2022 "2nd Quarter" Newsletter

The Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations, a California (US) think tank, promotes discussion about and research on the politico-economy of MNCs investing, operating, or domiciled in East Asia.


MNC Center News

Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations Sponsors MNCs Segment of Golden State International Relations Observer Podcast
In June 2022, the Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations (Wong MNC Center) became a sponsor of the portion of the Golden State International Relations Observer Podcast covering the international relations of California’s top multinational corporations (MNCs) such as Apple, Chevron, and Disney, among others.  The Golden State International Relations Observer Podcast, which is listed on well-known podcast...
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Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations Wins Wong Foundation Grant for Digital Silk Road research project
In May 2022, the Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations (Wong MNC Center), an independent, California based non-profit think tank, won a $55,000 grant from the Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Foundation to fund a multi-year, multi-country research project on China’s Digital Silk Road Initiative (DSR), part of China’s larger Belt and Road Initiative.  This grant will allow Wong MNC Center Executive Director Dr....
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Blog Postings

China and IPR, part II-Patent (Copyright) (Trademark) (Etc.) Facts

Dr. Jean-Marc F. Blanchard
This commentary explores China’s fulfillment of its intellectual property (IP) rights (IPR) obligations.[1]  Herein, “compliance” requires more than Beijing’s embrace of policies, passage of laws, adoption of regulations, creation of IP administrative entities, or restructuring of its court system.  It also, and more importantly for foreign IP rightsholders and their governments, demands serious reductions in IP violations,...
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China and IPR, part I-A Persistent Problem with Property?

Dr. Jean-Marc F. Blanchard
China’s protection of intellectual property (IP) remains a continuing and serious issue for foreign companies as the United States Trade Representative (USTR) made manifest in its 2021 Section 301 report and 2021 Report to Congress on China’s World Trade Organization (WTO) Compliance and the European Commission conveyed clearly in its 2021 Report on the Protection and Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights in Third Countries.[1]  It...
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MNCs in the News

Businesses and the Risk of Taking Stock in the Infrastructure Alphabet Soup Game

At the recent Group of Seven (G-7) meeting in Germany, the attending countries put forth the “Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment” (PGII), which is a revised version of the Build Better Back World (B3W)...

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Publications of Wong MNC Center Staff & Research Fellows

A Bargaining and Property Rights Perspective on the Belt and Road Initiative: Cases from the Italian Port System

Cristian Luise, Peter J. Buckley, Hinrich Voss, Emmanuella Plakoyiannaki, and Elisa Barbieri

Drawing upon the bargaining power literature and property rights economics, this article explores how and why host country actors at different levels of governance influence foreign direct investment (FDI). Exploiting these analytical tools, it conducts a comparative case study analyzing four Chinese company attempts to enter Italian seaports. It finds there must be consistency in the distribution of rights among the various participants in the property relationship for a Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) port investment to occur.

Bibliometric Review on FDI Attractiveness Factors

Vanessa P.G. Bretas, Ilan Alon, Andrea Paltrinieri and Kavilash Chawla

This article reviews the literature on the attractiveness of foreign direct investment (FDI) through bibliometric and content analysis. It combined co-citation, bibliographic coupling, and keyword co-occurrence time analysis with content analysis of the most cited articles by using the Bibliometrix R-package and VOSviewer software. A study of 499 articles extracted from the Web of Science database reveals five main research categories: FDI structure, market conditions, entry conditions, institutional framework, and resource availability.

Reassessing RCEP’s Implications for Digital Trade and E-Commerce

Jean-Marc F. Blanchard and Wei Liang

In this piece, Dr. Jean-Marc F. Blanchard, Executive Director of the Mr. & Mrs. S.H. Wong Center for the Study of Multinational Corporations, and Professor Wei Liang (Middlebury Institute for International Studies at Monterey) review and critique optimistic and pessimistic perspectives about the digital trade and e-commerce provisions (Chapter 12) of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Agreement.

Global Business Strategy: Asian Perspective (Second Edition)

Hwy-chang Moon

This book aims to bridge Western and Asian perspectives about how companies can develop successful approaches to global business. The second edition has been updated to include the latest business theory, techniques, and case studies in the field of global business strategy. It presents new theories and techniques such as creating shared value (CSV), global value chains, platform strategies, and business ecosystems.

The Role of Outward FDI in Creating Korean Global Factories

Peter J. Buckley, Nigel Driffield, and Jae-Yeon Kim

This article researches foreign direct investment (FDI) from South Korea in the context of the organization and development of local businesses into global factories. It analyzes the relationship between FDI decisions and the nature of Korean imports and exports. It contends that the mechanism by which FDI leads to technological upgrading can be explained by the global factory approach. This study employed a unique dataset containing information from South Korea on FDI motives and the unit value of traded goods within particular sectors.

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