Foreign Investment and Multinational Corporations in the Nordic Countries

Abstract

Knudsen, O. Foreign Investment and Multinational Corporations in the Nordic Countries. Cooperation and Conflict, XV, 1980, 209-215.

The main question here is: How exposed are the Nordic countries to the political influence of multinational corporations? The article briefly surveys and compares the Nordic regulatory systems for foreign business. Concerning the nature of the political influence of MNCs, it is argued that geographical dispersion is a key variable, assuming centralized corporations: The more geographically extended a company's commitments, the greater its bargaining power vis-à-vis host countries. To answer the initial question therefore requires a differentiation of data pertaining to geographically dispersed, from those pertaining to geographically concentrated, corporations. The article presents such data for the Nordic countries, and shows significant differences between them.