The Nature of the Transnational Firm (Paperback)

The enormous size of transnational firms and the nature of their activities make them an obvious cause of concern for consumers, other producers, nation states and international organizations. This text argues that the increased importance of the study of trans- or multi-national firms within economic research reflects another significant change - the rise of the internationalization of markets. According to this, transnationals arise because of the existence of "market" failures, more specifically, the relatively high costs attached to market transactions. It is argued that such costs are internalized by the transnational, which thus can be seen as an institutional device for economizing on market transaction costs. This book presents a variety of perspectives on the nature of the transnational firm.