Multinational Enterprises and the Challenge of the 1980s

It was only a decade ago that a distinguished commentator on multinational enterprises predicted that by the mid-1980s the 300 or 400 supergiant companies in the world would account for 60–70 per cent of the world’s industrial output (Perlmutter, 1968). Many other analysts, economists, politicians, and even businessmen themselves, believed him. At that time, the MNE seemed to be an increasingly powerful force in the world economy and nothing would stop it in its surge forwards.