National structures and multinational corporate behavior: Enduring differences in the age of globalization

Liberal and critical theorists alike claim that the world political economy is becoming globalized. If they are right, leading corporations should gradually be losing their national characters and converging in their fundamental operations and strategies. In fact, recent evidence shows little blurring or convergence at the cores of multinational corporations based in Germany, Japan, and the United States. They continue to diverge fairly systematically in their internal governance and long-term financing structures, in their approaches to research and development as well as in the location of basic research facilities, and in their overseas investment and intrafirm trading strategies. Durable national institutions and distinctive ideological traditions still seem to shape crucial corporate decisions. In short, the foundations of leading corporate markets are not converging, and markets in this sense are not replacing political leadership and the necessity for negotiated adjustments among states.