ABSTRACT
Globalization has had a decisive impact on state-owned enterprises: national monopolies have largely disappeared, barriers to competition have diminished and business has become international. With the major change in the environment, state-owned enterprises have not disappeared but have adapted themselves to international business standards and practices. Some have taken the opportunity and expanded their operations to international markets. We call these state-owned multinationals (SOMNEs). In the following chapter we analyze how the originally nationalistic basic idea of state-owned enterprise (SOE) has turned upside down. We seek an explanation for this process from three perspectives: the liberalization of the international markets, the developments in corporate governance practices, and the SOEs’ own renewal. These factors at different levels have affected the SOEs’ ownership, organization and strategy. As will be shown in the Italian and Finnish cases, corporate governance began to emphasize professionalism and business requirements. The rise of the State-owned multinational is particularly relevant not only as regards international business. Although the common denominator is the role of the state as an owner, the companies are different. State-owned multinationals are indeed increasingly seen as potentially relevant instruments of political economy, sometimes used by their own governments for geopolitical purposes.
