Contenu du sommaire : L'entreprise multinationale

Influence of national origins on the strategy of multinational enterprises The largest enterprises in most advanced countries are becoming more multinational in scope. This common tendency is partly a defensive reaction, a réaction to the decline in the level of protection that national boundaries previously provided. Nevertheless, the strategy of large enterprises in reducing uncertainty and risk is greatly affected by their national origins and home environment. Some home environments have conditioned enterprises to strive for security by means of restrictive private agreements and governmental support. Other environments have obliged enterprises to look to vertical integration and diversification of products and markets as the major means of reducing risk. The differences between the United States and Europe in these respects continue to be pronounced, as are the differences between various European countries. ronments have obliged enterprises to look to vertical integration and diversification of products and markets as the major means of reducing risk. The differences between the United States and Europe in these respects continue to be pronounced, as are the differences between various European countries.

Multinational firms and large technological corporations The "multinational firm" is an original empirical fact but does not necessarily represent an unitary scientific category; ist evolution must be framed within a general analysis of the activity of large corporations. Various classifications of corporate policies are given, based on the way various objectives and methods of action are combined, on economic situations involving various specific forms of competition, and on corporate power Systems conditioning economie choice. Various assumptions on the meaning of internationalization and on the conditions necessary for its extension can hence be made.

Multinational corporations in the early 70's The new scope of multinational's activities can be predicated from their situation in U.S.A. in the early 70's. Those of U.S. origin have be attacked by other national firms with which they compete. They have also been said to make Nixon's devaluation more difficult to succeed. However, in underdevelopped aeras, even in a few socialist countries as well as on the large market of Asia and China, they seem to be engagea in new issues. The era of worldwide sourcing is now opened, thtough different ways which include cooperation even with underdevelopped countries and the East.

Reasons for foreign corporate growth This paper reexamines the reasons for corporate growth on foreign markets through direct investment from both the analytical and statistical viewpoints. The first part aims at presenting a general framework for the analysis of foreign corporate growth. The emphasis is put on the opposition between a first set of mostly exagenous conditions which may indice a preference for direct investment and conditions related to the firm's main features : type of activity, size, competitive behaviour, etc. Statistical results on the influence of some factors of growth are given for various samples of U.S. firms over the 1963-1967 period.

Multinational firm and commercial restrictive practices The article entitled "Multinational firm and commercial restrictive practices" proceeds from a double consideration: the national agreements and the emergence of big business phenomenon work out; we attend, in the same time, a speeding up of the internationalization of firms, often joined to commercial restrictive practices. The aim of these few sheets is to show how the national agreement, the institution of territorialy demarcated big business, does not forbid the phenomenon of foreign entry and how the world development of firms promotes the use of commercial restrictive practices on an international level.