Internationalisation and political bargaining under oligopoly: International Harvester in Spain (c. 1900–1980)

Abstract

This article explores the internationalisation process of the increasingly oligopolistic farm equipment industry. It does so by examining the case of International Harvester in Spain in the light of the changes that were taking place in world and host markets from the beginning of the twentieth century, when pioneering US firms began to operate abroad, until 1980, when economic depression forced a drastic reorganisation of the sector with which this multinational would not be able to cope. Although the case of International Harvester fits very well into gradual approaches of internationalisation, the study emphasises the influence exerted by the economic and political world and host contexts in that process, as well as the role played by local partners in increasing knowledge of and commitment to foreign markets. The study also provides empirical evidence about the bargaining process that usually preceded the entry of International Harvester and its competitors into promising protectionist markets throughout the 1960s.