Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
1.
Introduction: multinational
enterprises, innovation and
geography in todays' globalized
world
1.1
WHAT THIS TOPIC IS (AND IS NOT) ABOUT
The existence and behaviour of the multinational enterprise (MNE) has
now been analysed for over half a century by economists, international
business and management researchers, behavioural and organizational
theorists, as well as business historians and sociologists. In spite of the
diversified theoretical roots and backgrounds of these different tradi-
tions, two main sets of questions have been commonly addressed by social
scientists. The first set relates to the behavioural determinants, motives,
and strategies of multinational firms, and includes questions such as:
why
do firms become multinational?
where
do they locate their cross-border
activities?
how
do they undertake and organize their multinational pro-
duction and transactions? The second set of questions relates to the wider
effects of a multinational presence, and includes questions such as: what is
the
impact
on the home economy? what is the
effect
on the host economy?
and what is the
effect
on the multinational firm itself?
These two broad lines of inquiry have been further decomposed into
a variety of related, but differentiated, sub-questions. What is apparent,
after more than fifty years of systematic research on multinationality, is
that there is as yet no unified or dominant theory of the MNE. A plethora
of theoretical approaches, conceptual frameworks and speculative expla-
nations have been put forward, each of which is developed within the
boundaries and assumptions inherent to these diverse analytical back-
grounds. Such a multidisciplinary scholarly attention is not surprising, as
multinationality is per se a multidimensional, multifaceted phenomenon,
and the heterogeneity of facts, activities and behaviours to be explained
are not easily fitted within a single conceptual framework. In this sense,
the study of MNEs is no different from that of business organizations
generally: the study of the firm as an economic organization and a social
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