Abstract
For the next two decades we see multinational corporate activity as a leading system in what we call the "global industrial system." But a transformation process of the multinational corporate phenomenon is underway and should accelerate in the 1990s. Causes for this transformation include: (1) the appearance of coalitions between firms in rich, poor, and ideologically different countries in global industrial system constellations (GISCs); (2) the induction of geocentrization processes in nations and unions which will react on the multinational corporation's desire for viability and legitimacy; (3) impacts on neighboring institutions such as global cities and the global educational system. An ideology to legitimize certain kinds of multinational corporate activity should evolve during this transformation process. Harder to estimate are the structural consequences of social turbulence and anti-industrial counterforces to multinational corporate activity emerging today. Antimaterialism, affluence and alienation, and nationalism may produce some surprises.
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