ABSTRACT

In one respect at least, it is inappropriate that the present author should be contributing to a volume entitled The Nature of the Transnational Firm. This is because the eclectic paradigm of international production is not (and has never purported to be) an explanation of the transnational or multinational firm. Its focus of interest has always been directed to explaining the level and pattern of the foreign value-added activities of firms, and/or of countries.