New Technologies and International Business in the 21st Century: Technological Convergence, Networks and Global Competition

Abstract

Specialisation by the national affiliates of multinational enterprises (MNEs) on the basis of locational advantage (UNCTAD, 1993, 1997, 1998) requires increasingly complex coordination through intricate webs of dynamic networks of internal and external relationships (Dicken, 1998). The outcome is new locational patterns for production and R&D activities in international business. These developments form part of a general tend towards increased global integration,¹ which is moving beyond trade-based integration to more complex integration of MNE’s research, production and product development activities. Such strategies are predicated on the continuing liberalisation of world trade in goods and services. This liberalisation already includes: the 1997 agreements on basic telecommunications, financial services and information technology (WTO, 1998); the protection of trade-related aspects of intellectual property rights (TRIPs); multilateral rules on the environment, labour standards and investment (UNCTAD, 1998); and the harmonisation of national competition policies. The advent of major scientific, engineering and technological revolutions, however, ushers in new questions in international business for corporations and nations and their reciprocal relation in the next century.