Multinationals and Emerging Economies: The Quest for Innovation and Sustainability
The workshop is organised and held by the UNU-MERIT research group on innovation, global business strategies and host country development. Its aim is to discuss and provide feedback on drafts of papers which are to be published in an edited volume.
The global economy is changing rapidly, and multinational corporations (MNCs) play a major part in that. Their presence is noticeable from the international production
activities and related capital flows they are involved in. Their activities impact macroeconomic dimensions, such as flows of financial and trade, too. In particular, however, one cannot ignore the role of MNCs in the generation and diffusion of
knowledge and technology. Having foreign MNCs within the national border, or having local firms that ally with MNCs, is a familiar experience to countries worldwide. Closely related to this central role of MNCs, is the increasing part played by some developing countries, the so-called emerging economies. The emergence of these economies and
of the MNCs that they host is evident in consumption markets, production sites, exporters, importers, as knowledge sources, and so forth. In fact, next to MNCs from the developed world, MNCs from emerging economies are increasingly dominant.
The papers to be presented at the workshop aim to provide novel and profound analyses of how multinational corporations and emerging economies are related to one another, and how this relationship is implicated in the dynamics of the global economy. More specifically, the papers from different perspectives deal with the nexus between multinationals, emerging economies and innovation. The latter, innovation, as core driving force in today’s global economy, may both clash and encourage sustainability of economic processes in an environmental and social sense, however.
About the speaker
UNU-MERIT researchers and invited international guests - Anabel Marin (University of Sussex, SPRU), Ludovico Alcorta (Maastricht School of Management), Qinqin Dong (Wuhan University of Technology), Rajesh Kumar (University of Aarhus), Rajneesh Narula (University of Reading), Sarianna Lundan (University of Maastricht and ETLA), Wilfred Dolfsma (Utrecht School of Economics).
Venue: Faculty of Economics and Business Administration (Tongersestraat 53), Room C-107
Date: 27 November 2007
Time: 09:00 - 18:00 CET
