Strategic Bridging: A Role for the Multinational Corporation in Third World Development

Abstract

The traditional lending paradigms adopted by international development funding agencies have not been very successful in fostering genuine economic development at the grassroots level in developing Third World countries. Despite good intentions on the part of these multilateral agencies, they sometimes lack perspectives on the unique social, cultural, and ecological conditions affecting development in these countries. Multinational corporations with a more permanent presence and long-term commitment of resources in these countries have egoistic interests in long-term relationship building with stakeholders in host Third World countries. They can provide collaborative mechanisms for partnering international development funding agencies to foster grassroots development efforts in developing countries. Collaboration theory and the concept of strategic bridging as a unique form of collaboration are used as frameworks to analyze a case study involving the role of a multinational firm as an unofficial strategic bridge between an international development bank and a state government in a West African country to bring about a successful outcome to an infrastructural funds lending exercise.

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