Etla » internationalisation

The Characterics of Finpro’s Clients

Mika Pajarinen — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 11:00:00 +0000

Finpro is an expert service organization, partly financed from public funds, providing services for internationalization market information, consulting and advice, business development, and other related services. It is one of the largest organizations in the Finnish innovation and business support system. Finpro regards its mission to include increasingly a role of an information intermediary, providing information on global megatrends, new business models, and early signals of business opportunities. The company clientele is close to 5000 Finnish businesses. This report studies the Finpros client firms, their characteristics and profile against the organizations mission and stated objectives. It turns out that firms using Finpros services are typically highly internationalized, innovative and knowledge-based. They use, more likely than Finnish firms on average, other publicly supported business services and receive funding from public funding organizations.

JEL: H81, L53, O25
Publication year: 2010
Pages: 35
Price: 10€
Language: Finnish
Discussion Papers no. 1213

Who Is Afraid of Globalisation? Finns´ Hopes & Fears and Realized Impacts

admin — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 11:00:00 +0000

According to EVAŽs annual attitude and value survey, two out of three Finns believe that globalization means loosing increasing amounts of jobs to low-cost-countries. However, 70 percent of the respondents think that their job is not easily transferrable and only 8 % are afraid that their own job is going to be offshored. As both national and international research indicates that the employment effects of globalization are rather modest, who is afraid of globalization and why? In this analysis it is found that highly educated, service sector, and male employees are the least afraid of globalization. Additionally, it is noticed that attitudes are more important than actual labour market experiences, when it comes to the expectations and perceptions of globalization.

JEL: F02, Z10
Publication year: 2008
Pages: 16
Price: 10€
Language: Finnish
Discussion Papers no. 1167

Domestic R&D Employment Effects of Offshoring R&D Tasks: Some Empirical Evidence from Finland

admin — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 11:00:00 +0000

This study empirically explores whether R&D offshoring affects the domestic R&D employment at the firm level. Overall, the Finnish survey data suggest that the impact of R&D internationalization on domestic R&D employment depends on the mode of internationalization (in-house offshoring vs. offshore outsourcing vs. in-house expansion of R&D abroad). Moreover, manufacturing and service firms are found to be different when it comes to R&D internationalization and its domestic employment effects. In the manufacturing sector, especially in-house offshoring of R&D has a significant negative impact on the plan to increase R&D employment. But the relationship between the in-house expansion of R&D abroad and domestic R&D employment turns out to be complementary. In the service sector, it is in the first place offshore outsourcing of R&D that has a significant negative impact on the plan to increase R&D employment. A final result supports the view that R&D does not always follow production but that a strong location link between production and R&D does have a significant negative effect on the domestic R&D employment.

JEL: J6, J3
Publication year: 2008
Pages: 31
Price: 10€
Language: English
Discussion Papers no. 1163

The Home Country Employment Effects of Internationalisation – A Literature Review

admin — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 11:00:00 +0000

This report reviews some of the most recent literature examining the home country employment effects of internationalisation. A brief overview of the history of the internationalisation of Finnish firms is also presented. The general conclusion from the literature is that the absolute employment effects are modest, although there are likely to be notable effects on the structure of labour demand. However, the form of internationalisation, the level of aggregation of the data, and differences in labour market institutions all have an influence on the results. Most of the studies looking at the employment effects of outward foreign direct investment on the home country seem to indicate positive rather than substitution effects. On the other hand, when looking at the effects of offshore outsourcing, the results are ambiguous.

JEL: F16, F14, F23, J23, J63
Publication year: 2008
Pages: 25
Price: 10€
Language: Finnish
Discussion Papers no. 1154

Finnish Firms Operating in the Czech, Slovak, Hungarian and Slovenian Markets

admin — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 11:00:00 +0000

We analyse the experience of Finnish firms operating in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia (CEE4 countries) and their future business prospects there. First, we review the state and development of these countries economies. The countries face different economic challenges. After that we analyse the results from our firm survey. The questionnaire was sent to Finnish firms that operate in the CEE4 countries. According to the results, growing local markets and the countries EU membership are the principal factors that support business there. The firms that answered the questionnaire plan to continue to expand their operations in the CEE4 countries. We also interviewed a number of Finnish business leaders whose companies have production in Hungary. Finally, the paper includes an analysis by a Hungarian researcher on the outlook of the Hungarian economy and the investment and business environment in the country. The economic size of the CEE4 countries and their growth potential form a possibility for Finnish firms. In the future, competition in the local markets will continue to increase, however.

Publication year: 2006
Pages: 90
Price: 10€
Language: Finnish
Discussion Papers no. 1061