Multinational Corporations

Abstract

The multinational corporation is the organizational form by which the knowledge of how to coordinate and organize work is transferred from one national institutional setting to another. It represents, on the one hand, the evolution of organizational mechanisms by which to resolve the historical hazards of long-distance trade and investment. On the other, it is the vehicle for the transfer of organizational knowledge and practices. This transfer initially is from the home country to foreign sites, but eventually can consist of the diffusion of organizational and technological knowledge within a transnational network. In this dual role of providing a private ordering of exchange and as a vehicle for the diffusion of organizational practices, it challenges the power of the state and the resident national institutions and frequently is the intended or unwitting agent of social, economic, and political change in the world economy.