Johan Paul Lindeque

The Diminishing Returns to Trade Policy in the European Union

The notion that the EU is a trade power is central to studies of the Unions international presence. Credible threats to withhold access to Europes markets are said to provide the Union with leverage in respect of other trade partners. This article queries the continuing ability of the European Union to act effectively this way. The current Doha malaise is a symptom of deeper changes in the international trade system. As emerging markets become more affluent and participate in foreign direct investment, their interest in market access per se become less important relative to other areas of regulation.

Regionalization Strategies of European Union Electric Utilities

As part of the debate about globalization and regionalization, this paper adds a perspective that has so far remained underexposed, that of (formerly state‐owned) firms in (previously) regulated industries, in order to better understand the (changing) role of the home country/region in internationalization processes in the context of regional market liberalization. We explore the global/regional orientations of the seven major European Union electric utilities from five different home countries, which are active in both fossil‐fuel and renewable energy generation. Using a multiple case study design, we collected internationalization/regionalization data from firms annual reports for the years 2000, 2005 and 2010, supplemented with an analysis of secondary sources. Firms show a clear pattern of increasing internationalization away from the home‐country market, coupled with a home‐region orientation for traditional generation activities which differs from the more international, wider and often multiple regional presences in the newer renewables business for some firms. Institutional factors are argued to play an important role in both processes. Findings suggest distinct regionalization patterns for business units and different firm‐specific advantages, with strategic opportunities related to asset positions. Home‐country effects may be linked to a heterogeneous firm‐specific home‐region liability of foreignness, resulting in incomplete home‐region internationalization in most cases.

Learning and lobbying: Emerging market firms and corporate political activity in Europe

How do firms acquire the capabilities necessary to operate in the non-market environment? Though the field of non-market strategy has grown in prominence in the strategic management literature in recent years, most of the studies concern the political capabilities of developed country multinationals. This paper is an effort to explore the basis of the acquisition of corporate political capabilities by emerging market firms. It does so by adapting the concept to liability of foreignness and applying it to a non-market context. The non-market environment of the European Union is used here as the context.

Multilateralism and the Multinational Enterprise

How do multilateral institutions influence the strategic choices and actions of international managers? This paper addresses the question by exploring the impact of the World Trade Organizations (WTO) decision-making process on multinational enterprises (MNEs). We discuss the three phases of the WTO decision-making lifecycle - the formulation of trade rules, the implementation of those rules, and the enforcement of the rules and propose a strategic adjustment framework for understanding how companies alter their strategies and structures in response to the WTOs rules and operations. We argue that the increased relevance of multilateral rules and enforcement mechanisms embodied in the WTO - is an important influence on MNE strategies and structures because of the increasing embeddedness of the WTO in national levels of regulation. We illustrate this through examples taken from the pharmaceutical, textiles and sugar industries sectors that have witnessed substantial multilateral regulation.

Emerging energy geographies: Scaling and spatial divergence in EUropean electricity generation capacity:

This paper presents an evaluation of the impact of the related EU internal energy market and renewable energy policies by exploring the (sustainable) energy transition in the EUropean electricity sector and drawing on the emerging literatures on energy geographies. We use evidence aggregated from plant-level data on installed electricity generation capacity in the EUropean electric utilities sector over the period 1990–2013 to demonstrate how the unintended interaction between EU policies on energy market liberalization and climate change have led to new renewable energy entrants and more widely dispersed ownership of total generation capacity. Our empirical results suggest that six energy geography concepts enable deeper insights into the spatiality of the EUropean energy transition. Specifically, we find that territoriality and scaling are key lenses for interpreting the differentiated change processes occurring at EUropean, subregional and national levels. The EUropean energy transition is unlikely to converge onto a single trajectory any time soon, but particularly subregional approaches are argued to offer policy-makers with more spatially cognizant and effective levers.

Proximity and multinational enterprise co-location in clusters: a multiple case study of Dutch science parks

Abstract This paper explores the role of proximity in strategic asset-seeking multinational enterprises’ (MNE) co-location in subnational knowledge/innovation intensive clusters. MNE co-location in three Dutch science parks is examined in terms of the perceived importance of geographic, cognitive, social, organisational and institutional proximity dimensions. While all five proximity dimensions are found to play a role, organisational proximity emerged as the most important factor influencing MNE co-location in the Dutch science parks. This paper argues, in contrast to expectations for a high degree of relatedness and reinforcing effects between the five proximities, that an ‘optimal’ proximity constellation of low organisational proximity together with high social and cognitive proximity fosters MNE co-location in knowledge intensive clusters, such as science parks.

MNEs’ Multiple Embeddedness and their Responses to Deinstitutionalization after a Disruptive Event

This paper examines the challenge posed by the MNE to institutional theory by exploring how multinational institutional embeddedness affects MNEs’ responses to deinstitutionalization after a disrup...