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

The New Chinese Dream: Industrial Transition in the Post-Pandemic Era

Francesca Spigarelli and John McIntyre

This book describes the most salient changes confronting key Chinese industry sectors. Set within the context of the Global China 2049 initiative, which aims to transform the country into a fully advanced and developed nation, the book’s contributions focus on industrial policies that are considered to be one of the main determinants of Chinese growth. Looking at sectors such as aviation, healthcare, semiconductors, and other data driven industries, chapters highlight the pitfalls and anticipated successes of Chinese firms operating in the global competitive market.

News Framing of the China’s Belt and Road Initiative

Salman Bahoo and Ilan Alon

This article probes how journalists frame China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Towards this end, it undertakes a qualitative media framing analysis of pieces appearing in The Wall Street Journal and The Economist from January 2012 to June 2019.

Reconsidering RCEP’s Impact on Foreign Investment

Jean-Marc F. Blanchard and Wei Liang

This Op-Ed ponders the implications of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) for foreign direct investment (FDI). It challenges the conventional wisdom that RCEP will result in notable changes in FDI volumes or geographic destination. The piece acknowledges that RCEP entails numerous provisions that create a more friendly environment for FDI or that have the potential to influence the volume and distribution of FDI.

Latin America’s Current Socioeconomic Relationship with China

Enrique Dussel Peters

This chapter focuses on “globalization process with Chinese characteristics” since 2013 and the United States’ response to this challenge, under the heading of “great power competition” and specific initiatives and policies vis-á-vis China and Latin and American and the Caribbean (LAC). The first section of this chapter seeks to improve the quality of LAC–China analysis based on a thematic distinction of this relationship, also integrating explicitly existing research and proposals.

Going Digital Multinationals: Navigating Economic and Social Imperatives in a Post-pandemic World

Niraja Srinivasan and Lorraine Eden

The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified the economic imperative facing multinational corporations (MNCs); i.e., their need to build commercial resilience in response to Industry 4.0 (4IR). This article examines if “going digital” MNCs that are making substantial investments in 4IR technologies could take a socially proactive stance that would rebuild momentum on the United Nations social imperative—the pledge to leave no one behind by achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) Blues: Powering BRI Research Back on Track to Avoid Choppy Seas

Jean-Marc F. Blanchard
This piece examines and critiques the massive literature on China’s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). It details how research currently seems stuck on the road to nowhere. In addition, it identifies a number of the potholes that collective research endeavors are hitting such as that they are poorly synchronized. It also stresses that lines of analysis are proliferating rather than optimizing, with studies broadening in thematic coverage, rather than becoming deeper.

Four Fundamental Factors for Increasing the Host Country Attractiveness of Foreign Direct Investment: An Empirical Study of India

Hwy-Chang Moon and Wenyan Yin

This chapter explores the challenges host countries face when attempting to attract foreign direct investment (FDI), a task made more complicated by protectionist policies and the coronavirus pandemic. This chapter argues that four factors—productive labor, best practice adaptability, cluster competitiveness, and goal-orientation—beyond those traditionally emphasized merit attention. The factors do not stress what countries have, but how they mobilize them. These factors have relevance across countries at different development stages.

Keeping Current on the BRI in the Black Sea: Small Ripples, but no Big Waves

Jean-Marc F. Blanchard

This analysis examines the development of China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in the Black Sea Littoral States (Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Turkey, Russia, and Ukraine), an energy rich and historically strategic region. It shows that, at present, anxieties about the BSLS becoming dependent on China are unwarranted because China’s political, military, economic, and other ties with most BSLS are limited in breadth and depth. In addition, significant manifestations of Chinese outward FDI (OFDI) and infrastructure in the Black Sea Region are sparse.

The Role of Internationalization in Enhancing the Innovation Performance of Chinese EMNEs

Stefano Elia, Mario Kafouros, and Peter J. Buckley

This article enhances our understanding of how different internationalization paths by Emerging Multinational Enterprises (EMNEs) can affect performance. Using a geographic relational approach as well as a portfolio-level analysis, the authors consider six factors relating to entry mode and geography (entry mode, geographic breadth and depth, cultural and institutional distance, and the economic state of the host country).

A New Chinese Economic Order?

Gregory Shaffer and Henry Gao

This article reports on the new and decentralized trade governance model that China is building by exploiting finance, trade, and investment initiatives. Memorandums of understanding, contracts, and trade and investment treaties are creating a hub and spokes legal order with China at the center. The piece initially examines China’s use of state-owned and private enterprise investments and commercial contracts to export its infrastructure-based development model. It then looks at China’s use of free trade and investment agreements as well as domestic innovation policy to complement this.

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