Holger Görg and Frauke Steglich Joined the UNIDO-UIBE Workshop on Global Value Chains

20th July 2017
KCG Secretary
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News
KCG Managing Director Prof. Holger Görg Ph.D. and KCG PhD Researcher Frauke Steglich joined the UNIDO-UIBE Workshop on global value chains (GVCs) on July 11-12, 2017 in Vienna. The Workshop organized by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the University of International Business and Economics of China (UIBE) aimed at bringing together experts in global value chain research to discuss the general strategy, incl. main objectives, research methods and key outcomes, of the project “A Study on Global Value Chains and International Cooperation on Industrial Capacity with a Focus on China, South-East and South Asian Countries”. The main goal of the project is to provide more insights into the role of global value chains for Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development (ISID), a key component of the Goal 9 of the Sustainable Development Goals, with a special focus on China and other Asian countries.[…]

Ludger Heidbrink Joined Discussion on Consumption at 3SAT

13th July 2017
KCG Secretary
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Prof. Dr. Ludger Heidbrink (Kiel University), KCG Senior Researcher and Co-Head of the KCG Project “Cross-cultural differences in the perception of corporate social responsibility and consumer social responsibility along global supply chains”, joined a TV discussion on consumption at 3SAT on June 29, 2017. At the discussion „I buy, therefore I am“ moderated by Gert Scobel, Heidbrink discussed with Prof. Frank Trentmann, Ph.D. (Birkbeck College, University of London) about the role of consumption in general and the meaning of responsible consumption in a globalized world in particular. The discussion is expected to encourage the audience to reflect on consumer ethics, the role of culture in economic globalization and potential solutions to the challenges related to the global consumer culture from different perspectives. […]

UNIDO/KCG Conference under the Auspices of T20 for Inclusive and Sustainable Development

6th July 2017
KCG Secretary
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The G20 Summit 2017 is going to be held on July 7-8, 2017 in Hamburg. When G20 was founded in 1999, it aimed at forming a platform for the governments of major economies in the world to discuss joint policies to deal with international financial stability challenges. Over time the G20 members have gradually broadened their goal from focusing on ensuring international financial stability and fostering economic growth to emphasising the key importance of having inclusive and sustainable development for all countries in the world. […]

South-South FDI: Is It Really Different?

4th July 2017
KCG Secretary
Authors: Robert Gold, Holger Görg, Aoife Hanley and Adnan Šerić (Review of World Economics, 2017, Vol. 153(4), 657-673)

We compare the performance of Northern and Southern multinationals in Sub-Saharan Africa, and contrast it with local firms in the host country. Employing unique firm level data for 19 Sub-Saharan African countries, we show that firms receiving FDI outperform domestic ones, while the origin of the foreign investor is of minor importance. We use four different definitions of “South” to compare Northern and Southern FDI. Overall, we do not find strong differences in terms of firm productivity growth between Northern and Southern FDI, irrespective of how the latter is defined. […]

UNIDO/KCG Conference on Inclusive and Sustainable Global Value Chains in September in Kiel

22nd June 2017
KCG Secretary
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News
The Kiel Centre for Globalization (KCG) and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) will jointly organize a conference “Developing Inclusive and Sustainable Global Value Chains in the Digital Age” in September in Kiel, Germany. The Conference will be organized under the auspices of the T20 network – particularly the T20 Task Force on “Trade and Investment”. It builds on the Vienna Investment Conference: Quality FDI, Growth and Development which was jointly organized by UNIDO and the Kiel Institute for the World Economy and held in Vienna last year. […]

Holger Görg: G20 May Support Developing Countries to Set up Functioning Investment Promotion Agencies

15th June 2017
KCG Secretary
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In a new “Süddeutsche” article, Holger Görg suggests that G20 may help developing countries set up functioning investment promotion agencies, in order to attract not just FDI but Quality FDI to foster economic development in these countries. Empirical studies show clearly that being integrated into global supply chains as parts of multinational enterprises (MNEs) or their suppliers is advantageous for developing countries. Local firms involved have a higher level of productivity and are more capable of paying higher wages compared to other local firms without global engagement[…]

Nils Christian Hoffmann Visited PhD Seminar on Cross-Cultural Research Methodology in Finland

8th June 2017
KCG Secretary
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News
With intensifying globalization over the past decades, there is an increasing interest in cross-cultural, cross-national and cross-disciplinary management research. Methods and methodology for such comparative studies require special knowledge and analytical skills. Researchers involved need to be familiar with these research methods and even need to be able to create novel methods and techniques on their own to carry out valid, reliable, and trustworthy cross-cultural research analyses. The empirical design is expected to be even more complicated, when transitional and developing economies are included for analysis[…]

Holger Görg Gave an Interview on Global Supply Chains and Developing Countries

1st June 2017
KCG Secretary
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When Labour Ministers of G20 countries met two weeks ago in Germany, they reached a consensus on the critical importance of jointly coping with labour market challenges, such as poor working conditions and unfair wage in particularly emerging and developing countries.

More and more emerging and developing countries as well as their economic agents have been increasingly integrated into the global supply chains through new and/or expanding investments of multinational enterprises (MNEs) from the developed countries. Many argue that these MNEs have invested in emerging and developing countries mainly to seek cost advantages supported by low-wage labour, low-cost resources and less strict environmental and labour market regulations on site.[…]

New KCG Study on South-South FDI in Africa

26th May 2017
KCG Secretary
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Publications
Foreign direct investment (FDI) was traditionally dominated by firms from developed countries. These countries were also popular FDI destination countries for a long while. Over the past decade, however, more and more developing economies became increasingly intensively integrated in the FDI engagement worldwide – as sourcing as well as destination countries. Driven by the expectation that determinants and effects of FDI from developing economies to developing countries (South-South FDI) may differ from those of traditional FDI both within developed countries (North-North FDI) and from developed countries to developing countries (North-South FDI), there has been an increasing amount of Studies on South-South FDI over time. One of the main research regions for such a specific form of FDI is East/South-East Asia. In contrast, empirical analyses on South-South FDI in Africa are very limited. This may be partially attributable to the lack of reliable representative datasets for the analysis.[…]

KCG Working Paper No. 3: South-South FDI: Is It Really Different?

26th May 2017
KCG Secretary
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Authors: Robert Gold, Holger Görg, Aoife Hanley and Adnan Seric

We compare the performance of Northern and Southern multinationals in Sub-Saharan Africa, and contrast it with local firms in the host country. Employing unique firm level data for 19 Sub-Saharan African countries, we show that firms receiving FDI outperform domestic ones, while the origin of the foreign investor is of minor importance. We use four different definitions of “South” to compare Northern and Southern FDI. Overall, we do not find strong differences in terms of firm productivity growth between Northern and Southern FDI, irrespective of how the latter is defined. We also find that employment growth is generally higher for firms receiving FDI from other African investors as compared to Northern FDI, and they also receive more technology transfer from their parent company abroad.