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Transnational Communities Programme |
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Conference sponsored by the UK Economic and Social Research
Council’s Multinational Enterprises: Embedded organisations, transnational federations or global learning communities?University of Warwick, Coventry, UK: September 6-8, 2001The nature of the multinational enterprise (MNE) as a distinctive form of economic coordination has been controversial for some time. Much of the strategic management and international business literature has assumed that it is a separate kind of economic actor simply by virtue of operating across borders, without much attention being paid as to why that might be the case. In contrast, much organisational analysis has viewed MNEs as predominately national firms with foreign operations, and consequently denied their separate status as distinctive forms of organisation. Similarly, while some see them as cohesive, integrated hierarchies pursuing profits across the globe, others conceive them as decentralised federations of locally embedded sub-units tenuously united through financial controls. These varied views of the MNE reflect
different intellectual goals and approaches, as well as changing perceptions of their role
and power in coordinating activities around the world. However, the once prevalent
contrast between celebrating and demonising the MNE is giving way to more nuanced
understandings as the number of empirical studies of how different kinds of MNE have
developed and operate in varying circumstances has grown. It is becoming increasingly
recognised that: a) simply operating across national borders need not generate novel forms
of economic coordination, b) there is no single logic underlying international expansion
and, c) there is a considerable variety of organisational forms amongst MNEs, not least
because of institutional and technological differences. It is therefore timely to hold a
conference bringing together students of the MNE from different intellectual fields and
approaches to consider this empirical research and its implications for our understanding
of MNEs, and of international economic coordination more generally. We propose to organise
the conference around the following four major themes. · The role of home country
institutions and systems of economic organisation in structuring how firms
internationalise and coordinate their operations in many countries. · How different kinds of
MNEs learn from their foreign subsidiaries and develop distinctive technological
competences as a result of such learning. · How different kinds of
MNE manage activities across countries, regions and continents, their degrees and modes of
integration · How international
capital markets, global business regulation and other cross-national modes of governance
affect MNE priorities and strategies The organizers invite papers from
contributors in any of these areas. The goal is to further extend existing research in
which multinational corporations are treated as transnational social spaces where the
dynamics of interaction within, across and outside firm boundaries are of central concern.
The Conference is sponsored by the UK
Economic and Social Research Council’s Programme on Transnational Communities. For
details of the Programme and its associated activities, working papers and research
projects, see http://www.transcomm.ox.ac.uk Prospective authors are asked to send
abstracts to both organisers by March 1, 2001.
Contributors will be notified of the organisers’ decision by March 15, 2001. Full papers are to be delivered to
the organisers by 1 July 2001. Date and Venue6-8th September 2001, Warwick Business
School, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK Organisers:
Richard Whitley |
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