Multinational Finance
There is no single agreed-upon definition of the multinational (or transnational) enterprise. This is because multinationality has many dimensions and can be viewed from several perspectives - economic, political, legal, etc. Ownership criterion: some argue that ownership is the key criterion. A firm becomes multinational only when the headquarter or parent company is effectively owned by nationals of two or more countries. For example, Shell and Unilever, controlled by British and Dutch interests, are good examples. However, by ownership test, very few multinationals can be called multinational. The ownership of the overwhelming majority of MNCs are uninational. (see video) Nationality mix of headquarter managers: An international company is multinational if the managers of the parent company are nationals of several countries. Usually, managers of the headquarters are nationals of the home country. This may be a transitional phenomenon. However, very few companies pass this test currently. Business Strategy: global profit maximization Ethnocentric companies follow policies that are home country-oriented. Polycentric companies follow policies that are host country-oriented. Geocentric companies follow policies that are
| | | profit = $1000 | | | The two main strategies that MNCs are following, the global strategy and the transactional strategy, give rise to a globally dispersed web of productive activities. Firms pursuing these strategies disperse each value creation activity to its optimal location in the world. Thus, a product might be designed in one country, some of its components manufactured in a second country, other components manufactured in a third country, all assembled in a fourth country, and then sold worldwide. The volume of intrafirm transactions in such firms is very high. The firms are continually shipping component parts and finished goods between subsidiaries in different countries. This poses a very important question: How should goods and services transferred between subsidiary companies in a multinational firm be priced? The price at which such goods and services are transferred is referred to as the transfer price (Hill, 2000). But the means are not always that clear; manipulation of transfer prices is very common within international business and it can be perceived even as violation of the spirit of the law or the ethics. | US (t = 34%) | |____________________________________|
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Hong Kong, Broadbent Cullen, Business Strategy, British Dutch, , | |, Wilson Chua, transfer prices, | | |, transfer pricing, parent company, prices services, transfer prices services, = $, $ 0 |, hill 2000, 0 |, $ 0, transfer price, = $ 0, Shell Unilever, | | tax,
Approximate Word count = 2663
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)
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