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Multinational Enterprises and the Global Economy. John H. Dunning. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1993. 687 pp. No price given.
The integration of national economies helps define the last fifteen years. Net capital flows into developing nations increased from about $38 billion in 1981 to over $155 billion in 1993 (Business Week, 1994: 22), and, as pointed out by Multinational Enterprises, the total capital controlled and employed by companies outside their national borders in 1991 was about $2,100 billion (p. 14). Much of this investment occurred in what were once--and in some cases, still are--state-dominated economies. Its social and political consequences in both the developed and developing nations are diverse, as evidenced by the controversies over the North American Free Trade Agreement and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade in the United States; the central role of organized crime in the expanding markets in the independent states of the former Soviet Union; and the increasing political importance of emergent middle classes throughout the world.
The organizational and managerial implications of economic ties also are prominent. A scan of the Wall Street Journal on any given day will find subjects such as the techniques of getting written contracts honored in nations where such documents are rarely final; the problems of Chinese firms in maintaining clan-based governance during their overseas expansions (Drucker, 1994); and the difficulties of managing government regulation when key documents and witnesses are spread across firms in several nations...