Multinational Enterprise in Historical Perspective

This book marks a major step forward in our understanding of the origins and expansion of multinational enterprise. An introductory appraisal of the concept of 'the multinational' is followed in Part I by an examination of the growth of multinational enterprise, dealing both with industrial and financial concerns and with the market linkages between cartels and multinationals. Part II considers government and multinationals and comprises, firstly, studies of the manifold relationships between the operational centres of multinationals, their subsidiary enterprises abroad, and the governments of home and host-economies. A second section examines the international hierarchical and sexual division of labour in multinational enterprise. The work concludes with an examination of the multinational in historical perspective. Each study is based on extensive empirical research, and the work as a whole provides an important overview of the development of a vital but misunderstood phenomenon.