ABSTRACT
The interest of industrial geographers in the phenomenon of the multinational enterprise is of comparatively recent date. This is perhaps somewhat surprising in view of the rapid growth of overseas direct investment during the past two decades and the increasingly important role which multinationals have assumed in the processes of national and regional economic change. The reluctance of geographers to come to grips with the process of internationalisation may stem in part from an over-concern with the regional as opposed to the national spatial scale. One problem in this respect has been the strong research tradition of economists in this field, which may have deterred some geographers from entering into it. Nevertheless, the increasing integration of regional and national economies brought about by the emergence of the multinational enterprise, implies that geographers, in seeking explanations for industrial change at any spatial scale, must pay some attention to the international operations of these firms. For example, explanations of employment change which ignore the possibility of investment being diverted overseas or ‘indigenous’ firms supplying the domestic market through imports, must necessarily be partial. The fact that these issues are sensitive and therefore difficult to research should not prevent us from attempting some assessment of their impact.
