City Research Online

Abstract

Much has been written about the organization of multinational enterprises from the managerial viewpoint. This is so because it was the managers of national business enterprises who provided the thrust for the internationalization of business. Within the framework of traditional national legal structures they have reorganized managerial structures to maximize global opportunities. As a consequence of these activities, pressures have developed for the design of new legal structures to facilitate business on a global scale. A limited number of such structures now exist in America, in some European countries, and in Japan. There are prospects for a European Company and even speculation about the possibility of a World Company. Underlying this is the ever accelerating trend toward large scale global rationalization of business units, and an integrated world economy. The multinational enterprise is leading this course of events.

At times nation states have supported these trends, recognizing that extreme nationalism is economically indefensible. On the other hand they have presented roadblocks when the direction of events threatened their legitimate national interests.

If nation-states and multinational enterprises are to accommodate one another a variety of issues must be resolved. In part, the differences stem from the fact that industry and commerce have led governments in adjusting to new economic and technological realities. However, the specific problems center around certain legal, business and economic aspects. Among the crucial aspects are the concepts and institutions relating to Ownership, Control, Antitrust, Labour, Taxation and Disclosure. These notions are based upon legal and managerial structures intended for business formerly conducted exclusively on a national scale. There is a need to modernize these notions to suit the current structure of multinational enterprise.

This thesis is a systematic description and analysis of the evolving legal and managerial structure of multinational enterprise and its impact upon and interrelationship with those concepts and institutions deemed most critical to the adaption of the multinational enterprise to the present global environment.

As representative of world multinational enterprises the thesis focuses upon the Ford Motor Company, Mitsubishi Group, the Royal Dutch/Shell Group, Unilever and the Dunlop Pirelli Union.

Publication Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management H Social Sciences > HF Commerce K Law > K Law (General)
Departments:	Bayes Business School > Faculty of Management Doctoral Theses

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