In this article, the authors have sought to discover an insight into the relationships between multi-national enterprises (MNEs) and their supply chain (SC) participants in the steel and pharmaceutical industries. The authors wanted to gain an insight into how the SC participants viewed their working relationships with MNEs and how this relationship was affected by the growth in size of the MNE and the recent economic downturn. The results obtained confirmed some but not all of the research questions of the authors. The results confirmed that MNEs within the steel and pharmaceutical industry had increased in size and the balance of power in the relationship was firmly with the MNE. The authors presented conclusions based upon the results obtained and factors that limited the authors’ research. In addition the authors also present recommendations and discuss potential areas of further research.
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