Small Nations, Giant Firms
Louis W. Goodman | | ISBN: 978-084191-112-3 $19.75 |
| 1987/181 pages Distributed for Holmes & Meier Publishers |
DESCRIPTION
Transnational corporations, today's giant firms, have assets in virtually all of the world's developing nations, yet these assets account for only a small share o the firms' economic activities. As a result, decisions that often have enormous consequences for the small nations involved may be of only marginal importance to corporate managers.
Louis W. Goodman addresses this imbalance of interests in this insightful new work. By comparing capital allocation decisions in two different environments—one central to corporate concerns ( Brazil in the mid-1970s) and one marginal (the Andean Common Market in the same years)—the author concludes that managers have been involved in different decision processes in these different circumstances. This finding is significant for both understanding the limits of neoclassical economic theory and understanding how transnational firms can be more fully involved in Third World development. It also sheds light on using that scarcest of commodities in a complex organization—executive time.
"This is a book which will be of great interest to students of international political economy, corporate executives, and Third World policymakers.... Some of the conflicts between TNCs (who want to invest) and host country governments (who ant their investments) could be avoided and compromises of mutual interest forged, if corporate managers and Third World government officials learn from the dynamics that Goodman has revealed."—Kenneth E. Sharpe, Swarthmore College
"Goodman filles a major lacuna in work on TNCs and developing countries.... This book highlights [the special problems of small countries] and imaginatively explores their implications for general theories of managerial behavior. It is a real contribution."—Peter Evans, University of California, San Diego