F23 - Multinational Firms; International BusinessReturn

This article investigates the relationship between institutional quality and the level of investment inflows into post-communist countries. We attempt to empirically verify the argument that institutional determinants are essential in explaining the variation in investment inflows into transition economies after the demise of socialism in the early 1990s. The role of institutions is assessed using Economic Freedom indices provided by the Heritage Foundation. Consequently, to investigate the progress of institutional quality in transition economies, we further employ indicators developed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Using a panel data set for 11 transition countries from 1993 to 2013, we conclude that the impact of institutional quality on investment inflows is not negligible, yet much weaker than suggested by the existing theoretical literature. Using a fixed-effects model framework in both regression benchmarks with metrics from the Heritage Foundation and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, respectively, we observe that the impact of institutional variables on the level of investment was less significant than expected. Moreover, macroeconomic fundamentals appear to always play a more substantial role than institutional factors.

Internationalization, or the process of foreign market entry, has lately been a frequent topic of discussion. It is an essential phenomenon that has shaped the global economy over the past decades. At a micro level, internationalization can be a very effective tool for supporting sustainable company growth. This paper focuses on the internationalization of Austrian firms in the Czech Republic. It lays down the author's research into 52 Austrian firms currently present on the Czech market with regard to the eight main internationalization theories and models. Austria plays a very important investment role in the Central and Eastern European region, including the Czech Republic. Indeed, the Czech market is the third largest recipient of direct Austrian foreign investment, following Germany and the United States. After defining the term internationalization, the paper first describes the firms' entry onto the market, answering the following research questions: How have Austrian firms internationalized on the Czech market and what are their common characteristics? Then, these internationalization approaches are analyzed as follows: the Uppsala model, the network theory of internationalization, the strategic behaviour theory, the international product life cycle theory, the transaction cost theory, the eclectic theory, the behaviourist internationalization theory, and the "born global" theory. However, their evaluation is only partial and solely based on the research sample. A more complex analysis of the theories and models would require larger samples from different regions and the application of statistical methods.

The purpose of this article is to compare laws regulating corporate groups in Germany, the United Kingdom and France in order to find the optimal model of regulation of corporate groups and then to compare the findings with the proposed Commercial Corporation Act. Generally, the difference between the concepts lies in the approach to the issue of respecting or not respecting the duty of loyalty within corporate groups. Under certain conditions, German law enables a parent company to promote interests of the whole group at the expense of a subsidiary. It creates a system of specific rules in order to comprehensively regulate such interferences of the parent company and thus to protect the subsidiary. On the other hand, British law insists on compliance with the duty of loyalty and equips minority shareholders and creditors with legal means for their protection. French law represents a compromise between these approaches as it allows promotion of interests of the whole group at the expense of a subsidiary only under strict conditions. However, if these conditions are met, it enables the parent company to promote its interests in an even broader way than German law does. It also provides minority shareholders and creditors with direct protection. In French law on corporate groups, jurisprudence plays an important role which enables a flexible response to developments in the economic sphere. Thus, on the one hand, French law enables the parent company to effectively manage the corporate group as an economic unit and, on the other hand, it provides endangered subjects with functional instruments of protection. For this reason, the French approach can be recommended. The proposed Commercial Corporation Act is inspired by the French model, which can be evaluated as positive.

The existence of multinational corporations is not self-evident. These corporations have costs linked with business in foreign countries compared to their domestic competitors. Therefore, in the long term, they must have particular advantages over domestic firms. These advantages are external to the market system, and in order to make them exist, a governmental activity is necessary. The government, through its intervention on the market, increases transaction costs of using the market mechanism, and through this, it also increases the influence of multinational corporations. Today, the issue is the influence of active external macroeconomic policy and the policy towards investors which uses incentives for them. The bargaining between governments and MNCs has conformed more to the market rules. However, at the same time, it has also become more institutionalised and still remains in the mercantilistic tradition.

Since the People's Republic of China (hereinafter referred to as China) opened its market to the rest of the world, an enormous necessity to negotiate with Chinese business partners has arisen. Businessmen from all over the world face Chinese counterparts more and more often, business relations are becoming deeper and negotiating skills play one of the key roles in the successful process of entering the Chinese market. Good interpersonal relations with Chinese business partners seem to be of great importance for creating and maintaining long-term business relations. What is the philosophy of the Chinese way of negotiation? What is the philosophical base of Chinese business behaviour? How to understand Chinese negotiation strategies? What are the specifics of the Chinese business culture? What are the critical points every negotiator should be aware of to be able to create and maintain successful business relationship with Chinese partners? This article points out fundamental cultural determinants which influence the Chinese business behaviour while focusing on individual negotiation philosophies.

The aim of this contribution is to present a brief summary of basic theoretical premises for the conception of the enterprise competitiveness and its marketing environment analysis. So the attention is given to the definition of competitiveness, Porter's conception of competitive ability and competitive strategy and also to his comparison with present-day approaches. Within the framework of the marketing environment analysis of the enterprise I separately deal with the microenvironment and macroenvironment of the enterprise. In the first case I briefly speak about the structural industry analysis, structural analysis inside the industry and portfolio analysis methods. In the other case the attention is given to Political, Economic, Social and Technological Environment (PEST) Analysis, to main areas of elements interaction in macroenvironment and to the survey of these elements according to Kotler. So the perspective is not concentrated on firms only, but also in relation to the environment which they are in.

Venture capital represents for Czech economy new financial source of the bussiness activities, still not too frequently used. Poor knowledges of the venture capital, as well as the absence of expeciencies with its utilization, are the reasons of actual situation. Public opinion consider on the one hand venture capital as an important means of growth of the domectic economy, on the other hand as an element operating too closely to the impeachable activities. Pondering upon utilization of the venture capital, the most of the entrepreneuers do not realize the fact, an accession of the venture capital certainly change the basic proprietary relationships of an entreprise. This article indicates some of the new means and methods, used in the Czech Republic.

The study deals with the Czech competitiveness development and is oriented on selected aspects. It starts with basic characteristics of competitiveness and continues on the analysis of quantitative indicators:
- Real Effective Exchange Rate
- Kilogramme Export, Import Prices
- Export Structure according to High or Low Technological Level.
The next part of study deals with qualitative indicators of the Czech competitiveness on the basis of the World Competitiveness Reports (IMD Lausanne).
Both analytical parts conclude basic results or trends but not in all indicators definite. Some of hard data, especially of macroeconomic level express pozitive trend of the Czech competitiveness pozition. But certain indicators, based on expert evaluations (soft data) indicate week points and decreasing trends, especially concerning business efficiency or microeconomic government policy.