ABSTRACT
Each of the contributors to this volume has addressed an aspect of these questions. For convenience sake, these contributions can be subdivided into two major overlapping categories: The ongoing reconfiguration of the industry, prompted by the nature of the industry itself and by the nature of the demands placed on it by external actors, and the current challenges confronting the industry and their implications for future oil industry strategy. In the following, we will review the reconfiguration issues raised in this volume. Then we will proceed to a discussion of the future challenges confronting the industry. The Oil MNE: Ongoing Reconfiguration? An MNE Perspective The widely accepted approach to multinational business activities has been that of Dunning’s ‘eclectic’ model (alternatively named the OLI model) in which MNE profit maximization is seen as a function of O, ownership, L, location, and I, integration (Dunning, 1988, 1980; see also Buckley and Casson, 1976; Caves, 1976).
