Do multinationals really prefer to enter culturally distant countries through greenfields rather than through acquisitions? The role of parent experience and subsidiary autonomy.

Prior research has argued that multinational enterprises (MNEs) prefer to enter culturally distant countries through greenfields rather than through acquisitions, since acquisitions in such countries are costlier to manage. This argument contains two hidden assumptions: (1) the additional costs of acquisitions in culturally distant countries are the same for all MNEs; and (2) such acquisitions have no benefits over their greenfield counterparts. In this paper we relax these two assumptions by arguing that an MNE's preference for greenfields in culturally distant countries depends on its international and host-country experience, and on the level of autonomy it plans to grant the focal subsidiary. Analyzing 171 wholly owned greenfield investments and full acquisitions made by Dutch MNEs in 35 countries, we find that these MNEs prefer to enter culturally distant countries through greenfields, but that this preference is lower when they have little international experience, or plan to grant the focal subsidiary considerable autonomy in marketing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Do Foreign Greenfields Outperform Foreign Acquisitions or Vice Versa? An Institutional Perspective.

Prior studies of the comparative performance of greenfields and acquisitions have advanced competing arguments, with some arguing that greenfields should outperform acquisitions because acquisitions are costlier to integrate, and others that acquisitions should outperform greenfields because greenfields suffer from a liability of newness. Moreover, while the costs of integration and the liability of newness are at their greatest during a subsidiary's first years, prior studies have tested their competing arguments on samples containing older subsidiaries. We extend these prior studies by (1) developing an institutional theory-based framework that simultaneously considers the costs of integration and the liability of newness, (2) recognizing that both types of costs vary with the level of subsidiary integration, and (3) focusing on the stage of their life during which subsidiaries predominantly incur these costs. To measure subsidiary performance, we ask managers of Dutch multinationals how their ex ante performance expectations compare to the subsidiary's ex post performance during its first two years. Analysing a sample of 191 foreign subsidiaries and controlling for entry mode self-selection and other factors, we find that acquisitions outperform greenfields at low and intermediate levels of subsidiary integration, but that greenfields outperform acquisitions at higher integration levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Down with MNE-centric theories! Market entry and expansion as the bundling of MNE and local assets

Both Anderson and Gatignon and the Uppsala internationalization model see the initial mode of foreign market entry and subsequent modes of operation as unilaterally determined by multinational enterprises (MNEs) arbitraging control and risk and increasing their commitment as they gain experience in the target market. OLI and internalization models do recognize that foreign market entry requires the bundling of MNE and complementary local assets, which they call location or country-specific advantages, but implicitly assume that those assets are freely accessible to MNEs. In contrast to both of these MNE-centric views, I explicitly consider the transactional characteristics of complementary local assets and model foreign market entry as the optimal assignment of equity between their owners and MNEs. By looking at the relative efficiency of the different markets in which MNE and complementary local assets are traded, and at how these two categories of assets match, I am able to predict whether equity will be held by MNEs or by local firms, or shared between them, and whether MNEs will enter through greenfields, brownfields, or acquisitions. The bundling model I propose has interesting implications for the evolution of the MNE footprint in host countries, and for the reasons behind the emergence of Dragon MNEs.

Les pratiques des usagers dans les friches urbaines végétalisées et leurs facteurs d’influence : analyse de deux cas montréalais.

Dans l’ère post-industrielle, où la densification apparaît comme une solution afin de freiner l’étalement urbain, la question de l’avenir des terrains en friche devient incontournable. En effet, ceux-ci deviennent hautement convoités par les acteurs du redéveloppement urbain puisqu’ils détiennent un potentiel foncier important. Face à ces pressions, cette recherche s’intéresse à la complexité des terrains en friche, puisqu’il existe une diversité de potentiels, outre le foncier. Parmi ces potentiels, les friches peuvent être utilisées comme des espaces verts urbains. Effectivement, il arrive qu’on retrouve sur ces sites des usagers qui les fréquentent, à différents desseins. L’étude tente ainsi de répertorier et de comprendre les pratiques faites par les usagers, pour deux cas étudiés à Montréal : le Boisé Jean-Milot et le Champ des possibles. L’objectif est non seulement de qualifier ces pratiques, mais également de mettre en évidence les facteurs d’influence qui les sous-tendent. La recherche s’inscrit dans les approches personnes-environnement. D’un point de vue méthodologique, des entretiens in situ ont été menés avec les usagers afin qu’ils puissent expliquer leur expérience vécue de la friche. Les facteurs d’influence ont émergé des discours tenus en entrevue. Les cas étudiés montrent que la friche est un espace d’exception en ville : les friches urbaines végétalisées sont le cadre de pratiques exclusives, en plus de faire vivre une variété d’ambiances à l’usager. Les résultats permettent ainsi de placer la friche comme un espace vert complémentaire au parc urbain. La friche fait partie d’un portfolio d’espaces disponibles, utilisés au moment présent. En relevant les facteurs qui influencent les usagers à fréquenter les friches, on met en lumière des qualités qui pourraient être utiles dans la planification des espaces verts urbains et dans le développement d’une vision innovante pour l’avenir des friches.

Rewriting Australian planning from the margins

If planning is the conscious formulation of a preferred.future and deliberate actions to realise that future in the landscape, then Indigenous Australians have long been involved in planning settlements and regions. Yet such actions - pre and post-contact - are absent from the history of Australian planning, as evidenced by some major texts on the subject. That also passes without serious comment in the planning literature and contemporary practice are the theoretical implications of admitting key aspects of recent Indigenous history - such as prior occupancy, ongoing sovereignty, resistance strategies, ghettoisation and Native Title. There are, therefore, significant gaps in the history and theory of Australian planning which impact negatively on its current teaching and practice. The consequences of such omissions range.from incomplete histories to ongoing injustices in Australian planning practice. My larger research project will collate these absences before reworking the history of Australian planning from the perspective of those systematically excluded from it -women, migrants from racially marked non-white backgrounds and Indigenous Australians. This paper will consider only a small part of this larger project. It will first examine some of the key texts which construct the history of Australian planning before examining one place - Lake Condah in Western Victoria - as one site of permanent settlement by the Gundijmara people who lived in stone houses arrayed in villages around an engineered sophisticated fish farming enterprise. Here then is but one example - admittedly subject to contestation over its scale, anthropological and archaeological fundamentals - which challenges the view of indigenous Australians as not only nomadic and "primitive" but also as legitimately placed outside the history of Australian planning. I will conclude by speculating on what this example might mean to any reworking of that history.

The suburbanisation of the coastal communities of Sorrento and Queenscliff : measuring the effects of overdevelopment.

Architecture is often read as a marker of change. The Victorian towns of Sorrento and Queenscliff are undergoing immense change as a result of rapid modernisation and building due to the ‘sea-change’ phenomenon. It has been argued that this is adversely affecting place, diminishing ‘sense of place’, destroying neighbourhood character and leading to unsustainable development. Planning strategies such as Melbourne 2030 have exacerbated this trend by advocating increasing population densities without regard to specific local environmental or historical conditions. Richard Neville comments generally that ‘Architecture is a lightning rod for passions about community, development, taste and lifestyle. Few issues engage and enrage people more than development – whether a prominent public site … or a more local issue such as housing design or density.’ Anecdotally the increase in building footprint is one measure of cultural lifestyle change that has occurred in the last half century in the coastal areas of the Mornington and Bellarine Peninsulas. While the change from the 1950s ‘fibro shack’ to the 2000s supersize ‘McMansion’ in Sorrento and Queenscliff demonstrates increasing prosperity and sophistication, these developments show little awareness of the local coastal landscape or place identity. If the impacts of this ‘sea change’ phenomenon on place are to be considered as more than anecdotal, ways of evaluating these impacts are required. Monitoring and documenting the impact of changes to place will enable the researchers to quantify overdevelopment as site specific and recommend that modern planning schemes need to value and address place differently.

The place of place : case studies of place in Victorian planning schemes

Built environment and lived experience are inextricably interwoven. The Australian State of Victoria’s planning framework prioritises the physical characteristics of space above their socio-psychological correlates, as reflected in the relatively limited remit of ‘place’ in formal decision-making. The Victorian planning model struggles to accommodate the uniqueness of specific places in the process of development, despite the driving role it plays in expansion. A literature review investigating definitions of place and place identity determined that although place has been defined variously, and at times with some contradiction, there is broad consensus that it can be understood as the interrelation between the physical characteristics of a landscape and the sensory faculties of an individual and an individual’s experience. This interrelationship is in turn determined by social constructs. Depending on an individual’s length of residence in a particular physical location, place influences individual and social psychology through both the formation of place attachment and identity. While place attachment to landscapes has been described using a variety of complex methodologies, translation of this work into architectural and planning practice has been limited within Australia in general and Victoria in particular. The Victorian Shires of Surf Coast and Frankston are considered as examples of current best practice in integrating place into planning. Key issues highlighted in the conclusion include: the difficulties of incorporating qualitative information within the Victorian Planning Scheme; the importance of correctly measuring place attachment, rather than landscape preference; and the complexities, costs and ethical implications of describing place attachment for integration within the planning system.

A reestruturação do setor sucroenergético no Brasil: uma análise do período entre 2005 e 2011

O mundo está diante do desafio de reduzir as emissões de gases do efeito estufa (GEEs) e encontrar fontes renováveis de energia, na busca da segurança energética. Os biocombustíveis são uma alternativa viável e, nesse sentido, o Brasil deu um exemplo para mundo ao criar o Proálcool em 1975, que foi um programa bem sucedido de substituição da gasolina pelo etanol produzido a partir da cana-de-açúcar. Essa iniciativa contou com a participação do Governo Brasileiro no incentivo e na regulamentação do setor sucroenergético. A partir da sua liberalização em 1999, a indústria canavieira passou por uma importante reestruturação. Este estudo teve como objetivo descrever esse movimento e analisar suas possíveis consequências para o setor. Para isso, foi realizada uma pesquisa sobre a reestruturação da indústria canavieira, entre 1999 e 2011, dando ênfase aos dois ciclos de operações de Fusões & Aquisições ocorridos nesse período. Como principais resultados têm-se a consolidação dos maiores grupos de usinas da Região Centro Sul, que aumentaram a sua participação na moagem de cana e ampliaram suas estruturas produtivas por meio da aquisição de usinas concorrentes e da construção de greenfields. Além disso, foi possível observar o rápido crescimento da participação do capital estrangeiro, juntamente com a entrada de grupos de outros setores industriais. A reestruturação terá consequências positivas para o Brasil, principalmente pela profissionalização do setor sucroenergético e pela capacidade de retomar o ritmo de crescimento da produção de cana-de-açúcar, que foi interrompido pela crise financeira mundial de 2008. Para isso, será necessário investir na ampliação dos canaviais e também na construção de novas usinas.

Análise do modo de expansão recente das multinacionais no Brasil sob a ótica da teoria dos ativos complementares

O presente estudo analisa o modo de expansão das multinacionais no Brasil, país emergente e de dimensões continentais que apresenta enormes desigualdades regionais. Assim, foram analisadas as estratégias de expansão dos dez maiores grupos estadunidenses no Brasil entre 2004 e 2013, sob a ótica das teorias tradicionais de internacionalização e da teoria dos ativos complementares de Hennart. Verificou-se que as diferentes características regionais brasileiras levam as multinacionais a realizarem aquisições quando iniciam atividades em novas regiões. Ademais, foi constatado que outros fatores, como dificuldades intrínsecas aos setores de atuação e a entrada do grupo multinacional em novas atividades que não a sua predominante, afetam o modo de expansão das multinacionais, levando-as a realizar aquisições e joint ventures. Tais aquisições e joint ventures são explicadas pela dificuldade das multinacionais em acessar ativos complementares locais, em conformidade à teoria de Hennart. Por outro lado, e em contrariedade às teorias tradicionais, foi verificado que a experiência das multinacionais no Brasil nem sempre influencia o seu comprometimento nos países hospedeiros, levando ao estabelecimento de subsidiárias integrais.

Developing brownfields ranking models using decision analytic methods

The redevelopment of Brownfields has taken off in the 1990s, supported by federal and state incentives, and largely accomplished by local initiatives. Brownfields redevelopment has several associated benefits. These include the revitalization of inner-city neighborhoods, creation of jobs, stimulation of tax revenues, greater protection of public health and natural resources, the renewal and reuse existing civil infrastructure and Greenfields protection. While these benefits are numerous, the obstacles to Brownfields redevelopment are also very much alive. Redevelopment issues typically embrace a host of financial and legal liability concerns, technical and economic constraints, competing objectives, and uncertainties arising from inadequate site information. Because the resources for Brownfields redevelopment are usually limited, local programs will require creativity in addressing these existing obstacles in a manner that extends their limited resources for returning Brownfields to productive uses. Such programs may benefit from a structured and defensible decision framework to prioritize sites for redevelopment: one that incorporates the desired objectives, corresponding variables and uncertainties associated with Brownfields redevelopment. This thesis demonstrates the use of a decision analytic tool, Bayesian Influence Diagrams, and related decision analytic tools in developing quantitative decision models to evaluate and rank Brownfields sites on the basis of their redevelopment potential.

Valoración de la capacidad de gestión para establecer Estaciones Biológicas en ocho Reservas Silvestres Privadas de Nicaragua, 2015

Con e l objetivo de v alorar la capacidad de gestión de ocho Reservas Silvestres Privadas de Nicaragua para el establec imiento de Estaciones Biológicas , se llevó a cabo una inves tigación de tipo cualitativa. La metodología consistió en la construcción de un instrumento de valoración compuesto por 6 criterios y 21 indicadores , generados a partir de un proceso que contempló revisión bibliogr áfica sobre E stacio n es B ioló gica s , elaboración de propuesta de cri terios e indicadores de gestión y tall er para consensuar la propuesta con los propietarios de las RSP estudiadas y la directiva de la RED - RSP. Para la aplicación del instrum ento, se visitaron las reservas , realizándose recorrido de campo, observación de las instalaciones, entrevista a los propietarios y revisión de documentos de las reservas. El a n álisis de los datos correspondió a la obtención de valoraciones basadas en prom edios de indicadores para cada criterio , para lo cual se recurrió a una base de datos en Excel. Los resultados para las ocho reservas estudiadas muestran a El Jaguar (95%), El Aguacate (88%), Estancia del Congo (83%) y Montibelli (81%) con un a capacidad m uy alta ; con un a capacidad alta están Concepción de María (78%), Quelantaro (75%) y Greenfields (68%). S e identifica que como conjunto en las RSP hay un a capacidad muy alta en el criterio Servicios (99%), en Educación (94%) y en Instrumentos de m anejo (88% ), se alcanza un a capacidad alta en Gestión f inanciera y p romoción (79%) e Infraestructura (77%). La capacidad baja está asociada al criterio relativo a Investigación y d ifusión de i nformación (47%). Las mayores debilidades están asociadas a la insostenibi lidad financiera de varias de las RSP y a la necesidad de acondicionar espacios físicos que faciliten la investigación. Se identificó como prioritario i nvertir esfuerzos conjuntos en la divulgación de las investigaciones generadas, así como la promoción de programas de monitoreo de objetos de conservación y el apoyo técnico para la supervisión y asesoría de investigaciones.

As estratégias de internacionalização, as suas motivações e determinantes: o caso do Grupo Pestana

A internacionalização consiste num processo crescente e gradual, através do qual as organizações expandem os seus negócios externamente. Com diversas motivações subjacentes, a internacionalização pode resultar de fenómenos proactivos ou reativos. O objetivo deste trabalho visa estudar este comportamento numa empresa do setor hoteleiro – Grupo Pestana Hotels & Resorts. A metodologia baseou-se numa análise qualitativa, tendo por base uma entrevista à administração do grupo. As conclusões apontam a diversificação do risco de investimentos e o aumento do volume de negócios como as principais motivações para iniciação do processo de internacionalização. No que se refere às abordagens aos mercados externos, o grupo privilegiou formas como, as aquisições, projetos greenfields e contratos de gestão, por permitirem um maior controlo e gestão sobre os hotéis. Todo o processo tem em conta uma análise económica e um conhecimento e investimento gradual ao longo da última década.