Purpose Multinational companies (MNCs) expect the highest return from their locally dispersed units, and thus the factors that impact the success of the subsidiaries have been of great interest to the literature. Building on the resource-based view, this paper aims to explore the effects of a set of contextual resources, in particular, the international staffing (expatriate and inpatriate assignments) and human capital resources on the performance of foreign-owned subsidiaries in Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. Design/methodology/approach By means of a survey applied on 295 MNC subsidiaries from five CEE countries (Hungary, Romania, Poland, Serbia and the Czech Republic), the paper reveals the main relationships between contextual subsidiary level resources (the in-coming and out-going international assignments, human capital resources at both employee and management level and the human resource knowledge transfer) and the subsidiary performance. Findings This paper brings empirical support for the positive relationship between the MNCs’ contextual resources, in particular, the inpatriate assignments, the human capital resources and the performance of the locally dispersed subsidiaries. The findings show an interaction effect between the inpatriate and the expatriate assignments on the performance of the subsidiaries. The empirical results bring an insight into the understanding of the added value that the out-going inpatriate assignments and the human capital resources have for the global businesses. Research limitations/implications This paper is empirical in nature and calls for further exploration of the topic on larger random MNC samples. The findings of this paper have the potential to improve how the management of the global businesses leverages the inpatriate assignments and human capital resources, thus leading to more value-added to stakeholders. Originality/value The originality of the paper stems from the implementation of the empirical survey in the dynamic but under-researched context of the CEE region. Thus, the findings reveal valuable input about the contribution of the human capital resources at the subsidiary level for the performance of the locally dispersed MNC units in five European developing countries.
As a result of the stakeholders' growing pressure and global environmental challenges, many corporations across the world have to integrate environmental issues into their strategic decision-making system and operations function. The objective of this paper is to identify to what extent the activities regarding the environmental issues are successfully integrated into general and functional strategies of a multinational company from production field. We have analyzed these aspects using the model proposed by Paul de Baker and data were collected by applying questionnaires. The results show that the highest score was obtained in the case of production strategy, while integration of environmental issues into human resource strategy is the biggest challenge that an organization has to face. The value of global diagnosis points out an average concern for integrating the environmental aspects in the overall company strategy, fact that is also confirmed by the scores obtained for each dimension and per total.
Confronted with more complex and numerous environmental issues many companies realized that environmental initiatives can be more effectively managed through an EMS which provide a systematic and coherent approach of their activities. In the present paper we describe the two most recognized and widely applied systems for environmental management -EMAS (Eco-Management and Audit Scheme) and ISO 14001 certifications. Once viewed as an external cost, environmental responsibility is fast becoming a competitive advantage for companies and for the whole economy of a country. Our paper adds new perspective to the literature framework, by showing that even if the differences between ISO 14001 and EMAS still exist they are not competitors, moreover ISO 14001 requirements are integrated into EMAS scheme, become compatible to each other. To achieve the objective of this paper we make an analysis regarding the number of Romanian organizations that have a certified environmental management system, in compliance with the two main international references. The results show that in our countries the number of organizations with an EMS certified by ISO 14001 is much higher than the number of organizations registered under EMAS. This represents an opportunity, given that once with the adoption of EMAS II, ISO 14001 is a step stone towards EMAS certification and companies can integrate both standards in their management system, achieving more benefits on the European markets. Another opportunity to increase the number of EMAS registration are economic and financial incentives offered to small and medium sized companies.
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