Industrial Policy, MNEs and National Technology

Abstract

The papers in this book are about a

world in which comparative advantage, international competitiveness, and the international division of labour results in large measure from corporate strategies and national policies rather than from natural endowments. (Gilpin 1988, p. 164).

In this world the scope for competition is no longer limited by national boundaries so that, at the firm level, it becomes a matter of ‘internalising on a worldwide scale key assets such as knowledge, finance, production experience and market access, that can lead to the development and to the effective commercialisation of a wide variety of products and services. (Ernst and O’Connor 1989, p. 25)