The International Transferability of the Firm's Advantages

There is, however, a literature on the transfer of technology. See also Lall S. , The Multinational Corporation (London: Macmillan, 1980). Chapter 1 discusses the “transferability of monopolistic advantages.”

Porter M. , Competitive Strategy (New York, NY: The Free Press, 1980); Porter M. , Competitive Advantage (New York, NY: The Free Press, 1985)

Hymer S.H. , “The International Operations of National Firms: A Study of Direct Foreign Investment,” Ph.D. thesis at MIT submitted in 1960 and published posthumously (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1976).

Bain J.S. , Barriers to New Competition (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1956).

Kindleberger C.P. , American Business Abroad (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1969), Chapter 1 on “The Theory of Direct Investment.”

Dunning J.H. , in writings too numerous to be listed, has propounded his “eclectic” model comprising three kinds of advantages: Ownership-specific, internalization, and location-specific advantages. The model was first formulated in the 1970s. See Dunning , “Explaining Changing Patterns of International Production: In Defense of the Eclectic Theory,” Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, 41 (1979).

This is attributed to Sir Karl Popper, formerly Professor of Logic and Scientific Method at London University.

Hymer , op. cit., pp. 41–42.

It should be noted that the emphasis of this article is not on the creation or generation of advantages, but on their exploitation and transfer.

Kogut B. , “Country Capabilities and the Permeability of Borders,” Strategic Management Journal, 12 (1991).

Hu Yao-Su , National Attitudes and the Financing of Industry (London: Political and Economic Planning, 1975), Chapter 7.

Hu Yao-Su , “Global or Stateless Corporations Are National Firms With International Operations,” California Management Review, 34/2 (Winter 1992); Patel P. Pavitt K. , “Large Firms in the Production of the World's Technology: An Important Case of Non-globalization,” Journal of International Business Studies (1991, 1st Quarter); Patel P. , “Localized Production of Technology for Global Markets,” Cambridge Journal of Economics (February 1995).

Abegglen J.C. Stalk G.S. , Kaisha: The Japanese Corporation (New York, NY: Basic Books, 1985), Chapter 4.

Womack J.P. Jones D.T. Roos D. , The Machine That Changed The World (New York, NY: Macmillan, 1990).

Leontiades J. , “International Transfer of Company Strengths and Weaknesses: A Case Study of Electrolux,” European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management Working Paper, Brussels, July 1978.

Hymer , op. cit., pp. 34–36.

Hu (1992), op. cit.

Patel P. , op. cit.

The terms was first used in connection with innovation. See Teece D.J. , “Profiting from Technological Innovation,” in Teece D.J. , ed., The Competitive Challenge (Cambridge, MA: Ballinger, 1987).

Williamson P. , “Successful Strategies for Export,” Long Range Planning, 24 (1991).

Kay J. , Foundations of Corporate Success (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993), Chapters 6 and 9.

I am grateful to my colleagues at SPRU (University of Sussex), especially Pavitt Keith , for discussions on this concept.

Porter M.E. , The Competitive Advantage of Nations (London: Macmillan, 1990).

Freeman C. , “The National System of Innovation in Historical Perspective,” Cambridge Journal of Economics (February 1995); Patel P. Pavitt K. , “National Innovation Systems: Why They Are Important, and How They Might Be Measured and Compared,” Economic Innovation and New Technology, 3 (1994).

Kumar K. McLeod M.G. , eds., Multinationals from Developing Countries (Lexington, MA: Lexington Books, 1981); Lall S. , ed., The New Multinationals (Chichester, England: Wiley 1983); Wells L. , Third World Multinationals (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1983) .

Patel P. Pavitt K. , “Uneven (and Divergent) Technological Accumulation Among Advanced Countries: Evidence and a Framework of Explanation,” Industrial and Corporate Change (forthcoming, 1995).