ABSTRACT
Interest in multinational enterprises based in low– and middle-income countries, Third World Multinationals (TWMs), has increased rapidly over the last ten years since the first articles appeared in the mid-1970s. (See, for example Wells 1977, and Lecraw 1977) This increasing body of research has recently culminated in three books (Wells 1983; Lall 1983; Kumar and McLeod 1981) which should stand as the definitive works on the subject until more systematic, broadly-based data is collected (an unlikely event). There are several reasons for this burgeoning literature: the relatively recent identifiability of the phenomena of TWMs; the interest of development economists in the effects of investment and technology transfer by TWMs on both the host and home countries; interest of international business researchers in the phenomenon of TWMs per se and in the effect of these firms on competition between multinational enterprises (MNEs) world-wide; and interest by policy-makers in host and home countries and in multinational organisations on the effects of TWMs and appropriate policy initiatives towards them.
