What is new about global corporations? Interpreting statistical data on corporate internationalization

In the debate on globalization it is often argued that multinational corporations (MNCs) have gained increasing power due to their growth and due to new global or transnational structures and strategies. This paper presents empirical evidence especially from various national statistics ignored in the debate so far that contradicts these assumptions and allow a deeper understanding of the development of the structures of MNCs. These data indicate that foreign direct investment (FDI) is not a good indicator for the real growth of MNCs. Rising prices of cross-border M&A transactions lead to high growth-rates of FDI while the real growth of MNCs has developed quite steadily over many decades. In manufacturing only affiliates in the periphery of MNCs home regions show an accelerated expansion (partly due to the opening-up of Eastern Europe and China). Over-all, the development of MNCs does not show significant new characteristics in the 1990s, neither in quantitative nor in qualitative terms. Despite the continuous tendency to globalize managerial coordination, truly integrated global configurations have not emerged. Network-like manufacturing structures and thus also the mobility of production are still confined regionally. The final section tries to develop an explanation for the fact that MNCs are assigned this important new role in the globalization debate. -- In der Globalisierungsdebatte wird häufig behauptet, dass multinationale Unternehmen aufgrund ihres Wachstums und aufgrund neuer globaler oder transnationaler Strukturen und Strategien zunehmende Macht gewonnen hätten. Dieses Papier präsentiert empirische Daten insbesondere von verschiedenen nationalen Statistiken, die bisher in der Debatte ignoriert worden sind und die ein besseres Verständnis der Entwicklung der Strukturen der multinationalen Konzerne erlauben. Die Daten zeigen, dass Direktinvestitionen kein guter Indikator für das Wachstum multinationaler Konzerne sind. Gestiegene Preise bei grenzüberschreitenden Mergers + Acquisitions führen zu hohen Wachstumsraten bei den Direktinvestitionen, während das reale Wachstum der multinationalen Konzerne sich seit vielen Dekaden recht kontinuierlich entwickelt. In der verarbeitenden Industrie zeigen nur die Auslandsgesellschaften in der Peripherie der jeweiligen Heimatregion der multinationalen Unternehmen ein beschleunigtes Wachstum (teilweise auch aufgrund der Öffnung Chinas und Osteuropas). Insgesamt zeigt die Entwicklung der multinationalen Konzerne in den 90er Jahren keine grundlegend neuen Eigenschaften weder in quantitativer noch in qualitativer Hinsicht. Trotz einer langfristigen Tendenz zur Globalisierung der Koordinationsstrukturen, d.h. des Managements, haben sich wirklich globale Konfigurationsstrukturen noch nicht herausgebildet: Netzwerkartige Fertigungsverbünde und damit auch die Mobilität der Produktion sind noch regional begrenzt. Der abschließende Teil dieses Papiers versucht eine Erklärung dafür zu entwickeln, dass den multinationalen Konzernen in der Globalisierungsdebatte eine bedeutende und neuartige Rolle zugeschrieben wird.

Local infrastructure and economic opportunities: What do Europeans think about their neighbourhood? Bertelsmann Policy Brief

In a recent eupinions survey, we set out to explore what people in Europe think about their neighbourhood, the quality of local infrastructure and of economic opportunities in their area. Overall, the results show a generally high degree of satisfaction with living conditions “on the ground”, but satisfaction levels differ for example between respondents living in rural and those living in urban areas. What stands out however is the pessimistic judgement of economic opportunities for young people

Drag reduction for gliders

The article discusses the causes of drag in gliders. The importance of maintaining laminar flow is emphasized. The problems of surface (or lack of) smoothness are outlined

An Optimized and Scalable Eigensolver for Sequences of Eigenvalue Problems

In many scientific applications the solution of non-linear differential equations are obtained through the set-up and solution of a number of successive eigenproblems. These eigenproblems can be regarded as a sequence whenever the solution of one problem fosters the initialization of the next. In addition, in some eigenproblem sequences there is a connection between the solutions of adjacent eigenproblems. Whenever it is possible to unravel the existence of such a connection, the eigenproblem sequence is said to be correlated. When facing with a sequence of correlated eigenproblems the current strategy amounts to solving each eigenproblem in isolation. We propose a alternative approach which exploits such correlation through the use of an eigensolver based on subspace iteration and accelerated with Chebyshev polynomials (ChFSI). The resulting eigensolver is optimized by minimizing the number of matrix-vector multiplications and parallelized using the Elemental library framework. Numerical results show that ChFSI achieves excellent scalability and is competitive with current dense linear algebra parallel eigensolvers.Comment: 23 Pages, 6 figures. First revision of an invited submission to special issue of Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experienc

Spin-caloric transport properties of cobalt nanostructures: spin disorder effects from first principles

The fundamental aspects of spin-dependent transport processes and their interplay with temperature gradients, as given by the spin Seebeck coefficient, are still largely unexplored and a multitude of contributing factors must be considered. We used density functional theory together with a Monte-Carlo-based statistical method to simulate simple nanostructures, such as Co nanowires and films embedded in a Cu host or in vacuum, and investigated the influence of spin-disorder scattering on electron transport at elevated temperatures. While we show that the spin-dependent scattering of electrons due to temperature induced disorder of the local magnetic moments contributes significantly to the resistance, thermoelectric and spin-caloric transport coefficients, we also conclude that the actual magnitude of these effects cannot be predicted, quantitatively or qualitatively, without such detailed calculations.Comment: 10 pages, 6 figure

Linear and nonlinear relations between DSC parameters and elastic moduli for chemically and thermally treated human hair

Against the practical context of thermal straightening, hair samples were obtained with a chemical (bleaching) as well as a cumulative thermal history (0–800 s, 200 °C). On these samples, tensile testing and DSC analysis, both in the wet state, were conducted to obtain the elastic moduli Ew as well as denaturation temperatures TD and enthalpies ΔHD. 3D plots show overall linearity for the relationships between the parameters for natural hair. For bleached hair, pronounced nonlinearities develop beyond 300 s of thermal treatment. At this stage, TD as well as Ew approaches limiting values, consistent with the state of a highly cross-linked, thermoset polymer. 2D projections are used to investigate the correlations between pairs of parameters. The results show that bleaching imparts a specific sensitivity for thermal damage, namely, to the matrix proteins, which more readily than the intermediate filaments (IF) turn into a thermoset. Overall, correlations between parameters hold well prior to the thermoset range. It is thus suggested that tensile testing to determine the elastic modulus and DSC come to consistent and equivalent results, at least, for the current experimental context. However, while Ew combines contributions of IFs and matrix, DSC differentiates the specific property changes of these components. © 2019, The Author(s)