Decision-Making in Multinational Corporations: Key Issues in International Business Strategy

Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, 20(2), 199-215.

17 Pages Posted: 30 Apr 2014

See all articles by Jan Drahokoupil

Jan Drahokoupil

University of Mannheim - Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES); European Trade Union Institute (ETUI)

Date Written: April 28, 2014

Abstract

The article discusses key issues in international business strategy from a workers’ perspective and relates these to existing frameworks for understanding decision-making in multinational corporations (MNCs). It begins by identifying key decisions in international business, discussing their interrelationships, and highlighting key empirical trends. Academic research in international business strategy can, it is pointed out, helpfully inform worker representatives and trade unions in the context of their work within MNCs in Europe. The article goes on to review existing frameworks for understanding how MNCs make decisions about the major strategic issues. Its focus is on five types of approaches: the resource-based perspective on the firm; transaction-cost economics; institutionalism; the network approach; and the actor-centred perspectives. It is argued that research on MNC strategies, insofar as it is aimed at informing trade unions and worker representatives and at evaluating the impact of their activities, should be based on frameworks that bring together these disparate paradigms.

Keywords: International business strategy, multinational corporations, human resource management, economic and social theory

JEL Classification: M2

Suggested Citation

Drahokoupil, Jan, Decision-Making in Multinational Corporations: Key Issues in International Business Strategy (April 28, 2014). Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, 20(2), 199-215., Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2430207

Jan Drahokoupil (Contact Author)

University of Mannheim - Mannheim Centre for European Social Research (MZES) ( email )

D-68131 Mannheim
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://drahokoupil.blogspot.com

European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) ( email )

B-1210 Brussels
Belgium

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