream decisions; key determinants of corporate performance; “functional equivalency” in practice; and hidden tradeoffs over the life cycle of the facility. Our findings are interpreted in the context of emerging concepts of corporate environmentalism and sustainable development.

Value added reporting: lessons for the United States

Preface Value Added Reporting Appendix 1.A: Stuart Burchell, Colin Clubb, and Anthony G. Hopwood, Accounting in Its Social Context: Towards a History of Value Added in the United Kingdom. Appendix 1.B: M. Zubaidur Rahman, Local Value Added Statement: A Reporting Requirement for Multinationals in Developing Host Countries. Value Added, Earnings, Cash Flows, and Takeovers in the United States The Relationship Between Systematic Risk and Value Added Variables of United States-Based Firms Value Added-Based Financial Analysis Index

Zones franches dans les économies en voie de développement : quelle industrialisation ?

Free zones, as they have benne spreading in the Third World since the mid-1960's, intend to attract foreign direct investment in order to develop manufactured exports. They are the limit of outward-looking policies. Basing on different samples, this paper examines striking economic characteristics of these areas : concentration of activity on few products, instability of earnings, limited technology transfer. We conclued that zones failed to generate an industrial structure independent of host country development level.

The role in lateritic nickel mining in Latin American countries with special reference to exmibal in Guatemala

Modern mining operations can result in significant economic development within the developing host countries. Lateritic nickel mining plays a role of varying importance in a number of Latin American countries, depending on natural resource endowments and government policies. Exploraciones y Explotaciones Mineras Izabal, SA (Exmibal) is a large-scale lateritic nickel mining operation that serves as an excellent case study in the analysis of mining-induced economic development at local, regional and national scales. Exmibal's turbulent history demonstrates the need to view mining dynamically and in the context of production and consumption restraints. Guatemala's experience will Exmibal may be generalized most successfully to other Latin American countries that have or may have one large nickel mining complex operated by a transnational enterprise.

The international flow of scholars and students: A vehicle for cross-cultural understanding, international co-operation and global development?

This article is a shift away from the narrow socio-psychological focus of student flows towards an examination and analysis of the mutual educational, political and economic advantages and disadvantages to both sending and receiving countries and to global development through educational exchange. The, article within its limited framework goes on to outline the impetus for the origin and development of the international flow of scholars and students in a global context. It then examines the implications and contribution this movement makes towards cross-cultural understanding, international co-operation in higher education and a global development in knowledge. It outlines the educational, cultural and economic advantages and disadvantages that sending and host countries have derived and continue to derive from these flows. However, the benefits seem to outweigh the disadvantages, particularly in the light of the growing new international economic order accompanied by an interdependent world economic system. In spite of this, a number of the developed host countries, mainly for parochial economic and political reasons, have introduced a series of protectionist measures to curtail the number of overseas students coming into their institutions of higher education. This has adversely affected particularly the poorer developing countries and their students. The article also points out that this exchange of scholars and students is a useful marketing mechanism for the developed countries, as students returning home take back with them a considerable amount of knowledge of their host country and this is helpful in a highly competitive world market system.

Hong Kong

Hong Kong has been exporting technology to other developing countries through its foreign direct investment in manufacturing. Although Hong Kong does not have a large capital goods sector, it does produce certain modern machinery for plastics production. In addition, Hong Kong manufacturing firms act as an intermediary in the two-stage transfer of technology from developed to developing countries in the process of which adaptations are often made. More importantly, product designs which are the great strength of many Hong Kong manufacturers are often passed on to the host countries via foreign direct investment and the subsequent diffusion processes. Lastly, Hong Kong manufacturers also export ‘software’ technology such as management techniques, marketing connections and labour skills to the developing host countries.

Vertical linkages and multinational enterprises in developing countries

Many studies have concluded that multinational firms do not create significant technical and other vertical linkages in developing host countries. This case study of three multinational firms in the export-oriented electronics industry in Singapore shows that under certain conditions multinational firms can lead in creating local vertical linkages. It suggests that restrictive government policies to increase local purchases may not be necessary, effective or desirable in promoting local linkages by export-oriented multinational firms that respond primarily to international market conditions. The Singapore experience poinst to the importance of a healthy investment climate and rapid economic growth in encouraging multinational firms to forge local linkages.

The Role of the Multinational Corporation: Discussion

In his thought-provoking paper, Goldberg points out that national food systems have become more and more internationalized and intertwined with each other, and that this interdependent global food system has gravitated, on whole, toward North America, which is the only significant surplus grainproducing area in world. He foresees a further expansion of this globally integrated food system as a result of population pressure and an ever-rising need for food, especially on part of developing countries, whose agricultural sector is still largely subsistent and noncommercial, with an extremely low level of productivity. Against this backdrop, Goldberg then explains how new opportunities have been and will continue to be created for key operators in a vertical food system to cross national boundaries and operate in foreign markets, that is, to become multinational. As we all know, multinational corporations generally are regarded as a mixed bag of malevolent and benevolent forces or as institutions with psychotic behavioral patterns somewhat like those of Jekyll and Hyde. At one extreme, for example, Marxists consider multinationals nothing but a devilish instrument of capitalistic exploitation and neo-imperialism. At other extreme, neoclassical liberals--and managers of big business in general-consider multinationals a dynamic engine of economic development and coprosperity, a savior of mankind from economic inefficiency and backwardness, and lament that its messianic mission is hampered only by parochial interests of sovereign states. Both views have some validity, depending on circumstances under which multinationals are allowed to operate. The multinational corporation is by nature monopolistic in terms not only of size of its operation but also of superior knowledge it g nerates and tries to possess exclusively, and it is efficient at exploiting such knowledge; but its monopolistic power is an inevitable cause of inequity when it operates in developing countries where, in general, countervailing power either does not exist or if it does exist, s not judiciously exercised. Goldberg describes very well Dr. J kyll side of multinationals by citing several socially useful cases. All these are good citizen citations, as they are judged, in his opinion, to be contributing to agribusiness needs of developing host countries. These examples of socially useful operations are indeed encouraging. Yet, I am still left uncomfortable about Mr. Hyde side of multinationals. Goldberg does give us a warning of he power of multinationals, but he does so only implicitly by quoting a statement made by Galbraith. Goldberg says nothing about our recent experiences with abuse of such power by multinationals. Perhaps we are too familiar with it to need to be reminded of tragedies that occurred recently when infants in developing countries were fed'baby formula marketed on a caveat emptor basis by multinationals.

Assertive pragmatism and the Multinational Enterprise

This article proposes a simple conceptual framework regarding the literature on the impact of MNEs on developing host countries, specifying three approaches along a continuum. The acceptance approach conceives of MNE expansion as economically rational and advocates minimizing the role of government. The rejection approach sees MNE activity as essentially baleful and advocates rejecting or minimizing the role of MNEs. The pragmatic approach sees mixed effects and advocates host-government bargaining. The article submits a brief for a particular form of pragmatism, denominated assertive pragmatism, and it suggests that a process of convergence toward such an approach is under way.

Transfer pricing and developing countries: Some problems of investigation

This paper reviews some of the main problems which arise for developing host countries in the investigation of transfer pricing of commodity trade by transnational corporations in manufacturing industry. The paper deals in turn with the following: the problems raised by the fact that the extent of intra-firm trade and the potential for manipulating transfer prices from case to case, especially because of the nature of technological innovation; the main handicaps faced by host developing country governments in collecting data on transfer pricing; and, the difficult conceptual issues that arise in defining the correct reference prices by which transfer prices may be judged. It concludes with the suggestion that intercountry cooperation is the most promising course of action in order to surmount these problems.

Policies towards multinationals

The ‘complete package’ of private foreign investment presented by the multinational enterprise has not only the advantages frequently claimed for it, but has also serious weaknesses, particularly for international income distribution. High international mobility of scarce, rent and quasi-rent earning factors (technical know-how, management, marketing), combined with no international mobility of unskilled and semi-skilled labour in highly elastic supply domestically implies an uneven division of gains. To prevent the lion's share going to the lion, bargaining strategies are suggested that enable the developing host country to share in some of the rents and quasi-rents.