Multinational Organizations - Design and structure of global organizations

1 Multinational organizations – design and structure of global organizations
Globalization creates opportunities for many countries to experience economic growth. Economic growth is the increase in the amount of the goods and services produced by an economy over time. It is conventionally measured as a percentage change in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or Gross National Product (GNP). These two measures, which are calculated slightly differently, total the amounts paid for the goods and services that a country produced. As an example of measuring economic growth, a country that creates $9,000,000 in goods and services in 2010 and then creates $9,090,000 in 2011 has a nominal economic growth rate of 1 percent for 2011.

Timothee chalamet is god.

2 Basic introduction to the structure of an organization - Classic theories of the structure of organizations by Mintzberg
Multinational organizations might have started off as a local organization and have grown and expanded their units to foreign countries over time. Therefore, an introduction into the general structure of any organization regardless of size, industry or multinationality, is useful, to understand the complex ideas of an organization. Academic research on how companies actually structure their operating divisions and the hierarchical order in which they stand to each other, was first systematically analyzed by Henry Mintzberg in the 1970s. According to Mintzberg, any organization has five different main parts, which consist of the operating core, the middle line, the techno structure, the support staff and the strategic apex, presented in figure 1. Starting from the bottom of the hierarchy within the organization, the operating core is responsible for the basic work related directly to the production of products and services. Machine operators, sales persons or purchasing agents may be included in the operating core.

The middle line management is the binding link between the operating core and the strategic apex. It is mainly responsible for supervising the operating core, managing the flows of information from the strategic apex to all other parts of the organization and to the strategic apex from all other parts of the organization. The middle line has a vertical hierarchical structure within a company, while employees in the operating core are mostly on the same hierarchical level. The middle line may include the vice president of operations and the plant manager in a firm. In the techno structure, the analysts of an organization and their supporting staff are located. The analysts are removed from the work flow and may design or structure the work, but they do not do it themselves. Three types of analyst can generally be identified here: the work study analyst, who standardize work processes; planning and control analysts, who standardize outputs and personnel analysts, who standardize skills.

Operations research, strategic planning, controlling and other functions are being executed in the techno-structure. The support staff consists of all support units, who are vital for the organization but do not take part in the operating work of the organization, like the public relations department, research and development or accounting. The supporting staff are found on all hierarchical levels within an organization, depending on the recipient of the offered support. The strategic apex is at the top of the hierarchy and consists of top management and the board of directors. It is mainly concerned with global issues, and its decisions have a severe impact on the organization as a whole. The top management steers the company and is entitled to implement structural changes or a change of strategy for the entire organization. It also allocates resources to different parts of the organization and manages conflicts, to ensure that the organization serves its mission in an effective way. Moreover, it serves the needs of those people who control or have power over the organization, mainly stakeholders. [1]

[1]Mintzberg, (1979), p. 17-34

3.1 Definition of multinational organizations
In view of the fact that the concept of multinational organization is comparatively young, there is a great variety of different definitions and interpretations of this term in business world. Such synonyms like multinational firm (MNF), multinational enterprise (MNE), multinational corporation (MNC) or simply multinationals are quite widespread among scientific literature. Indeed, the interpretations may also differ, but in general they contain the following idea: multinational organization (MNO) is an enterprise that owns several production units in different countries. In other words, MNO has activities in more than two countries.

The traditional view of MNO, from the early analyses in the 1960s and early 1970s, is one of a large industrial company with operations in multiple countries and a centralized chain of command. MNO’s foreign assets should account for about 25-30% of its total volume of assets and it should have branches in two or more countries.[2] According to Mihaylushkin, if the firm has sales operations in multiple countries, production in multiple countries, or some other permutation of international business activities physically present in multiple countries, then it is multinational. Other definition include Vernon’s statement that multinationals are firms with a parent company that controls a large cluster of corporations of various nationalities that have access to a common pool of human and financial resources and seem responsive to elements of a common strategy.[3]

These views could be categorized as seeing the multinational organization as an octopus with tentacles reaching out across national borders to pull business activities into the body of the organization. It could be seen on the example of General Motors (GM) in Figure 2.

This example presents GM, a multinational enterprise, which over time has acquired companies through the world and established its own Greenfield investments in many countries (acquisition of Adam Opel in Germany, 1929; Isuzu in Japan, 1971; Saab in Sweden, 1989; Daewoo in Korea, 1993). The key point is that GM is serving the markets in those countries due to acquired companies and affiliates.

In recent years, MNO have become engaged in increasing numbers of strategic alliances, which produce not only physical, but also intangible products and services (product distribution, research and development, travelling, transportation). Multinationals have evolved in complexity: from having roots in just a few Western nations, they now have roots in dozen of nations, including many developing countries.[4] Firms are becoming multinational earlier in their lives and at smaller sizes than in the past.

[2]Mihaylushkin and Shimko, (2005), p. 24

[3] Vernon, (1996), pp. 190-207

[4] Aharoni and Ramamurti, (2011), pp. 113-135

3.2 History of multinational organizations
MNO have fairly a long history. The multinational organization is defined by where frontiers are drawn. In ancient Greece, these frontiers were the borders among city-states. In ancient Rome the boundaries were defined by the location of new administrative units of an expanding empire. It is fare to say, that the history of the MNO is closely related to the trade in and between cultural communities, and those communities remain important in many sectors in the economy. Knights Templar, endorsed by the Roman Catholic Church around 1129, could be counted as the first multinational finance organization as it began banking in several countries in 1135. It is assumed, that the prototype for the first modern multinational enterprise was British East India Company, founded in 1600 by the British crown British East India Company had monopoly rights to conduct trade in India. Moreover it eventually obtained military and governmental functions, making it possible to play a decisive role in the colonization of not only India, but also other eastern states.

Another integral link in the history of MNO is the Dutch East India Company (founded in 1602). It became a monopolist in the trade with Ceylon, China, Japan and Indonesia. The main contribution to history was the fact, that the corporation was the first biggest stock international company in the world. It had the rights in managing the war, engaging in political debates, coining money and creating colonies.[5] Subsequently MNO appeared throughout the world and became a very common type of business organization.

Multinational organization is a concept that came into scientific and political lexicon, including the lexicon of the UN, after World War II to describe the huge international monopolies, which include large national companies with an extensive international network of branches. The importance, diversity and scope of MNOs in the global economy have grown exponentially in the post-World War II period. That is, multinationals were a phenomenon that developed to take advantage of the fact, that governments, especially in Western Europe, opened their frontiers to foreign-owned companies. From merely a few billion dollars per year in the 1950s, global foreign direct investment (FDI) outflow grew to $51.5 billion in 1980, $239.1 billion in 1990, and $1.231.6 billion in 2000.[6] Before the global financial crisis the FDI outflows reached their historical maximum of $2.146.5 billion in 2007.

[5] Ames, (2008), p. 102-103

[6] Economist Intelligence Unit, (2007)

3.3 Development of multinational organizations
In 1939 the number of multinationals was already about 300 and by 1999 the total number of MNO reached 59,900 with 508,200 subsidiaries all over the world (increased almost 200 times).[7] At the end of 2004 there were more than 70,000 MNOs with 690,000 foreign affiliates in comparison with 82,000 multinational enterprises with 810,000 foreign branches in 2008.[8] The growth is clearly seen in the Figure 3. The parent companies are located mainly in the developed countries (approximately 72 %) and branches – in developing (about 65.2 %).

There are different concepts that explain the origin and development of the multinational corporations. One of them - the relative narrowness of the domestic market in conditions of increasing volume of production with antitrust regulation of domestic markets in most developed countries and, thus, an objective need to enter the markets of other countries, not just with products, but also with the competitive advantages of the big monopolies.

Currently, the export of capital is the main form of expansion for both mature and for newly established multinationals. Due to the export of capital, multinational organizations currently constitute the most dynamic sector of the world economy. Their investments are growing twice as fast as exports. Predominant form of capital exports are foreign direct investment (FDI), since the ownership of the investment enables the investor control over the enterprise in which it has invested.

The most important regions of MNO’s activities are developed countries. They are main exporters and importers of FDI. In 2004, they accounted for 58.6% of global FDI inflows and 87.3 % of global FDI outflows. However, since 1995 this situation could be applicable for developing countries, among which the main recipients of FDI are China, Asia and Oceania, South-East Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

''[7] World Investment Report UNCTAD, (2005), p.79''

''[8] World Investment Report UNCTAD, (2009), p. 13 ''

3.4 Classification
MNOs are oftendivided into three major groups:
 * 1) Horizontally integrated MNOs - controlled units located in different countries producing the same or similar items as the headquarters.
 * 2) Vertically integrated MNOs – headquarters manage a certain department in a country, which produce goods, delivered to their units in other countries.
 * 3) Separate MNOs - controlled units located in different countries, which are not vertically or horizontally integrated.

3.5 Significance
In general, MNOs account for about 50% of global industrial production. MNOs account for over 70% of world trade, and 40% of this trade takes place within MNOs. Very large MNOs have a budget that excesses the budget of some countries. Among 100 largest economies in the world, 52 are multinational corporations and others are states. They have a great influence in the regions, as they have vast financial resources, public relations and political lobby.

Moreover multinational corporations play an important role in globalization. Indeed, they play a very important role in the world of research and development activities.

In order to encourage the MNO to begin operations in the country, the government of that country offers them some incentives, such as tax, government subsidies, poor labor or environmental legislation.

4 Organizational design of global companies
“Organizational design is the process by which managers select and manage various dimensions and components of organizational structure and culture so that an organization can control the activities necessary to achieve its goals.”[9] The main objective is to balancing the needs of the organization in order to manage internal and external pressures so that the company is able to create value and exist in the long run. Internal pressures are, for example, the technology which has been chosen by the company, its strategy or the internal processes, whereas external pressures arise from the company’s environment. The continual change in organizational design means transforming the existing organizational structure and culture in accordance to the requirements of a changing global environment. In general, determining an appropriate organizational design for internationally-active companies is quite more difficult as for a local active firm, because of its higher complexity and diversity in terms of multinational employees and different locations. Organizational structure and culture are principal means that are used by the management in order to design this organization. The result of the design process is the behaviour of the organizations’ participants. Taking design into management account, is important because it affects the view and respond of organizational members to their outward environment. Furthermore, design influences the work groups and individuals to behave in a certain way. Organizational design has become one of the most important management priorities, due to increasing global competition as well as the increased usage of advanced IT. Neglecting the importance and necessity of organizational design, result in a slowed down process of value creation, declined performance and profit as well as the need of changing the company’s strategy. Therefore, finding new ways how to coordinate and motive the employees, especially in a multinational environment, to achieve competitive advantage, higher performance and to deal with contingencies, are the major tasks of organizational design. Based on this, organizational design is highly interrelated with organizational change that can be defined as organizational redesign or transformation of the company form an actual to a future desired state.[10]

[9] Jones, (2013), p. 31

[10] Jones, (2013), p. 31-44

4.1 Basic challenges of Organizational Design
There are four principle design challenges which managers have to overcome simultaneously in order to achieve the company’s goals:

1.      Determining the levels of vertical and horizontal differentiation to control the activities Vertical differentiation is the way how an organization designs its hierarchy of authority and create responding relationships to link organizational roles and subunits (= functions and divisions) Moreover, horizontal differentiation is the way an organization cluster organizational tasks into subunits.

2.      Achieving the right balance between differentiation and integration

Due to horizontal differentiation, people have the opportunity to specialize in their respective filed of work and become more productive. But if people are only focusing on their specific issues and are therefore not enough integrated, this might result in communication limits and barriers between employees of other departments and makes the share of knowledge much more difficult.

3.      Achieving the right balance between centralization and decentralization of authority

A company is needed to be flexible and fast in the decision-making process to face global challenges and react and communicate in an appropriate time. This is only possible if people feel willing to take over responsibility and the risk of dealing with it. Centralized hierarchy means that the authority of making important decisions is retained only by the top management whereas decentralized authority means that decisions regarding project targets, times and resources can also be made by managers at middle and lower levels.

4.      Achieving the right balance between standardization and adjustment

Standardization is following a well-established set of rules that is considered properly to solve a problem. This approach makes employees’ actions predictable and routine. Mutual adjustment is the process in which people apply their current best judgement based in knowledge and experience for solving a problem and making a decision. A mix out of both procedures fits best in order to be innovative but stay structured as well. [11]

[11] Jones, (2013), p. 114-131

4.2 The 4 key components of organizational design
In order to face the mentioned design challenges, managers have to decide on the following  four key components to design an appropriate organizational structure:

1.      Division of labour

Division of labour is defined as the process of establishing and controlling the degree of specialization in the company. In general, an entire job is not done by only one employee. Thus, it has to be broken down into separate tasks and the management has to differentiate the organizational tasks and allocate the right employees to the right tasks. In order to achieve advantage of specialization, it is important that the tasks suits the personal specification, skills and competences of the assigned employee. Furthermore, the natural sequence of work has to be taken into account to create efficient and effective processes.[12]

2.      Delegation of authority

As a first step, the responsible management team has to define how much authority should be centralized at the top of the organizational hierarchy and how much authority can be delegated to middle and lower levels (decentralized authority). In other words, they have to decide between shaping a flat organization, which means that the organization consists of few levels of hierarchy or a tall organization, which means that the organization is divided into many hierarchy levels. For each level of hierarchy, at least one manager is used to supervise, monitor and motivate the respective employees on this level. If a company grows, their vertical differentiation increases. This means that the number of hierarchy levels increases and thereby the number of managers in order to handle control and coordination of the workforce. Moreover, the horizontal differentiation has to be defined because there are different hierarchy levels among the subunits (division, functions or departments) inside an organization. When the hierarchy becomes taller and the number of employees and managers increases, communication and coordination gets more complex as well as more complicated. Therefore, managers spend much more time on coordinating and monitoring their staff, instead of planning and defining of targets. In this situation, a more decentralized authority is one possible solution to spread and lower the management effort. Another possibility to face organizational growth, is the set-up of standardized activities and processes as well as socialising employees into organizational norms and values by defining an organizational culture. Of course, innovation and adjustment is to some extend highly appreciated and necessary for the development and the competitive advantage of the company. In fact, there is a relationship between the organizational size and the number of hierarchy levels. The ideal number of hierarchy levels is called the minimum chain of command. In accordance to this principle, “an organization should choose the minimum number of hierarchy levels consistent with its goals and the environmental in which it operates.”[13] In addition to the appropriate number of managers, the management has to be aware that not every individual, even in a management position, is competent and motivated to decide on different topics. Delegating authority means the distribution of power among the existing levels within the company. Relatively high delegation of authority can contribute to the development of managers and encourages them to act more autonomy to solve occurring problems. To avoid a competitive climate within the company, managers should be trained in decision making that goes with delegated authority. [14]

3.     Span of control

The increasing complexity due to different subsidiaries in various countries, employees from different nations and different hierarchy levels require efficient communication and processes that has to be controlled. The span of control stands for the number of employees a manager directly manages. The more subordinates the manager has, the more relationships he has to manage. Thus, the span of control increases. But the span of control does not always increases proportionally with an increasing number of employees. How wide or small the span of control should be determined, depends also on the complexity as well as on the interrelatedness of the employees’ activities. [15]

4.     Departmentalization

Departmentalization is the process of defining and dividing departments within an organization in accordance to shared characteristics and knowledge to take benefit. The following types of departmentalization are presented shortly: functional, product, geographic, process, customer and matrix structure.

a)     Functional structure:

The continuation of specialization and horizontal differentiation results in a functional organizational structure, a design which cluster people into separate functions or departments. Usually, people of the same knowledge and skills form a department because they can take benefit from shared knowledge and efficient processes. The name and purpose of each function depends on the overall goal of the company.

b)     Productstructure:

A product organizational structure is characterized by grouping products, goods or services into divisions in accordance to their similarities or differences.

c)     Geographic structure:

A geographical organizational structure is applied, when divisions are organized in accordance to the requirements of the different locations or regions in which an organization operates in.

d)    Process structure:

If organizational departments are divided with reference to the existing processes which the organization executes, this company has a process oriented organizational structure.

e)     Customer  structure:

If the departments of a company are divided in accordance to specific customer groups, this company has a customer oriented organizational structure.

f)       Matrix structure:

When people working in a company, that has a matrix structure, they are grouped by function and by project or product structure simultaneously. This structure is organized as a rectangular grid which presents a vertical flow of functional responsibility and a horizontal flow of project or product responsibility. [16]

''[12] Jones, (2013), p. 114-115''

[13] Jones, 2013, p. 149

[14] Jones, 2013, p. 143-150

[15] Jones, 2013, p. 150-152

[16] Jones, 2013, p. 170-196

5 Benefits and challenges within a multinational organization and how they arise
To be able to gain long-term success in a multinational organization, managers must be aware of the importance of the culture in different business contexts. Cross-cultural management issues arise in a range of business contexts. Within individual firms, for example, managers from a foreign parent company need to understand that local employees from the host country may require different organization structures and Human Resource Management procedures. Especially in cross-border mergers, joint ventures or alliances realizing the expected synergies, very often depends on establishing structures and procedures that encompass both cultures in a balanced way. Companies also tend to have different organizational and decision-making practices depending on where they have evolved and which cultures and subcultures they encompass. To build successful alliances and partnerships to succeed at a company-to-company as well as within multinational companies, an understanding of the organizational and internal differences between them is required. Across the entire business context, ignorance of cultural differences represents a common stumbling block for international managers. Ethnocentrism, the belief that one’s own way of doing things is superior to that of all others, can also be a major barrier to good and international management. The challenge lies in recognizing differences, combining the advantages that stem from different styles and approaches, adjusting and adapting to succeed with different people, in different partnerships and in different markets. [17]

To make it easier to understand different cultures, rituals, or behaviour literature gives several models and frameworks. One of these models are the five dimensions of national culture by Geert Hofstede''. ''It basically explains key cultural characteristics of countries according to five value dimensions. MNEs face the challenge to deal with these cultural differences. It gets even more challenging, as there are not only cultural differences among regions and countries. Moreover, working behaviour in an organization differs as well.

Therefore, Hofestede defines eight dimensions which have to be especially considered within organizations[18]:

1.     Means oriented vs. goal-oriented

Very means-orientated people try to avoid risks, probably they will not bring full effort into their jobs and their tasks are very similar each day, whereas goal-orientated employees try to reach internal goals and fulfil their tasks as good as possible even if these causes substantial risks.

2.     Internally driven vs. externally driven

In an internally driven culture, the business ethics and honesty matters the most. These kinds of employees take the outside world as given. For very external driven employees, the only important goal is to meet customer needs. For them, results are more important than ethical attitude.

3.     Easy-going work discipline vs. strict work discipline

This dimension refers to the structure within an organisation. Very easy-going culture means a loss of internal structure and a lot improvisation and surprises, whereas a very strict working discipline reveals the inverse. Employees are very cost-conscious, punctual and serious.

4.     Local vs. professional

In a local culture people are very short-term directed. They identify themselves strongly with their boss and with the department they work for, whereas it is the other way round in a professional culture.

5.     Open system vs. closed system

Newcomers are immediately made very welcome and everybody is open no matter if insider or outsider in an open system. On the contrary, the reverse is valid for the closed system.

6.     Employee-oriented vs. work-oriented

Employee oriented means that personal problems are taken into account, too. The main focus of the organisation is the welfare of its employees. Work oriented culture is very much focusing on a high performance regardless personal issues of their workers.

7.     Degree of acceptance of leadership style

“This dimension tells us to which degree the leadership style of respondents’ direct boss is being in line with respondents’ preferences. The fact that people, depending on the project they are working for, may have different bosses doesn’t play a role at the level of culture. Culture measures central tendencies (Hofstede, online).”

8.      Degree of identification with your organization

This dimension shows to which degree employees identify themselves with their organization. It is possible that employees identify with internal goals of the company, with their clients and with their direct boss at the same time. It is also possible that employees do not fully agree to one or more parts within the organization.

[17] Rugman, Collinson, 2012, p. 134-137

[18] Hofstede 

5.1 Benefits of multinational organizations:'[19]'
One of the most important benefits organizations can gain from being multinational, is the size of its operations, enabling companies to reduce costs by benefiting from economies of scale. Normally, multinationals also establish their manufacturing activities in areas where wages and other costs are very low.

Furthermore, vertical integration through incorporating suppliers and/or distributors gives opportunities for cost cutting and gives greater scope for Supply Chain Management and ensures that all industrial processes can be done in the most efficient manner. There will be also greater scope for managing the exposure to risk and liabilities to customs duties and direct taxation.

Moreover, specialist resources can be devoted to the development of intangible assets within the organization.

Las but not least, problem solving within the organization can be a big benefit as multinational teams are working together and have different approaches of how to manage certain problems. Especially due to different cultural backgrounds, multiple points of view and increased availability of knowledge and skills, problem solving or creating new ideas can be a very creative process which can have a deep impact of gaining long term competitive advantages. In addition, these possibilities enable multinational teams to solve complex tasks.

Despite the major benefits multinational organizations can achieve, the backside of the medal must also be considered.

5.2 Challenges of multinational organizations:'[20]'
One of the major challenges multinational companies have to face, are language barriers. In particular, a lack of accuracy created difficulties in both written and spoken language; require team members or workers to invest more time in encoding and decoding messages. Also the inability to maintain social structure in a foreign language can lead to frustration and misunderstandings.

Another significant hurdle is the ability to efficiently and effectively incorporate new regions within the value chain and corporate organizational structure. International expansion requires enormous capital investments in many cases, along with the development of a pecific strategic business unit in order to manage these accounts and operations. Finding a way to capture value despite this fixed organizational investment is an important initiative for global corporations.

Another factor is attaining effective leaders with the appropriate knowledge base to approach a given geographic market. There are differences in strategies and approaches in every geographic location worldwide, and attracting talented managers with high intercultural competence is a critical step in developing an efficient global strategy.

Although, the problem solving and creativity process while working in multinational teams has many benefits there are also some challenges which must be considered. The different cultures rituals and habits can lead to misunderstanding, endless discussions and delays. As a worst case scenario it is not possible to solve tasks as there could be too many different views. [21]

5.3 Practical example of how cultural differences and unwillingness to adapt can have an impact on the success of a multinational organizations' [22]'
Wal-Mart which is the dominating retailer in the US expanded its business to Germany in the late 1990s. Managers of Wal-Mart at this time believed that it was possible to apply its successful business model exactly to the German market. One of Wal-Mart’s first problems was the language barrier, as managers were unwilling to learn German. Other problems Wal-Mart had to deal with were their relatively low pay, practice to transfer store manager after one or two years and their low quality standards among their merchandise in the stores and the company’s internal regulations for example for business trips. In addition, Wal-Mart is a strictly non-union employer in the US. This was another major difference to the German retail market. Moreover, Wal-Mart refused to formally acknowledge the outcome of the sector-specific centralized wage-bargaining process - which is a German standard to define wages. Also, Wal-Mart’s successful US strategy of “everyday low price” did not work out because managers did not consider the strong German completion of the hard discounters. Therefore, Aldi, Lidl and even Rewe and Edeka which are no discounter where able to meet almost all “low” prices of Wal-Mart. Another fact which Wal-Mart did not consider was that German customers were used to self-service formats in supermarkets. Wal-Marts proposition of “service” which meant additional service staff did have a negative effect on German customers as they felt annoyed by them.

In the end, Wal-Wart gave up its business in Germany after five years of extremely disappointing results.

[19]Hann, 2012, online

[20] Soni, 2012, online''

[21] Shachaf, 2007, p. 134''

[22] Knorr, Arndt, 2003,p. 18-24 online

6 See also
Global Organization Design Report

Structuring your organization to meet global aspirations

Perspectives on global organizations

The future of foreign direct investment and the multinational enterprise

World Investment Report UNCTAD (2005)

World Investment Report UNCTAD (2009)

7 References
1)      Mintzberg, Henry, (1979): The structuring of organizations, Prentince-Hall, Inc. Upper saddle river, United States: NJ

2)      Ames G. J. (2008): The Globe Encompassed: The Age of European Discovery 1500 -1700, Pearson Prentice Hall 2008, United States: NJ

3)     Hashai N., Ramamurti R. (2011): The Evolution of Multinationals, in: Aharoni Y. and Ramamurti R. (eds.): The future of foreign direct investment and the multinational enterprise, Research in Global Strategic Management, Volume 15, Emerald Group Publishing Limited 2011, UK: Bingley

4)     Jones, Gareth R. (2013): Organizational Theory, Design and Change, 7th ed., Pearson Education Limited 2013, London

5)      Mihaylushkin, A., Shimko, P. (2005): The economics of multinational firms, Federal Education Agency, Moscow

6)      Vernon, R. (1996): International trade and international investment in the product cycle, Quarterly Journal of Economics 80 (2): 190-207

7)      Rugman, Alan M. Collinson S. (2012): International Business. 6th Edition. England

8)      World Investment Report UNCTAD (2005)

9)      World Investment Report UNCTAD (2009)

10)  http://www.iwim.uni-bremen.de/publikationen/pdf/w024.pdf (access on 20.10.2014)

11)  http://www.insidebusiness360.com/index.php/benefits-of-multinational-corporations-9784/ (access on 2014-10-20)

12)   Shachaf, P. (2007): Cultural diversity and information and communication technology impacts on global virtual teams: An exploratory study, Journal of Information and Management 45., Indiana

13)  http://www.preservearticles.com/2012010319694/what-are-the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-multinational-corporations.html (access on 2014-10-20)

14)  http://geert-hofstede.com/organisational-culture-dimensions.html  (access on 2014-11-01)

15)  http://www.lindsay-sherwin.co.uk/guide_managing_change/html_change_strategy/07_mintzberg.htm (access on 2014-12-09)☁