“Resolving Conflicts in International Business: The Case of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes”

Yongsun Paik  

Loyola Marymount University

Short Bio: Yongsun Paik is a Professor of International Business and Management, Director of the Center for International Business Education (CIBE), and the Center for Asian Business at Loyola Marymount University (LMU) in Los Angeles, California. Before he joined LMU in 1991, he served as a country economist at the Export-Import Bank of Korea and as a researcher at the Ministry of Finance between 1979 and 1984. Yongsun has a Ph.D. in International Business from University of Washington, Seattle, and M.A. in Latin American Studies from University of Texas, Austin. He earned B.A. in Economics from Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea. 

His primary research interests focus on international human resource management, business ethics, and Asian Pacific business studies. He has coauthored Managing a Global Workforce: Challenges and Opportunities in International Human Resource Management (Routledge, 2006, 2011, 2015, 2024) and Global Business: Connecting Theory to Reality (Routledge, 2017), and coedited “Changing Face of Korean Management” (Routledge, 2009). His articles appear in such top journals as Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of World Business, Management International Review, Journal of International Management, International Journal of Human Resource Management, Academy of Management Perspectives, Academy of Management Learning and Education, Management and Organization Review, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Management Inquiry, Business Horizons, Human Resource Management Journal among others.

Yongsun has received best paper awards and nominations at the Annual Meetings of the Academy of International Business and Academy of Management. He is LMU’s 2021 recipient of the Rains Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Works. He is the former president of the Association of Korean Management Scholars (AKMS) and serves as an editorial board member of Journal of World Business, Thunderbird International Business Review, and International Studies of Management and Organization

Abstract: Supranational institutions have received little attention in the international business literature although they represent the important context in which MNEs conduct their businesses.  This research addresses this gap by examining MNEs’ use of supranational institutions of enforcement, i.e., the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). ICSID provides mechanisms for resolving investment disputes between MNEs and host states. MNEs have increasingly used ICSID arbitration in response to alleged violation of contractual terms and/or property rights by host states.  Yet, we still know very little about the profile of MNEs that are using ICSID arbitration and its outcomes. This study contributes to enhancing our understanding of contract enforcement, property right protection, and MNE-host government bargaining by finding out whether and how the outcomes of the ICSID arbitration depend on the economic status of home and host countries.