IngentaConnect Introduction

Authors: Dörrenbächer, Hristoph¹; Becker-Ritterspach, Florian²

Source: Competition and Change, Volume 13, Number 3, September 2009 , pp. 193-198(6)

Abstract:

Intrafirm competition, production relocation and outsourcing define crucial ways of organising and reorganising the cross-border operations of multinational corporations. What is more: these organisational activities put severe pressure on established economic coordination and governance both in developed as well as in developing countries. However, despite their organisational, political and economic salience, rather little is known about these processes and in particular about their socio-political dimensions. To this end, the contributions of this special issue aim at exploring, first, who the relevant actors are, what their interests are and how their strategies can be captured in intrafirm competition, production relocation and outsourcing. Second, the contributions discuss the wider socio-economic implications of firm-level processes by discussing, for example, the impact of outsourcing and relocation on employment fragmentation. Finally, the importance of public discourses is highlighted with regard to their role in both legitimating and promoting intrafirm competition, production relocation and outsourcing.

Keywords: CORPORATE REORGANISATION; INTRAFIRM COMPETITION; PRODUCTION RELOCATION; OUTSOURCING; MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS; INTERNATIONAL VALUE CHAIN; SOCIO-POLITICAL APPROACH; SOCIAL ACTORS; DISCOURSE; LEGITIMATION

Document Type: Editorial

DOI: 10.1179/102452909X451314

Affiliations: 1: University of Groningen, The Netherlands;, Email: c.dorrenbacher@rug.nl 2: University of Groningen, The Netherlands

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