Case-Study Evidence on Multinational Enterprise Competitiveness

Abstract

Now that we have reviewed the models of MNE competitiveness, we need to provide evidence to support our claims. In Chapter 4, we argued that MNEs derived their competitiveness from price, quality, technological innovation or organizational innovation (for example, through the use of internal and external networks). We also mentioned that 3WMNEs derived their competitiveness from price, according to product life cycle theory, and from tropicalized technology according to localized technological change theory. Price and quality are obvious sources of competitiveness; technological and organizational innovation, less so. We saw in Chapter 3 that most Brazilian and Chilean MNEs do not engage in technological innovation, but only in plant-level organizational innovation. In order to verify some of these claims, we return to the case-study firms presented in Chapter 3 and we examine the sources of their competitiveness.