Getting to Know Multinationals

Oxford University Press eBooks, pp. 3–41

Abstract

Abstract This chapter provides an overview of multinational enterprises (MNEs), which are the most talked-about business associations in the contemporary world economy. The MNE is a business association that engages in direct investment outside its home country; that is, in foreign direct investment (FDI). The chapter traces the patterns of MNE growth over time and space. The evolution of modern MNEs has usually been divided into historical periods, interrupted by the First and Second World Wars. The ‘first global economy’ emerged during the second half of the nineteenth century and began to disintegrate with the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, finally collapsing with the Great Crash of 1929. The ‘second global economy’ originated in the post-Second World War era and gathered pace between the 1980s and into the first decade of the twenty-first century. The chapter then looks at the main explanations of MNE growth, and the role of legal factors in this process.

Authors 3

1. Muchlinski Peter T

   University of London · SOAS University of London

   Affiliation as printed

   School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London

2. Barnali Choudhury

   York University

   Affiliation as printed

   Osgoode Hall Law School

3. Ebbe Rogge Aachen

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Leiden University