Multinational Corporations and Global Governance

Abstract

Operating as they do in multiple national environments characterized by divergent levels of development, MNCs are uniquely positioned to extract arbitrage advantages from two simultaneous phenomena: the relative infancy and feebleness of institutions of global governance, and the inability of individual nation states to police an entity whose reach extends beyond national boundaries. However, theories of the MNC in organizational studies have not kept pace with their dynamic structures, spatial spreads, and their ability to exploit economic, cultural, governance‐based and geopolitical heterogeneities to their advantage. In this symposium, we will attempt to re‐ examine traditional ideas about MNC in light of current global developments (the financial crisis, offshoring, environmental shifts, migrations etc.), and offer ways in which we can theorize MNC governance more accurately and critically. In this symposium, we seek to contribute to a discussion of the MNC as a contested space of global governance. We re- examine some of the current theoretical resources available to management scholars to understand both the antecedents and consequences of MNC governance. By examining these resources with their possibilities and limitations, management scholars attending the symposium will help to determine the next steps that need to be taken to develop theory. Financialization and Global Corporate Governance: A Discussion of Cultural Tensions Presenter: Galit Ailon; Bar Ilan U.