Jeffrey S. Arpan

Comparative Home Country Influences on Management Practices Abroad

International firms from different countries exhibit distinct geographic expansion and ownership preferences. The subsidiary operations in the United States also reflect differences by parent natio...

Foreign Direct Investments in the U.S., 1974–1978

The subject of foreign investments in U.S. remains of high interest from both an academic and real world prospective. Since the 1970s, the flow of foreign investments has accelerated, and particularly since 1975.In 1975, the authors of this paper complied a directory of foreign manufacturing firms in U.S.1 The directory was the result of pulling together the known data available on foreign investors in U.S. as of 1974. So much has happened since then, however, that the authors have completed a 1979 edition. This note compares the two directories in order to make several rather interesting observations as to recent trends of foreign direct investments in the U.S.

International differences in disclosure practices: Hazard for overseas investment

Abstract The interpretation of non-American financial reports is extremely hazardous for the uninitiated and difficult even for the experts. Different laws and accounting practices offer loopholes for appalling secretiveness. Managers may conceal asset and/or liability values, performance data, amounts of compensation, and even sales and operating expense. Failure to consolidate the operations of subsidiaries with parents is the one single procedure that makes most of these reports meaningless. Variations in theories and semantic differences further complicate the problem. The author suggests some analytical frameworks for analyzing and judging these reports.