Showing papers on "Multinational corporation published in 1976"

The future of the multinational enterprise

Abstract: Introduction to the 25th Anniversary Edition Introduction to the Second Edition Preface The Multinational Enterprise in the World Economy A Long-run Theory of the Multinational Enterprise Alternative Theories of the Multinational Enterprise The World's Largest Firms Predictions and Policy Implications Index

The politics of global economic relations

Abstract: 1. Introduction: Economic Transformations and World Politics. 2. World Trade Dilemmas. 3. The Global Monetary Order: Interdependence and Dominance. 4. The Multinational Corporation: Challenge to the International System. 5. Aid Relations Between Rich and Poor States. 6. Technology and International Relations. 7. Strategies for States in the Periphery of the Global Economy. 8. Foreign Economic Policy Making in the United States. 9. The International Political Economy: Contemporary Trends.

A Long-run Theory of the Multinational Enterprise

Abstract: It is little exaggeration to say that at present there is no established theory of the multinational enterprise. Previous economic and statistical studies of the MNE can be criticised on the grounds that they lack a comprehensive theoretical basis. But from another point of view the fault lies with the orthodox theories of production and trade because as presently formulated they are unable to explain or predict the post-war growth of MNEs. We shall argue that the growth of the MNE is one aspect of a radical change in business organisation which has outdated the orthodox theory of production.1

An exploration of the dynamics of the overlapping worlds of work and family.

Abstract: The relationship between the working lives and family lives of people in our society is a concern to both families and corporations. This article describes a research project that yielded theoretical statements about the interactions between organization life and family life for members of large corporations; grounded theory methodology and a systems theory approach were used. Data were obtained in a large multinational corporation from managers and their families who were undergoing three different kinds of organizational stress: international transfer, extensive travel, and job change to facilitator of personal and organizational change. The findings give reason for viewing organization and family as interacting systems and for considering the uniqueness of each individual's response to stressful events. They also indicate that an individual's feeling of influence over stressful events at the organization-family boundaries are significant for both organizational and family effectiveness.

Management Development in Ethnocentric Multinational Corporations

Abstract: The first part of this article is based on a study of sixteen ethnocentric multinational corporations (MNC's) and discusses six major sources of morale problems that are characteristic of this type of firm. They relate to issues of promotion, adaptation, managerial patterns, rewards, and political factors. The findings reveal that existing management development programs do not equip the expatriates in such corporations with the proper tools to solve these problems. Thus, the author reviews various methods of management development that can limit—to a great extent—the negative impact of the ethnocentric staffing policy on organizational effectiveness.

Postimperialism: A Class Analysis of Multinational Corporate Expansion

Abstract: New frontiers for substantive research frequently give rise to theoretical challenges. More often than not, these will in fact be old challenges revived or rediscovered in a new context. Political scientists may well discover a fertile field for research in the phenomenal expansion of multinational business enterprise. Yet the challenges they encounter may not differ in principle from those that have been presented in the past by the growthtbfcorporate enterprise in particular nations. Indeed, the failure of political science to comprehend the modern business corporation is well enough known. As Grant McConnell has written, "the existence of the modern corporation does not accord with longstanding conceptions of political organization, and no theory exists by which it can be reconciled with such conceptions."' The unmistakable relevance of transnational corporations to basic issues of political development and international relations creates a new opportunity for political scientists to face challenges that have been posed but, largely and lamentably, ignored in the past. In this essay, three issues that arise from the problem of corporate power in political theory are identified with reference to pioneering works on corporate power in modern industrial society. These issues, involving economic oligarchy, managerial authority, and class formation, are then transposed to the transnational plane of study. Recent works on transnational enterprise and the problems of development in nonindustrial societies indicate that these questions may now be studied on a broader scale than heretofore, at possibly deeper levels of theoretical comprehension.

Patterns of Communications in the Multinational Corporation: An Empirical Study

Abstract: The effects of communications between subsidiaries and home offices are evaluated in this study of sixty-three multinational corporations. Chief executives of Brazilian subsidiaries of MNCs headquartered in Europe, Japan and North America were interviewed to determine the volume of home office-subsidiary communications and its impact on home-office understanding. Results indicate that home offices might well devote greater effort to procedures for handling subsidiary reports and to the relevance of outgoing communications. Japanese MNCs, being relatively new to overseas manufacturing, experience far more problems with communications than either Americans or European companies.

Effect of National Identity on Multinational Promotional Strategy in Europe: To what extent will multinational marketers in Europe have to reemphasize national characteristics in their promotional campaigns?

Abstract: A fifteen years of disappearing trade barriers, internationalizing of consumer tastes, and general praise for such supranational organizations as the European Economic Community, there are signs that Western European countries are reemphasizing their national identities. For example, France has chosen to deal separately with oil-exporting countries and has avoided joining other countries in buyers' cartels. Prominent Britishers of both major parties have during 1974 and 1975 urged withdrawal from the EEC. At the same time Scotland, looking forward to the fruits of North Sea oil exploration, talks of breaking away from the United Kingdom. Such traditionally thorny issues as agricultural support policies, currency exchange levels, and labeling of wine have in recent years caused even more friction than in the past. Recent economic problems in each country have tended to accentuate nationalistic tendencies. One major problem confronting multinational marketers is whether a reorientation in politics and culture will lead to a reorientation in consumer tastes. Will the European consumer increase her preference for products made in her own country and catered specifically to her national tastes? To what extent will appeals to national identity become more effective than those that emphasize foreign origin? Evidence that there may be a reemphasis on national identity in consumer tastes in Europe comes from marketing as well as from politics.

Multinational Enterprise, Social Responsiveness, and Pollution Control

Abstract: The authors develop a framework for analyzing the response of MNEs to social issues in a discontinuous multinational environment, drawing on “organization-environment” theory and Fayerweather's scheme of unification-fragmentation in multi-country operations The recent behavior of North American and Western European “pollution-intensive” MNEs in regard to the issue of pollution control is then reported, and the observed pattern of fragmentation is explained and interpreted by use of the analytical framework

A World divided : the less developed countries in the international economy

Abstract: List of contributors Preface 1. Introduction Gerald K. Helleiner Part I. Issues in International Trading Policy: 2. A new international strategy for primary commodities Alfred Maizels 3. The potential for monopolistic commodity pricing by developing countries Marian Radetzski 4. The dynamics of the new poor power Paul Streeten 5. The direction of international trade: gains and losses for the Third World Frances Stewart Part II. Relations with Transnational Enterprises: 6. Power, knowledge and development policy: relations between transnational enterprises and developing countries Constantine V. Vaitsos 7. 'Ownership and control': multinational firms in less developed countries Edith Penrose Part III. Issues in International Finance and Monetary Policy: 8. The post 1971 international financial system and the less developed countries Carlos F. Diaz-Alejandro 9. Debts, development and default Goeran Ohlin 10. The external debt problem of the developing countries with special reference to the least developed Nurul Islam Part IV. Planning for a World in Disorder: 11. Aspects of the world monetary and resource transfer system in 1974: a view from the extreme periphery Reginald H. Green 12. International agencies: the case for proliferation John White Index.

Multinational enterprises and regional development: An exploratory paper

Abstract: Dunning J. H. and Yannopoulos G. N. (1976) Multinational enterprises and regional developments: an exploratory paper. Reg. Studies 10, 389–399. This paper is concerned with the role of the multinational enterprises in the spatial allocation of resources within nations. The controversies surrounding the activities of multinational enterprises as to their impact on regional development and their alleged undermining of government regional policies are examined by looking at the structural, organisational and product characteristics of the multinational firms in relation to those of indigenous multiplant firms. Our analysis shows that the response of multinational enterprises to the host of regional policy incentives crucially depends on a series of key variables that relate to enterprise and product characteristics of these firms. These characteristics are analysed in detail and their influence in determining the relative responsiveness of the multinational enterprise to regional policy incentives is individ...

The Political Economy of the Multinational Corporation: Three Contrasting Perspectives*

Abstract: The books considered in this review essay address themselves to the relationship between the multinational corporation (MNC) and the nationstate, illuminating the three prevailing perspectives on the relationship between international economics and international politics.** My intention in this review essay is to contrast the varying positions of these three books on the implications of the rise of the multinational corporation for the nation-state system. This is perhaps the most critical issue in the burgeoning literature on the multinational corporation and the political economy of international relations.' Moreover, I shall set forth reasons for the success of the multinational corporation and discuss its probable future as a so-called transnational actor. First, however, what is a multinational corporation? Definitions of the multinational corporation are numerous; it is sufficient to note a number of its characteristics. In the first place, multinational corporations make direct investments in foreign countries. In contrast to portfolio investment, which involves the purchase of equities in a firm, direct investment is the establishment of a foreign subsidiary or branch, or the takeover of a foreign

Breast-feeding: the role of multinational corporations in Latin America.

Abstract: The decline in birthrates in the developed countries of the world has forced multinational corporations engaged in the production of infant formula to seek out new markets in the developing countries, where burgeoning population rates potentially guarantee the long-term profitability of these corporations. This development, ostensibly benign and nutritionally advantageous to infants in developing countries, has serious public health consequences, due to the high relative cost of purchased formula and the paucity of hygienic facilities essential to the sterile preparation of bottle formula. This paper delineates in detail economic and contraceptive advantages of breast-feeding, and examines the role of health personnel and multinational advertising techniques which have catalyzed the decline in breast-feeding. In addition, the paper focuses on the question of cultural imperialism and current efforts to regulate the multinational firms through both United Nations groups and stock-holders' suits. Finally, some suggestions are made concerning ameliorative public policy approaches to the breast-feeding controversy.

Pressure from Leadenhall: The East India Company Lobby, 1660–1678*

Abstract: Dramatic evidence of the vital role played by the British East India Company in Britain's rise to preeminence in world trade is revealed in the intimate relations between the Company, Parliament, and Charles II. Britain needed an agency for pressing the struggle against the resourceful Dutch, and the King needed revenue. The Company needed assurance in the form of a charter that its existence would be continuous; Navigation Acts to give meaning to its trading monopoly; laws against “interlopers” in its trading areas; and relief from mercantilist prejudices so that it could buy for cash where British goods were not in demand. Government and Company provided each other with all these, in a pragmatic arrangement that overrode prejudices and political sensitivities.