ABSTRACT
This chapter builds on the insight from multinational corporation (MNC) scholars such as John H. Dunning, Michael J. Enright, and Alan M. Rugman and Alain Verbeke, who find that in most triad clusters of value-added activities, MNCs are embedded as leading participants. It examines the extent to which clusters are regionally based, in that they operate across the national borders of nation-states in the triad, in the spirit of Alan M. Rugman. The chapter also examines from the North American context and from within the European Union. It offers evidence that demonstrates that the majority of even the most MNCs in reality operate on a triad-centred regional basis. Regional co-operation agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement and the European Union (NAFTA) are single-market measures that mainly represent, some assert, the elimination of trade and investment barriers, and therefore allow a reduced attention devoted by MNCs to government policy.
