Abed El-azez Safi

" This individual paper aims to provide an overview about Hofstede's work of describing the five culture dimensions and discusses both sides of these arguments. Hofstede's work on culture is the most widely cited in existence (Bond 2002;... more

ABSTRACT Currently, Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) are considered to be one of the most attractive tools of international business for large investments in foreign countries. International business is transforming the world in a way that has not been possible in previous years. On the other hand, FDI is growing faster than international production within the framework of international trade. This makes it possible for FDI to become a major instrument of spreading wealth. Global FDI flows rose to $1.24 trillion in 2010, but were still 15% below their pre-crisis average. This is in contrast to global industrial output and trade, which were back to pre-crisis levels. The UNCTAD estimates that global FDI will regain its pre-crisis level in 2011, increasing $1.4-1.6 trillion, and approaching its 2007 peak in 2013. This positive scenario holds, barring any unexpected global economic shocks that may arise from a number of risk factors still in play. Concerning the Arab world for the last two decades the FDI has been grown very fast regarding to the new policy. The political instability discourages investors to pay attention to risky spot. Arab world FDI and stocks is concentrated in few countries and sectors, for instance about 80% of the FDI in 2010 is concentrated in six countries: Saudi Arabia 42%, Egypt 10%, Qatar 8%, Lebanon 7%, United Arab Emirates 6% and Libyan Arab Jamahiriya 6%. The business environment and the economic performance of the Arab World still improving and the new policy and regulation that have been implemented in the Arab countries increased the attractiveness level of the FDI toward Arab countries. Despite the low rank of WGI in Arab World and the correlation of investment in some of the six indicators between countries in the Arab world especially in the highest receiver of FDI flows and in particular the GCC region the Business Doing reported great rank in regards to the proper business atmosphere for foreign investors. The six of the Arab countries Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Tunisia and Oman have climbed the scale on the ease of doing business ranked among the top 50 out of 183 countries, while Algeria, Comoros Mauritania, Iraq and Djibouti ranked very low on the same scale. The new policy and modification, which has been confirmed from World Bank by the Doing Business reports about the business environment of Arab World, show that their domestic laws in these countries pay attention to foreign companies to increase the investment in Arab world.

Currently, Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) are considered to be one of the most attractive tools of international business for large investments in foreign countries. International business is transforming the world in a way that has not been possible in previous years. On the other hand, FDI is growing faster than international production within the framework of international trade. This makes it possible for FDI to become a major instrument of spreading wealth. Global FDI flows rose to $1.24 trillion in 2010, but were still 15% below their pre-crisis average. This is in contrast to global industrial output and trade, which were back to pre-crisis levels. The UNCTAD estimates that global FDI will regain its pre-crisis level in 2011, increasing $1.4–1.6 trillion, and approaching its 2007 peak in 2013. This positive scenario holds, barring any unexpected global economic shocks that may arise from a number of risk factors still in play. Concerning the Arab world for the last two decades the FDI has been grown very fast regarding to the new policy. The political instability discourages investors to pay attention to risky spot. Arab world FDI and stocks is concentrated in few countries and sectors, for instance about 80% of the FDI in 2010 is concentrated in six countries: Saudi Arabia 42%, Egypt 10%, Qatar 8%, Lebanon 7%, United Arab Emirates 6% and Libyan Arab Jamahiriya 6%. The business environment and the economic performance of the Arab World still improving and the new policy and regulation that have been implemented in the Arab countries increased the attractiveness level of the FDI toward Arab countries. Despite the low rank of WGI in Arab World and the correlation of investment in some of the six indicators between countries in the Arab world especially in the highest receiver of FDI flows and in particular the GCC region the Business Doing reported great rank in regards to the proper business atmosphere for foreign investors. The six of the Arab countries Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Tunisia and Oman have climbed the scale on the ease of doing business ranked among the top 50 out of 183 countries, while Algeria, Comoros Mauritania, Iraq and Djibouti ranked very low on the same scale. The new policy and modification, which has been confirmed from World Bank by the Doing Business reports about the business environment of Arab World, show that their domestic laws in these countries pay attention to foreign companies to increase the investment in Arab world.

During the last decade travel and tourism has assisted the Emirates Group in spreading its wings into every aspect of travel, tourism and business to become the fastest growing corporation in its field.
Emirates airlines and Middle East aviation system will face strong challenges with global aviation during the coming years. In the mean while, “the overall growth aspiration of the region demands a high-performing aviation system—including airlines, airports, and air traffic control (ATC)—that in 20 years must successfully serve more than four times the passengers it serves today. However, international benchmarks illustrate that even today’s aviation system does not fulfill current demand. In many Middle East countries, aviation systems’ quality and efficiency levels are well below international levels (e.g., compared to Europe and Asia). Heavy regulation also has resulted in limited service in terms of route frequency and destinations, high customer prices, and a need for high government subsidies to maintain the system.”1
Middle East aviation markets especially United Arab Emirates have set the level for reforming their aviation systems and have started encouraging trading and deregulation of airlines rules. In addition, the Middle airline sector plays a smart role in developing a world-class, such as Qatar Airways (which has a five-star Skytrax ranking) and Emirates Group (which has above-average profitability).
“Aviation and transport infrastructure is the fundamental catalyst for the creation of global cities. The UAE’s open skies policy is the cornerstone upon which Dubai built its dynamic air transport hub, which in turn supports the growth of other industry sectors. The growth of Emirates embodies the spirit of competition and free enterprise, which will continue to guide their policies for the benefit of the UAE and of the global community in which they operate.”2
Finally, analyzing Emirates airline challenges through SWOT analysis and comparing it with Lufthansa Group a prove of being very active with Cargo and shipment services and passenger cater through developing there technology and advertise there 40 brands and looking to the needs of the customers. It was very obvious of the strengthen of innovation and creativity of Emirates is much stronger then the weakness and keep in going to hire new employees and buying new plans even during Dubai crisis. After compering Emirates with Lufthansa Group the largest airlines in terms of passenger and second largest airline of fleet aircraft. We will prove that Emirates is the most innovative and the fastest airlines growing in the world since they are 25 years old and Lufthansa 86 years old.

Moving from pegged exchange rates to greater exchange rate flexibility1, there is a problem need to be solved that there are powerful incentives for greater flexibility deriving from changes in the international economic and financial environment but that policymakers find it difficult to engineer “a smooth transition”. They offer practical suggestions and a framework under which the probability of a smooth transition can be maximized and drawing examples from recent economic history. This is an attempt to understand the experience of selected countries which have undertaken this transition. The pressures for greater exchange rate flexibility coming from trading and borrow of different currencies therefore we can understand the fear of shifting to greater exchange rate flexibility. As the recent experience of the Asian economies has underscored, pegging to a particular currency is not preferable for countries that trade and borrow from a variety of different partners.

This individual paper aims to provide the different definitions which used for subsidies. It also addresses the main economic effects and briefly reviews of the use of subsidies in the empirical evidence of positive and negative effects of subsidies on welfare in a few specific cases.

This paper investigates the competition for FDI and the role of exchange rates analyses to what extent they may have altered the relative competitiveness of the recipient countries for FDI from the same source country. The importance of exchange rates in determining FDI has been emphasized in the literature. The theoretical literatures show explicitly that relative FDI inflows are a function of relative real exchange rates. In particular, if one host country devalues its currency against that of the source country more than the other does, FDI into the former country will be expected to increase relative to the other country. The empirical inference is examined with Japanese FDI in manufacturing industries of China and ASEAN-41, and results generally support the theoretical conclusion, suggesting that the real devaluation of the Chinese Yuan undercut FDI into the ASEAN-4. It also tries to summarize the mechanisms of how exchange rate influences on MNCs engaging in foreign investment activities.

The case application is CISG which applies to contracts between sellers and buyers. The CISG used the provision key of Articles 4, 35 and cited to Article 36.
Usnior requested a meeting with Caterpillar to present new type of sales pitch steel called “Creusabro 8000” which was harder, stronger, welded, better and can stand the high heat. Based on these representations from Usinor, Caterpillar submitted proposals to its customers to manufacture dump trucks using the Creusabro steel. In later sales presentations, Leeco joined the Usinor. Caterpillar made some transactions to their customer in various locations in U.S. and negotiated with Usinor Industeel (Usinor), a French steel company, and its own Mexican subsidiary, Caterpillar, Mexico (hereafter CMSA) for the supply of steel to CMSA so that CMSA could use the steel in the manufacture of the truck bodies. Caterpillar also contracted for truck bodies manufactured with the Creusabro steel from an independent company called Western Technology Services International, Inc. (Westech) a compnay unrelated to Caterpillar.
Caterpillar subsequently delivered new trucks to its customers. There were no problems with the trucks delivered in the first shipment, but the bodies in several of the trucks delivered in subsequent shipments was cracked.
Accordingly, the case start to take place from defective steel supplied by Usnior to Caterpillar and truck bodies manufactured by Westech had the same defects as those manufactured by CMSA. In addition, the steel quality proved to be low quality and more difficult to use than CMSA had been led to believe it would be so CMSA incurred higher than expected costs in manufacturing the truck bodies.

This individual paper aims to provide an overview about Hofstede’s work of describing the five culture dimensions and discusses both sides of these arguments.
Hofstede’s work on culture is the most widely cited in existence (Bond 2002; Hofstede 1997). His observations and analysis provide scholars and practitioners with a highly valuable insight into the dynamics of cross-cultural relationships. However, such a groundbreaking body of work does not escape criticism. Hofstede has been dogged by academics discrediting his work in part or whole. On the other side of this contentious argument are academics that support his work. Far more scholars belong on the pro-Hofstede team than do not, most quote Hofstede’s work with unabashed confidence, many including his findings as absolute assumptions.
"Undoubtedly, the most significant cross-cultural study of work-related values is the one carried out by Hofstede” (Bhagat and McQuaid 1982).
Much interest has been placed on culture in business in the last two decades, and it has never been as important in business terms as it is today. The study of the field began in earnest with the work of Hofstede with his landmark study of IBM (Hofstede 1980), and with Peters and Waterman who started the organisation culture sensation with “In Search of Excellence” (Peters and Waterman 1982). Preceding these studies however, was the work of Bartels (1967) who was one of the first to relate the importance of culture, illustrating the concept in decision-making and business ethics. Bartels identifies several criteria for the identification of cultural differences.
The paper will first defined the culture meaning and then give an overview about Hofstede study and his culture dimensions. In the same time the paper will review the main criticisms of Hofstede study, then we will conclude by suggesting that the researchers will work more in research like Hofstede to evaluate culture in terms of contemporary standards. Research is also needed to better explore the dimensions proposed by Hofstede and Bond to determine what more can be added.