Transnational Corporations
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
VOLUME 19 NUMBER 3 DECEMBER 2010 TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS United Nations New York and Geneva, 2010 United Nations Conference on Trade and Development Division on Investment and Enterprise Editorial statement Transnational Corporations (formerly The CTC Reporter) is a refereed journal published three times a year by UNCTAD. In the past, the Programme on Transnational Corporations was carried out by the United Nations Centre on Transnational Corporations (1975–1992) and by the Transnational Corporations and Management Division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Development (1992–1993). The basic objective of this journal is to publish articles and research notes that provide insights into the economic, legal, social and cultural impacts of transnational corporations in an increasingly global economy and the policy implications that arise therefrom. It focuses especially on political and economic issues related to transnational corporations. In addition, Transnational Corporations features book reviews. The journal welcomes contributions from the academic community, policymakers and staff members of research institutions and international organizations. Guidelines for contributors are given at the end of this issue. Editor: James Zhan Deputy Editor: Hafiz Mirza Managing Editor: Shin Ohinata Production Manager: Tess Ventura home page: http://www.unctad.org/TNC Subscriptions A subscription to Transnational Corporations for one year is US$45 (single is- sues are US$20). See p. 115 for details of how to subscribe, or contact any distributor of United Nations publications. United Nations, Sales Section, Room DC2-853, 2 UN Plaza, New York, NY 10017, United States – tel.: 1 212 963 3552; fax: 1 212 963 3062; e-mail: [email protected]; or Palais des Nations, 1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland – tel.: 41 22 917 1234; fax: 41 22 917 0123; e-mail: unpubli@unog. ch. Note The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations. The term “country” as used in this journal also refers, as appropriate, to territories or areas; the designations employed and the presentation of the material do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concern- ing the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. In addition, the designations of country groups are intended solely for statistical or analytical convenience and do not necessarily express a judgement about the stage of development reached by a particular country or area in the development process. Unless stated otherwise, all references to dollars ($) are to United States dol- lars. ISBN 978-92-1-112821-5 ISSN 1014-9562 Copyright United Nations, 2010 All rights reserved Printed in Switzerland ii Board of Advisers CHAIR Terutomo Ozawa, Professor of Economics, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, United States MEMBERS V.N. Balasubramanyam, Professor of Development Economics, Lancaster University, United Kingdom Edward K. Y. Chen, Former President, Lingnan University, Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region of China Farok J. Contractor, Professor of Management and Global Business, Graduate School of Management, Rutgers University, Newark, New Jersey, United States Arghyrios A. Fatouros, Professor of International Law, Faculty of Political Science, University of Athens, Greece Xian Guoming, Professor of Economics and International Business, Director, Center for Transnational Corporation Studies, Dean, Teda College of Nankai University, Tianjin, China Kamal Hossain, Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh, Bangladesh Celso Lafer, Professor, University of Săo Paulo, Brazil James R. Markusen, Professor of Economics, University of Colorado at Boulder, Colorado, United States Theodore H. Moran, Karl F. Landegger Professor, and Director, Program in International Business Diplomacy, School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., United States Sylvia Ostry, Distinguished Research Fellow and China/WTO Project Chair , Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada Tagi Sagafi-nejad, Radcliffe Killam Distinguished Professor of International Business; Director, Center for the Study of Western Hemispheric Trade; Director, International Trade Institute and Editor, International Trade Journal, The A. R. Sanchez, Jr., School of Business, Texas A&M International University, Texas, United States Mihály Simai, Professor Emeritus, Institute for World Economics, Budapest, Hungary John M. Stopford, Professor Emeritus, London Business School, London, United Kingdom Osvaldo Sunkel, Professor and Director, Center for Public Policy Analysis, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile Marjan Svetlicic, Head, Centre of International Relations, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia Daniel Van den Bulcke, Professor of International Management and Development, University of Antwerp, Belgium iii Transnational Corporations Volume 19, Number 3, December 2010 Contents ARTICLES John H. Dunning and The political economy of 1 Christos N. Pitelis globalization: revisiting Stephen Hymer 50 years on Nobuaki Yamashita Exports and local sales patterns 29 of United States and Japanese transnational corporations in East Asia Huaichuan Rui Developing country FDI and 49 development: the case of Chinese FDI in the Sudan RESEARCH NOTE Alexey V. Kuznetsov Urgent tasks for research on 81 Russian TNCs BOOK REVIEWS 97 v The political economy of globalization: revisiting Stephen Hymer 50 years on John H. Dunning and Christos N. Pitelis ∗ We discuss issues pertaining to the political economy of globalization in the context of the seminal contribution by Stephen Hymer. While Hymer’s contribution to the theory of the transnational corporation and foreign direct investment is widely recognized, his contribution to the political economy of what he called “multinational corporate capital” has received less attention. In this paper, we revisit some of the issues he raised, notably uneven development, global governance and central planning in the context of post-Hymer scholarly thinking and the shifting global landscape. In so doing, we also speculate on the challenges and future of globalization. Key words: Stephen Hymer, international political economy, institutions, globalization, sustainability Note from the second author: John Dunning and I started working on this paper in 2004 and completed the work in 2007. The objective was to write a paper on the theme of “If Hymer were writing now”. John drafted 12 pages of notes setting out his major ideas on this theme and I undertook the task of producing the first draft based on his notes. Throughout the drafting process, John was closely involved, amending each draft. As it happened, a total of three papers emerged out of this work. The first on Hymer and the theory of the TNC and FDI, titled “Stephen Hymer’s contribution to International Business scholarship: an assessment and extension”, was published in the Journal of International Business (Dunning and Pitelis, 2008). The second is the present article. It deals with the wider issue of Hymer’s views on the political economy of globalization. The third includes some speculations as to what Hymer would be writing now, were he still alive. This paper is a chapter of a volume of collected papers by John (Dunning, 2010). ∗ Christos N. Pitelis is Director at the Centre of International Business and Management (CIBAM) of the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge. The authors are grateful to Jean Boddewyn, John Cantwell, Lorraine Eden, Neil Kay, Alan Rugman, Roger Sugden and Mo Yamin for comments on earlier drafts. The usual disclaimer applies. The present version of this paper has been seen and approved by John in its current form, save for some minor updating of references. This explains why some references have dates subsequent to 2007. At the time, I discussed with John about possible outlets for this paper, including this journal. Following John’s death, I decided to publish this paper in its current form, rather than risking any revisions which I could never know if they would be acceptable to John. The Editor of this journal and an anonymous reviewer were kind enough to agree to this approach. In this context, the current paper is in need of some updating and it includes some overlap with the other two papers that we had intended to edit out. In John’s absence, I felt I should not do this either, presenting the paper as it is, namely as John’s last views on the contribution of Stephen Hymer on the political economy of globalization. Christos N. Pitelis 1. Introduction and overview Our aim in this paper is to reassess issues pertaining to the “political economy of globalization” in the context of revisiting the contribution of Stephen Hymer on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of his now classic doctoral thesis. Hymer (born in 1934, and passed away in a car accident forty years later, in 1974) made a seminal and lasting contribution to the theory of the transnational corporations (TNCs) and foreign direct investment (FDI), and to International Political Economy. He was one of the first economists to explore the nature and determinants of the internationalization of production (“globalization”) and its relationship to international development, TNC-host country relationships and global governance. Hymer first articulated