Customer Reviews

Multinational Corporations in Political Environments: Ethics, Values and Strategies

5 star:		(7)
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This is the definitive book on multinational corporations and their effects on society. Drawing on a strong foundation in economics and management, Professor Haley traces the power of the multinational in society and reasons for profits as well as losses. Then she applies these theories to real life situations explaining which sanctions, stakeholders' resolutions, etc. work and which do not. The study on South Africa is astounding drawing on detailed data over several years. This is the one that the Congress needs to read!

This book is a must read for politicians, activists and researchers. It shows without a shadow of a doubt that sanctions against American multinationals in South Africa did not work. Why do we keep using them as weapons? Read this one!

The scholarly literature on multinational corporations is very weak when it comes to explaining why multinationals leave. This is the focus of this book. After one of the best reviews EVER on research regarding the multinational corporation, the author presents a very detailed study on why they left South Africa. The implications for this study extend to anyone who wants to know why multinationals leave -- or anyone who wants to influence whether they stay or leave! Excellent and highly recommended

This book uses a crafeully built theoretical framework to show why US sanctions did not work in South Africa and are unlikely to work any where else. An important piece of research!

Probably the best review of multinational corporations, why they enter and leave host states on the market today. A must read for anyone either doing research on multinationals or interested in the effects of globalization.

This book takes an academic view of the theory behind multunational corporations.

Strengths: It skilfully questions some of the basic assumptions behind the modern theory of the multinational -- as the author illustrates these assumptions permeate all our other global theories but do not have predictive validity. It also tackles a very important social issue, whether our methods to influence multinational corporations work. Did they work in South Africa? The author very convincingly proves that they did not.

Weaknesses: Some of the weaknesses are inescapable in a scholarly work. The detailed quantitative analysis and data may be skipped (as the author indicates) by policy-makers. However, a large chapter deals with this issue. Also, although the author extends her theory of multinational corporations as chameleons from South Africa to other hotspots such as Myanmar (Burma) and Nike, I would have liked her to tackle some social questions: such as whether our pressuring multinational corporations to leave South Africa extended white economic domination in the country. This question and others of its ilk are probably politically incorrect, or beyond the book's already large scope, and the author skirts them. Consquently, this book leaves you thinking -- and that may be what a good book should do.

All in all a very comprehensive, systematic and courageous look at the assumptions, theories and institutions that shape global society.

Five stars!

This book is solidly grounded in theoretical and analytical rationales. Yet, it presents a counterintuitive conclusion: Sanctions and boycotts do not work. We may have wasted our time pressuring multinationals that operated in South Africa, and now in Burma, Iraq and Israel. A must read to understand the dynamics of global power and how multinationals stave off controls.