School of Financial Management

At Rotterdam University of Applied Sciences several Centres of Knowledge are active. Members are professors and students. A good example is the Centre for Innovative Entrepreneurship, strongly related to the School of Financial Management. It performs research and projects in the area of entrepreneurship, developing theories, building expertise and defining best practices. It consists of a group of researchers under leadership of associate professors, and assisted by students. It has several links to universities and research centres both within the Netherlands and internationally.

Example: tigers from China and India

The economies of China and India are expanding rapidly. More and more Chinese and Indian companies have set up subsidiaries in Europe. To attract these Asian tigers, European countries endeavour to present themselves as attractively as possible.

But which factors determine the decision making process? Why does a multinational from China or India select country A and not country B? Is there a list of preferences? If so, where do The Netherlands rank on this list?

Key question: "How do multinationals abroad allocate their subsidiaries / money flows abroad?"

A challenging research project! Many questions are to be answered. In February 2010 local groups of Financial Management students in Rotterdam, Beijing and New Delhi started answering some of these questions. This project will probably run for many years, as there are so many aspects to be taken into consideration. Furthermore, in the near future more countries will be added, e.g. Brasil.

One of the key questions will be tax planning. Answering this question will be the core of the research project.

One of the goals of the project is the presentation of a global map that will give a clear view on countries' main incentives and differences compared to the outside world. By doing so, it will support businesses in their decision-making: why always invest in a particular country when there are more attractive opportunities?

On the other hand, it will openly show where there is real distortion threatening global trade and this may support open discussions on the matter.

The project is also backed by the Fiscal Institute Tilburg (FIT) and the Development Research Institute. The city of Rotterdam supports this project too; Rotterdam Investment Agency is closely involved.

For the future, we plan to gradually broaden the scope to include joint research papers and seminars. This way we hope to make a double contribution. Firstly, to add a new dimension to already existing forms of international university education and cooperation. Secondly to contribute to the design of an international tax system which is beneficial for China, India, The Netherlands and other countries.