F23 - Multinational Firms; International BusinessNávrat zpět

In the lens of European integration, national competitiveness no longer depends just on national inheritance, but also on the new member states' capacity of exploiting existing advantages of EU membership. In this paper, we closely follow the effects of European Union (EU) admission on national competitiveness for eleven Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries that joined the EU after 2004. The analysis includes new specific variables that we consider potential boosters of competitiveness in this particular sample of countries, besides the proxies generally used in the literature. The results indicate that, for most of the CEE countries, EU accession bought both domestic and international advantages, with a more visible positive change in the international position. Although we were able to classify the analysed economies into three distinct groups, there are still notable differences across the CEE countries that require differentiated strategies for enhancing competitiveness.

The objective of this paper is to analyse the outflow of primary income from the Czech Republic in comparison with the inflow of foreign direct investment and to show the causes of this phenomenon and the need for active economic policy in the area of primary income outflows. We look at the impact of pension outflows in the form of dividends on our economy as well as on the external balance from the perspective of the current account of the balance of payments. Attention is also paid to comparing pension outflows with inflows from domestic FDI abroad. The intention is also to test the hypothesis of a relationship between economic growth and FDI inflows and to test the validity of the investment life cycle hypothesis. Data are available for the period 1993-2022, published by the Czech National Bank, and only the period 1998-2021 will be included in the analysis. The long period under study is justified in an attempt to capture the impact of significant milestones that occurred during this period on the behaviour of foreign investors.

The paper extends existing research on the effects of ownership structures on company performance by including a dimension of transparency in the ownership structure. We analyse the effect of an unknown owner and pyramidal structure on company profitability, capital structure and investment. We conduct this research in accordance with existing theories on a panel of private companies within the cultural and political alliance of four Central European countries, called the Visegrad Group. The total population includes over 111,000 firm-level panel data observations between 2001 and 2015. Lack of transparency in the ownership structure leads to lower investment and profitability, both for the case of an anonymous owner and for companies in a corporate pyramid. The capital structure of the company is not influenced by the presence of an anonymous owner; however, the existence of the ownership pyramid leads, ceteris paribus, to a larger debt for the firm.

In this paper, estimates of tax losses as a result of aggressive tax planning are presented using two different methodological approaches. While the International Monetary Fund (IMF) methodology addresses profit shifting and corresponding tax losses across the European Union, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) methodology uses FDI data and a list of so-called offshore financial centres. According to the IMF methodology, the annual tax losses are about EUR 69-105 billion for the EU-28. According to our calculations, the Czech Republic achieves negative losses (tax revenues) of CZK 15 billion per year, probably due to the low effective tax rate (16.4%) and investment incentives. On the other hand, the UNCTAD methodology implies annual tax losses for a given EU member state of about EUR 18 billion. Because of limited data availability, we estimated the regression model for only 22 EU member states for the period 2013-2016.

This paper examines payout characteristics of firms in a cultural and political alliance of four Central European nations, the Visegrad Group. The sample consists of more than 100,000 firm-year observations from 2001 to 2015. Our results indicate that smoothing behaviour diminishes among firms with majority ownership and that the total payout characteristics behave according to existing theories on passive ownership behaviour and agency costs.

Theory supposes that corporate income taxation encourages companies to issue debt as opposed to equity finance because interests are deductible while dividends are not. In addition, international differences in tax regimes incentivize multinational firms to shift debt to optimize their taxes. Since a high debt level can have adverse consequences, we decided to find out whether taxation is one of the causes of indebtedness of the non-financial corporate sector. We used a macroeconomic approach, i.e., all the variables were constructed at the country level, and employed data for 17 EU member states for the period 2006–2014. The model for short-term indebtedness suggests that there is a relationship between corporate debt and taxation, especially between the debt-shifting incentive and the thin capitalization rule. However, the model for total indebtedness does not provide any evidence that corporate taxation influences the non-financial corporate sector debt. The firms’ debt was affected rather by macroeconomic factors.

The paper aims at the issue of perception of the factors of implementation of the pre- and post-merger-and-acquisition process. The original methodologies aDM&A (ante-Determinants of Mergers and Acquisitions) and pDM&A (post-Determinants of Mergers and Acquisitions) were verified on the basis of an analysis of the views of managers from 120 companies. The factor analysis of the data obtained enabled extraction of the key factors of implementation of the pre- and post-merger-and-acquisition process. The paper also presents the basic parameters of the methodology aDM&A Eigenvalues and pDM&A Eigenvalues, the percentage of the variance explained, Cronbach's alpha, inter-correlations of the extracted factors, and the results of the analysis of differences in the assessment of the extracted factors by managers. The extracted factors were Synergy potential, Business environment, Investment benefit, and Financial management in the context of the pre-merger-and-acquisition process, and Unification strategy, Business management, Internal business environment, Business identity, and Strategic intent in the post-merger-and-acquisition process.

Corporate innovations are a central part of a country's economic activity. They foster and improve competitiveness, which ultimately leads to economic growth and progress. In this study, we focus on the post-communist European region, where corporations operate under uncertain conditions. Utilizing a sample with almost 100,000 firm level observations over the period from 2001 to 2013, we analyse effects of uncertainty steaming from corruption environment on innovation decisions of the Central European private firms. We find that domestic firms and firms with dispersed ownership innovate less when business and municipal uncertainty conditions increase. When firms are unsure whether they will be blocked by local bureaucrats from capitalizing on their innovation, they scale down their efforts. However, this result disappears for firms with foreign majority ownership. We hypothesize that foreign controlled firms have cleared all uncertainties before they entered the foreign market.

This article focuses on the issue of company's size with connection to its valuation multiples. The phenomenon of company's size effect is described in theory and empirically tested. The knowledge of dependence on transaction multiples on company's size is essential for valuation and decision about acquisition or disinvestment. The article follows on the Jeřábek's and Čihák's article (2008). The aim of the article is to empirically verify the statement that the buyers are willing to pay relatively lower amount of money for smaller companies than in case of investment in larger companies. The aim is not to determine the specific amount of the size risk premiums but demonstrate multiples increase with company's size multiple in connection to company's size. Furthermore, it is necessary to take into account bigger companies have, in comparison with smaller entities, not only higher relative value, but also absolute. In other words, it means higher transaction multiple or lower discount rate.

The growing number of players in world trade increases competition among countries. It has also a significant implication for the EU member states that are differently dependant on international trade. The object of the paper was to evaluate the export competitiveness and productivity of the EU member states in 2000-2015 using the Factor Analysis and the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method. The results of trade analyses confirmed that the level of the export competitiveness was different in the individual EU member states and that it had also been changed during the monitored period. However, the original hypothesis about the level of export productivity was not confirmed. The results of the DEA analysis pointed more to economic convergence in the trade area between the new and old EU member states than to export productivity. The development of the EU trade was influenced by globalisation processes accompanied by trade liberalisation, but also the EU integration process.

In this paper we focus on transfer pricing issues of SME with aim to propose a methodological tool in the form of panel-regression model estimating arm´s length EBIT margin of industry where SME is operating, which is based on the Action Plan of the European Commission to ensure fair and effective corporate taxation, fulfilling the premise of simplicity and non-increasing the administrative burden and compliance costs of taxation. As a result separate panel regression models were determined for each industry sectors and EU Member States based on the variables, such as operating revenues, payroll, added value and tangible fixed assets. Those regression factors are able to statistically significantly explain the variability in the generation of EBIT margin in case of SME in EU 28, which is often used for transfer pricing purposes. Panel regression models can be used as a simple methodological tool to estimate the arm´s length SME profitability in the industry sector and the state where is SME operating. Moreover, it is able to identify possible distortion of transfer prices if SME is not generating arm´s length EBIT margin based on the model.

In this paper, we analyze the extent of the impact of FDI on the host economy according to theoretical predictions. Within a broader context of international trade flows, we focus on inter-industry interactions between a multinational enterprise (MNE) that enters the domestic market and other firms in the economy. We seek to determine if the MNE uses domestic suppliers of intermediate goods or if it purchases its supplies from abroad or from other MNEs entering the downstream sector. Our analysis covers both Western and Eastern European countries over the period 2001-2007. Our results show that FDI increases the demand for intermediary goods. However, domestic producers of these goods can benefit only partially from this positive shock, since they are at the same time crowded-out by MNEs entering the upstream sector as well as by importers.

We contribute to the rare evidence of driving motives of establishing new onshore and offshore companies by analysing the situation in the Slovak Republic in 2014. We analyse financial and ownership data for the Slovak enterprises already included in onshore and offshore business, providing data by corporate service providers on the driving motives and their combination for the Slovak customers in 2014 and the available external data assessing the quality of the Slovak business environment. We present the empirical evidence that the motive of tax benefits is ranked as the most important, followed by the anonymity of the UBO, flexible arrangement of ownership relations, asset protection, asset management and trusteeship and special cases. In the second part of our research we provide empirical evidence on significant areas of the business environment affecting the number of newly established onshore and offshore companies by the Slovak enterprises between 2005 and 2014. The indicators assessing the quality of the Slovak business environment are divided into two groups - paying taxes plus doing business and the quality of the legal system in Slovakia. Our research shows that from the first group is insignificant only the indicator of time to comply with taxes. On the other side, the perception of corruption and the functionality of the state institutions are evaluated as significant from the second group.

In this paper we focus on transfer pricing issues of SMEs which impose relatively higher compliance costs of taxation on SMEs than on large entities which can benefit from economies of scale. Therefore, the international platforms recommend introducing the simplified transfer pricing approaches mainly for SMEs. Currently, 62% of EU Member States have implemented simplified transfer pricing measurements for them. The aim of the paper is to propose the methodical tool for SMEs in the form of safe harbours based on the arm's length profit margins in the selected industry sectors in order to reflect sectoral and size-classes differences. Further, we try to answer on the question, how wide margin is possible to apply in case of distributors if the proposed methodical tool is used and manufacturers generate different operating costs.

The main target of the paper is to identify the influences of the financial and trade liberalization in the EU and the functioning of the EMU on the realization of the cross-border mergers and acquisitions among the selected states of the European territory. We analyse in the paper, concerning the theoretical background of the foreign scientific studies on the influence of the integration processes in Europe on the realization of the cross-border mergers and acquisitions, the influence of the selected predictors on the cross-border mergers and acquisitions realized in 16 source countries and 25 target countries in the European territory from 1998 to 2012 (database data created by the authors) through the generalized linear model. Empirical results of several foreign studies (e.g. Bjortvan, 2004, Neary, 2007, Brouwer, Paap, Viaene, 2008, Coeurdacier, De Santos, Aviat, 2009 etc.) indicate that European integration had a positive impact on the development of cross-border mergers and acquisitions especially in manufacturing sector. We came to the same conclusion based on our analyses, while the integration into the EU has a critical influence, which is significantly higher in manufacturing sector. The influence of the integration into the EMU can be regarded as additional and it is identical for manufacturing sector and service sector. We can claim definitely that the institutional changes, such as the unified market of the European Union and the European Monetary Union were releasing factors of capital reallocation all over the world. The European Monetary Union encouraged the capital reallocation through the effects of unilateral financial liberalization (a decrease of marginal and fixed costs for execution of reallocation transactions) and thus facilitated the implementation of cross-border mergers and acquisitions in the European area.

In the global world, the special focus of the paper is on the potential effects of foreign ownership on job and employee flows during the recent economic crisis. The initial hypothesis is that the foreignowned economic subjects may be more often subject to the excessive negative effect caused by the economic downturn compared with those of domestic ownership. Keeping this in mind, we quantify the extended set of employment indicators concerning job creation and job destruction as well as hires and separations according to the ownership of the economic subjects running their businesses in the Czech Republic in the period 2007-2010 and discuss which economic subjects have suffered the consequences of the current crisis. The results show that job destruction varied more than job creation which corresponds to cyclical asymmetry investigated by previous studies.

The article deals with the phenomenon of globalization and in particular its influence on production chains of multinational firms. The on-going process of globalization has set off new trends and possibilities of production (e.g. outsourcing) which resulted in changes of firms' behaviour. This led to new approaches in their decisions concerning internationalization of production process, i.e. investment abroad, mainly realised by setting-up a new production facility in a foreign country, usually in the form of the foreign direct investment (FDI). Some of these influences are also connected with new types of production and its structure. The first part of the text is devoted to a brief review of theories which may be used by explaining different ways of internalisation of firm's production, to the latest empirical data concerning FDI and some thoughts concerning methodological problems linked to FDI statistics. The next part of the text tries to shed light on different producing methods, classification schemas and definition of selected modern forms of production and discusses possible links to the FDI. The third part of the text presents a simple model for assessing value of FDI which can be used for decision-making within a multinational firm. The last part summarises the main findings.

This paper examines international relocation determinants of Czech manufacturing companies in order to estimate the probability of potential delocalizations. The research is based on statistical evaluation of "internal keep-factors" (particular company features strengthening the location inertia of manufacturing), which are divided into three main groups - capital intensity, complexity of value chain and business sophistication. Keep-factors were examined on the company level and represented by six financial indicators. The sample covers 692 Czech manufacturing companies (foreign owned) with one hundred or more employees. The main goal is to identify branches of manucaturing threatened by delocalization. Manufacturing companies with low capital intensity, low value added/output ratio, high relative wages expenditures and no R&D activities are regarded as footloose - with high probability of potential relocation.

The paper focuses on selective investment incentives. The main aim is to discuss question how to quantify net fiscal impact properly. As shown, the problem is not trivial - the proper quantification presupposes using of several parameters, accounting of costs in the economic sense of this word (i.e. also opportunity costs) and using concept of present value. Including these aspects in the calculation would correct some extremely optimistic scenarios (of studies concerning Czech economy), which claim, that fiscal incentives yield significantly high net surplus to the state budget. The parameter representing the ability of incentives to attract investors seems to be one of the most important components of the correct calculation. Another important point is a necessity of symmetric accounting: some of the other studies implement two expenditures rounds on the side of fiscal benefits, whereas they neglect the second round on the side of costs.

Future of the European Union and its future directions should be the most important subject of the European Studies, which combine studies of Economy, Political Science, International Relations and other disciplines to study the European Integration Process in its complexity. This applies especially today, when the EU faces a huge amount of internal and external pressures. In stead, the European Studies, often focus on studying and analysing the current stage of European Integration Process and its historical development; they take it as it is, and as if its future depended only on the interaction between particular levels of it multi-level governance. Debate on Europe's future is, thus, rather simplified at the academic level, and a public discussion about the future of "our" European Integration thus often lacks important academic stimuli. The cause of this situation might be seen in seeking for the strong theoretical instrument, which could embrace the European Integration Process in its broadness and complexity and, simultaneously, connect it with the development of Global (or Gloablized) Economy and Society. In this paper, the authors will try to outline and emphasize that International (or Global, if the effects of globalisation should be especially stressed) Political Economy and its views on the theory of Regionalism might be the proper theoretical instrument to deepen the European Studies by the issues of EU's future in Global Economy. Their research of New Regionalism and especially of its current wave done so far, namely suggests that in spite of its marked specificity, the European Union can be examined in the New Regionalism perspective and that this analysis can bring valuable outcomes for the EU's future. Explanations of the current wave of regionalism offered by the Global Political Economy, together with the empirical study of regionalism, especially bring a systemic approach to the Global Economic Order, to the balance between market and state as well as to the political aspects of economic processes; all these are necessary for the EU's future directions' research.

If taxes are the same across countries and no tariffs are imposed on international trade, the optimal strategy of a multinational firm is to set transfer prices at marginal costs of its affiliated firms. But in reality we observe trade tariffs and tax differences among countries which lead multinational firms to deviate transfer prices from marginal costs. Multinationals use transfer prices in order to increase profits in affiliates which are located in low tax countries at the expense of affiliates which are located in high tax countries. I demonstrate on a sample of EU countries that the lower the tax rate in a country the higher the profitability of foreign direct investment in that country. As some studies suggest the gross value added and export prices are artificially overvalued in low tax countries and artificially undervalued in high tax countries.

This paper deals with the recent empirical phenomenon of intraindustry trade, i.e. trade in similar goods between similar countries. It treats this phenomenon from the point of view of the theory of structure of production, highlighting the importance of sequential nature of production and heterogeneity and specificity of factors of production, as developed by Carl Menger, Eugen von Boehm-Bawerk and their followers of the so-called Austrian school of economics. Simple theory of production structure, along the lines of Austrian economics, is presented and a useful tool for the analysis of intraindustry trade is developed. In the following discussion we make the case for vertical intraindustry specialization, complex manufactured goods and sliced-up production chains across countries. The reader immediately observes the importance of Austrian production structure theory for the analysis of intraindustry trade. We accordingly apply the concepts of the structure of production on intraindustry trade and analyze, in particular, the time- and place-aspects of international production. Finally, we show the relevance of our approach to intraindustry trade for the analysis of business cycle synchronization and Optimum currency areas theory.

The paper deals with the relationships between the inflow of FDI in the Czech economy and the Czech labour market. First part is focused on general issues related to the FDI inflows and to the analysis of the penetration of the foreign controlled companies into domestic economy. Special attendance is devoted to the scope and developments of the duality in the Czech economy, in particular in its key segment - manufacturing industry. The findings indicate gradual and differentiated diminishing of the scope of duality in the Czech manufacturing. The necessary conditions for positive spillovers of FDI into the domestic economy have been outlined, with flexible and qualified labour force being a very important channel of the transfer of technology. Therefore the impacts of FDI on the Czech labour market have been analyzed from the regional and industrial viewpoint. Low flexibility of the Czech labour market has been one of the reasons behind still considerable scope of duality in the Czech manufacturing.

The theory of internalization currently seems to be generally accepted as a possible explanation of multinational enterprise. The issue of the theory is that a multinational enterprise has developed a firm-specific advantage in its home market, usually in the form of intangible assets, giving the firm some superior production, product, marketing or management knowledge. If these assets are not exploited through market or contractual transactions, an "internal" market has to be created. Expansions outside the firm's domestic market will then take form of horizontal and vertical integration. The firm either establishes or buys manufacturing plants outside its home market. The multinacional enterprise thus exists because of "market failures" or high "contracting costs". The firm wants to protect its intangible assets and to be able to control the price, which others pay for the use of these assets. The internalization theory has also much to say about the modes of cross border resource transfer. We come to the conclusion that the internalization theory can be considered as a useful tool to describe and advice the governance structures in MNE even in recent days, especially regarding the management of innovation and knowledge transfer between subsidiaries and corporate centre and subsidiaries themselves. We conclude that a mix of autonomous and corporate induced activities has to be created, in order to respond to the local market and in the same time to look for an international economy of scope. What will be needed for the future research in this aspect is an "inside behaviour" research of the differentiated network MNE.

This study is devoted to analysis of different aspects of world oil market development and its role in further growth of individual national economies, especially in connection with the ever intensifying globalization process. The study shows individual aspects and parts of the oil market, be it production and consumption of crude oil, its territorial dislocation, including EU, and also an analysis of the impact that has the development of oil consumption on economical results of individual national economies. In the first place it analyses the connections with the growth of competition ability of companies. Further research is devoted to the establishment of crude oil price and to the most important aspects on which depends the price creation process. Supply and demand factors are also analyzed. The study comes to a conclusion that the biggest obstacle in using the crude oil will not be its availability, at least in the short run, but the ever fast increasing price. This high price will enable the use of oil only to such companies and countries that will be able to implement the oil in the production process with very high efficiency. Such conditions satisfy only products and services that are based on unique technical and scientific know-how, with high added value, or in such areas of national economies where the use of oil is unenviable.

The objective of this article is to provide a survey of basic facts about process of globalization. We can define globalization as the international economic integration through particular markets. Globalization is largely continual and objective process that began approximately in the middle of nineteenth century. Main factors determining globalization are technology and liberalization and also "desire of people to participate in globalization". On the other hand globalization reinforces these factors. Within globalization we can also see two following processes. The essence of the first one is centralization and concentration of production and capital and in the centre of second one stands a process of transnationalization. The results of these tendences are creation and action of transnational corporations. Today these firms are major entities forming present globalization. It is also necessary to give certain attention to the role of state in current world.

The Czech economy has been characterized by a rapidly increasing external income balance deficit since 1998, which was caused by an increasing outflow of FDI earnings. The paper analyses factors, which determine the total amount of FDI earnings in a host economy and their subsequent division into reinvested earnings and repatriated profits. Three main factors are examined: total FDI stock in the economy and its structure, the FDI rate of return and the FDI financial life cycle. Growing total FDI stock, which reaches 51 % of Czech GDP, is the most influential factor because the FDI rate of return has been approximately stable exceeding 10 %. An outstanding amount of reinvested earnings in the Czech economy negatively influences the current account deficit, which exceeds the GDP 5 % benchmark rate, although reinvested earnings do not represent actual financial outflows.

The paper focuses on selective investment incentives, which are aimed primarily to attract foreign direct investment, in the context of the new EU Member States, namely the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. We discuss the issue within three closely related dimensions. We point to a potential conflict of interests between host country governments and multinational companies in promoting technology spillovers from foreign direct investment in the host economies. We examine the prisoner dilemma of the host governments in mutual competition for mobile direct investment and a room to achieve multilateral or strengthening regional agreement on investment to reduce a possible wealth reducing content of such policies. Finally, we discuss national context of the investment incentives with regards to the rent-seeking behaviour of various interest groups and contradictory role of the investment promotion agency in the process of decision-making about investment promotion policies. We conclude with brief implications for development policy.

The article discusses different causes of financial crises and shows that the imputation of reinvested profits of the subsidiaries of foreign firms as a debit item on a host country's balance of payments account tends to overstate the current account deficit and to make the host country seem more vulnerable to financial crisis. It also shows that, because of the workings of the foreign direct investment financial life cycle, this phenomenon is most evident for countries that have recently received large inflows of capital. The transition economies of East Europe certainly fall among such countries. Authors verify the working of the foreign direct investment financial life cycle using a panel of transition economies.

This study provides information on trends and role of the Czech outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) and evaluates the effects of the OFDI on parent companies. The analysis of trends is based on Czech National Bank data; the effects are evaluated through a unique set of data gathered through a sample survey. The stock of OFDI has grown slowly but steadily between 1993 and 2002. To date, about 80 per cent of OFDI is located in services and about 40 per cent in Central and East European countries (CEECs). The nature of OFDI in the EU is trade facilitating while the nature of OFDI in CEECs is tilted toward manufacturing. Much OFDI aims at avoiding a specific regulation in the home country or takes advantage of financial incentives in host countries. Our results indicate that OFDI is often related to parent company restructuring and is a precondition for maintenance and improvement of competitiveness.

Paper focuses on foreign direct investment (FDI) in manufacturing in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia (CECs), where FDI penetration jumped to remarkable high levels in recent years. Foreign investment enterprises are more profitable, export oriented and technologically superior compared to domestic companies. FDI is perceived as a main channel of technology transfer and potential source of spillovers in host economy, though, estimates of technology transfer show mixed picture in the CECs. FDI spurs restructuring and productivity growth in foreign investment enterprises but FDI rather crowds-out domestic companies as spillovers are confirmed only to domestic companies with sufficient technological absorptive capacity. Paper concludes with some policy implications regarding FDI promotion and innovation policy.