hymer,thenation-stateandthedeterminantsofmultinational.docVIP

Hymer, the nation-state and the determinants of multinational corporations activities Grazia Ietto-Gillies. Contributions to Political Economy. Oxford: 2002. Vol. 21, Iss. 1; pg. 43 Abstract (Summary) Stephen Hymers work on multinational corporations (MNCs) falls into two phases. The first - what may be called his radical phase - consists of the pioneer work in the field of international operations of national firms contained in his doctoral dissertation (Hymer, 1960 published 1976). The second - in his Marxist phase - consists of a series of articles published mainly in the early 1970s. This paper shows that developments in the scope and structure of international production in the last 30 years make the nation-states and the frontiers between them increasingly more relevant as a contributor to the explanation of international production. This approach is then used to extend Hymers analysis of the nation-state in his phase II to incorporate firms strategies linked to the existence of nation-states and their frontiers into the determinants of international production. ?? ?Jump to indexing (document details) Full Text ?(5701? words) Copyright Oxford University Press(England) 2002 [Headnote] Contributions to Political Economy (2002) 21, 43-54 [Headnote] The paper starts with a brief analysis of Hymers early work on the determinants of foreign direct investment (FDI) and of his later work dealing with their effects on the nation-states, their governments, labour and the international division of labour. The paper then goes on to argue that the existence of nation-states with their specific regulatory regimes gives companies special advantages particularly with regard to labour and national governments. These can be turned into competitive advantages towards rivals. The advantages of transnationality, deriving from operating in different regulatory regimes, are considered as one of the contributory elements to the explanation of international production and its