Contribution to Knowledge

Abstract

The interview excerpts, presented in Chapters 6 to 9 are relatively free from interpretational analysis and represent an essential component of a story that is in the process of unfolding. A supplementary component is my random audits on the MNCs’ facilities, most of which had been scheduled ‘spontaneously’ at the conclusion of the interviews. These data, while not explicitly presented here due to the confidentiality agreement,⁵⁴ in conjunction with the archival research results and the interviews with other major stakeholders, enabled me to render a validity check on the materials supplied by the MNCs and shape the manner by which I selected the representative informant responses for inclusion in this book. The audit observations can thus be considered as a triangulation of the information gathered from interviews (see Chapter 4) and this procedure is crucial in establishing credibility for the following discussion of the MNCs’ behaviour.

The problem of ensuring the appropriate structural reallocation of resources to meet new environmental perceptions and needs is increasingly facing national governments and the international community. It demands both national and supranational macro-environmental measures – which in many ways may be thought of as paralleling macro-economic measures in the economic area. These measures take account of [MNCs] as one of the many instruments by which environmental goals may be promoted. Indeed, they may place particular emphasis on these corporations to incorporate environmental issues into the planning and execution of their international operations.

Dunning 1993: 540–1