This paper investigates commonalities and differences in firm level determinants of internationalization of production (production related investments or PFDI) and innovation (technology driven investments or TFDI) by Multinational Enterprises (MNEs). Our database is based on a cross country survey which includes firms within Automotive, Agro-processing and ICT sectors from both developing and advanced economies. Our results show that despite some differences, most of the determinants affect in a similar manner both the PFDI and TFDI which rather contradicts recent arguments claiming significant differences between the two. More interestingly however, we found that institutional determinants such as policies related to foreign direct investments play almost no role in internationalization process of firms while managerial (internal to the firm) determinants had a far greater impact.
This paper reports on the effectiveness of a language teaching approach called the Somatically-Enhanced Approach (SEA, Zhang, 2006) in the teaching of the Thai language for a group of Vietnamese learners in Vietnam. Teaching innovations include: the use of relaxation techniques to relax students; the use of humming, clapping and physical gestures to emphasise the rhythm of the Thai language; the use of a Speech comparison tool (Sptool) for self-study; and the provision of all learning materials on CDs. An experimental study involving the teaching of Thai to Vietnamese students in Vietnam was carried out using SEA. The results of this study are encouraging. After twelve face-to-face contact hours, ten Vietnamese students who undertook a course in SEA spoke Thai, in the limited contexts covered in the course, as fluently as fourteen of their fellow students who had been studying Thai for more than one year using the traditional approach. In this paper, the results of the study, both quantitative and qualitative, will be reported. An evaluation of the Speech comparison tool will also be included.
