Multinationals On Trial

The role and economic power of corporations that dominate the world economy has generated considerable controversy. The most heated debate and the most critical questions surrounding the role of multinational corporations relate to foreign direct investment (FDI). This key volume offers an entirely fresh perspective of the role of multinationals and the development impact of FDI. Contrary to prevailing opinion, it examines whether imperialism is a much more useful concept for describing and explaining the dynamics of world development than globalization. FDI is a mechanism for empire-centred capital accumulation, a powerful lever for political control and for re-ordering the world economy. This is a much needed analysis of global capitalism and its impact around the world, resulting in an excellent resource for students, academics and activists.

The role and economic power of corporations that dominate the world economy has generated considerable controversy. The most heated debate and the most critical questions surrounding the role of multinational corporations relate to foreign direct investment (FDI). This key volume offers an entirely fresh perspective of the role of multinationals and the development impact of FDI. Contrary to prevailing opinion, it examines whether imperialism is a much more useful concept for describing and explaining the dynamics of world development than globalization. FDI is a mechanism for empire-centred capital accumulation, a powerful lever for political control and for re-ordering the world economy. This is a much needed analysis of global capitalism and its impact around the world, resulting in an excellent resource for students, academics and activists.

This authoritative book examines the power of multinational corporations (MNCs) to exert influence in global politics. Focusing on the actions and motivations of MNCs, it explores how they attempt to shape the political issues that affect them.

This textbook on international business integrates the academic study of international trade and foreign direct investment with the actual strategic and operational decisions of exporters and multinational enterprises. The book merges managerial decision making in the internationally oriented firm with the conceptual tools provided by international economics. It covers issues of central importance to firms that invest overseas: political risk, taxation, and expatriate assignment.

This book explores the persistence of the governance gap with respect to the human rights-impacting conduct of transnational extractive corporations operating in zones of weak governance. The authors launch their account with a fascinating case study of Talisman Energy’s experience in Sudan, informed by their own experience as members of the 1999 Canadian Assessment Mission to Sudan (Harker Mission). Drawing on new governance, reflexive law and responsive law theories, the authors assess legal and other non-binding governance mechanisms that have emerged since that time, including the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. They conclude that such mechanisms are incapable of systematically preventing human rights violating behaviour by transnational corporations, or of assuring accountability of these actors or recompense for victims of such violations. The authors contend that home state regulation, while not a silver bullet, has a crucial role to play in regulating such conduct. They pick up where UN Special Representative John Ruggie’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights left off, and propose an innovative, robust and adaptable template for strengthening the regulatory framework of home states. Their model draws insights from the theoretical literature, leverages existing public, private, transnational, national, ‘soft’ and hard regulatory tools, and harnesses the specific strengths of state-based governance. This book will be of interest to academics, policy makers, students, civil society and business leaders.

This book summarises Mark Casson’s recent research on the multinational enterprise. This work is firmly rooted in history and examines the evolution of the internalisation theory of the multinational enterprise over the past forty years and, in the light of this, considers its potential for further development. The book also explores internationalisation theory in respect to marketing and brands, the supply chain, risk management as well as methodology.

This book is the first to study the significant-growth in foreign direct investment by such countries and its impact on the international economic order.

This book offers the latest analytical thinking on emerging market multinationals (EMNCs) and identifies key issues for research by scholars and consultants.