Although many firms label themselves 'global', very few can back this up with truly global sales and operations. In The Regional Multinationals Alan Rugman examines first-hand data from multinationals and finds that most multinationals are strongly regional, with international operations in their home regions of North America, the US or Asia. Only a tiny proportion of the world's top 500 companies actually sell the same product and deliver the same services around the world. Rugman exposes the facts behind the popular myths of doing business globally, explores a variety of regional models and offers an authoritative agenda for future business strategy. The Regional Multinationals is the essential resource for all academics and students in International Business, Organization and Strategic Management, as well as those with an interest in finding out how multinationals really work in practice and how future strategy must respond.

The international dimension of business networks has remained relatively unexplored, mainly because international business writers focus upon multinational enterprises and network writers ignore international issues. In this book Professors Alan Rugman and Joseph D'Cruz bridge the literature on networks and multinationals by introducing the new concept of the flagship firm. In each business network strategic leadership is provided by the flagship firm, which is defined as a multinational enterprise. It has other partners: key suppliers; key customers; key competitors; and key partners in the non-business infrastructure. These business networks are usually located in the 'triad' regions of the European Union, North America, and Japan. There are strong cross-border network linkages within these regions, but less 'globalization' than regional economic integration. The theory of the flagship firm/five partners model is applied to the telecommunications, chemicals, automotive, and electronics sectors, amongst others, and the book reports on both empirical studies and field research of the international competitiveness of these sectors. The book will be of interest to academics, students, and professionals in the areas of international business, strategic management, political science, law, and sociology.

Russian multinationals are playing an increasingly important role in the world economy, particularly in some key sectors such as oil, gas and metallurgy. At the same time, Russian multinationals differ in many respects from multinationals from other countries in that they often receive special treatment from the Russian government, and, because of past experiences, international investors are often reluctant to invest in them. This book presents a comprehensive overview of Russian multinationals. It discusses the rise of Russian multinationals, examines Russian multinationals' activities in key sectors, analyses the relationship between Russian multinationals and the Russian government and between Russian multinationals and international investors, and concludes by assessing how Russian multinationals are likely to develop in future.

This paper examines the factors that drive the success of multinational corporations (MNCs) in their pursuit of regional strategies. Based on contingency theory, we develop a comprehensive regional success factor model to investigate the effects of regional management autonomy and regional product/service adaptation on the regional success of MNCs. Using structural equation modelling, we also analyse the interaction effects of regional orientation and inter-regional distance. We evaluate our model by means of both primary and secondary data for Fortune Global 500 firms. Our findings show that appropriate degrees of regional management autonomy and regional product/service adaptation are highly contingent upon contextual influences on MNCs.

'The world economy is subject to a rapidly increasing globalization, and multinational enterprises are their major driving force. This brand new book on multinationals and economic geography by two world leading economic geographers is a landmark that provides an integrated and dynamic perspective on the economic geography of the multinational enterprise. To fully understand this process of globalization, the book explains forcefully and persuasively that one needs a dynamic perspective on multinational enterprises that brings together disparate literatures on economic geography, knowledge and innovation, global network cities, and international business and management. Embedding it in modern theory of innovation and geography, the book provides not only a state-of-the-art of theories and empirics on the location of multinationals, but goes far beyond that. This book is an absolute "must-read" for any scholar and any student that is interested in multinationals and their location.' – Ron Boschma, Utrecht University, The Netherlands and Lund University, Sweden 'Despite often playing second fiddle to clusters in the economic geography literature, multinationals are fundamental drivers of economic development. As generators and diffusers of knowledge they have played an essential role in shaping the new world economic order. No book captures this better than Simona Iammarino and Philip McCann's Multinationals and Economic Geography, a must read for anyone eager to fully understand the new economic geography of globalisation.' – Andrés Rodríguez-Pose, London School of Economics, UK After more than fifty years of systematic research on multinational enterprises (MNEs) what is apparent is that there is, as yet, no unified or dominant theory of the MNE. The objective of this book is to bring into focus one particular dimension of MNE behaviour and activity that has been relatively under-researched – namely the geography of the multinational enterprise – as understood through the lens of innovation and technological change. The authors clearly demonstrate that geography is becoming increasingly important for MNEs and, in turn, MNEs are becoming progressively more important for economic geography. The pivot on which this vital relationship turns is the creation, diffusion and management of new knowledge. This unique book will prove a fascinating read for academics, students and researchers across a broad range of areas including geography, economic geography, regional science, international business and management, innovation studies, economic development. Professionals such as corporate managers and policymakers in these fields would also find this book to be of great interest.

Multinational Enterprises and the Law presents the only comprehensive, contemporary, and interdisciplinary account of the various techniques used to regulate multinational enterprises (MNEs) at the national, regional and multilateral levels. In addition it considers the effects of corporate self-regulation upon the development of the legal order in this area. Split into four parts the book firstly deals with the conceptual basis for MNE regulation, explaining the growth of MNEs, their business and legal forms, the relationship between them and the effects of a globalising economy and society upon the evolution of regulatory agendas in the field. Part II covers the main areas of economic regulation including the limits of national and regional jurisdiction over MNE activities, controls and liberalization of entry and establishment; tax and company, and competition law. Part III introduces the social dimension of MNE regulation covering labour rights, human rights, and environmental issues, and Part IV deals with the contribution of international law and organizations to MNE regulation and to the control of investment risks, covering the main provisions found in international investment agreements and their recent interpretation by international tribunals.

Professor Alan Rugman is one of the world's leading academics in the field of international business and strategy. In The End of Globalization he argues that we are currently witnessing the end of globalization and draws on new research and analysis to argue that globalization never really happened anyway. Like Bartlett and Ghoshal's Managing Across Borders, this book is aimed at the market of practitioners and policy-makers, (not academics and theoreticians) showing them what the current state of the global economy means for them. Global business is dominated by the 500 largest multinational enterprises (MNEs) out of a total of 30,000 MNEs altogether. The 500 MNEs that are the engines of international business 'think regional and act local'. Using analysis drawn from world-leading companies, Professor Rugman looks in detail at the managerial implications of the end of globalization, including in-depth discussion of corporate strategies, organizational structures, and analytical methods.