Publications of Wong MNC Center Staff, Advisory Board Members, and Research Fellows

Europe's Geoeconomic Revolution: How the EU Learned to Wield Its Real Power

Matthias Matthijs and Sophie Meunier

The European Union has recently operated a revolutionary conversion to geoeconomics -the use of economic tools for geopolitical purposes. As a result, the bloc is today more cohesive and better prepared to navigate growing geopolitical rivalries. This article analyzes the conditions that led to the EU’s geoeconomic turn, including the role played by China, the Trump Administration, and internal politics in Europe, as well as the panoply of geoeconomic tools created by the EU over the past four years.

China’s Italian Ports in the Spotlight: Economic, Social and Geopolitical Aspects

Francesca Spigarelli and Dominique Lepore

With the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which positions Italy as a bridge between Europe and the Mediterranean area, Italian ports have been competing to attract container traffic and gain value from the growing trade flows with China. Nevertheless, Chinese investments in Mediterranean ports raise diverse concerns about European competitiveness as well as their geopolitical impact. These issues resurfaced after Italy committed itself to the BRI by signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with China in March 2019.

Plunging into Piraeus: Calming Excessive Positive and Negative Froth

Jean-Marc F. Blanchard

"Plunging into Piraeus," which is the 6th chapter in Chinese overseas ports in Europe and the Americas (Routledge, 2023), delves into COSCO Pacific’s extensive role in the Greek Port of Piraeus. This deep involvement has spurred a surfeit of commentary about its effects, much of it excessively laudatory or critical. This chapter observes, like many others, that China’s participation has dramatically enhanced the port’s performance and also acknowledges its noteworthy job creation effects.

Sailing into Chinese Overseas Ports in Europe and the Americas: Clarifying Murky Waters

Jean-Marc F. Blanchard

"Sailing into Chinese Overseas Ports in Europe and the Americas," the introductory chapter (chapter 1) to Chinese overseas ports in Europe and the Americas (Routledge, 2023), has several purposes. It sets forth the many rationales Chinese companies have to expand and deepen their roles in sea and river ports in Europe and Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) and numerous reasons that the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC/China) has to support their increasing footprint overseas.

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.

Emerging Market Multinationals Report 2021: Building the Future on ESG Excellence

Lourdes Casanova and Anne Miroux

This report provides data on emerging market multinational corporations (MNCs) in the new stage of globalization, highlighting the special features of Chinese MNCs. In addition, it discusses environment, society, and governance (ESG) in emerging economies, the ESG performance of emerging MNCs (EMNCs), and supplies case studies on countries like China, Thailand, and India. It adds to our knowledge about sustainability and ESG in emerging markets and ways to improve it. The report further analyzes the changing logic of EMNC in corporate social performance.

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