
Unlike academic observers, who regard the MNC as a subject of scientific inquiry, practitioners are concerned with the role of the MNC in national and international economic and social development. Thus, their main question is "What role does an MNC play in the world?"
Table 3.3 provides a summary of three main viewpoints on the MNC's role and its future. These represent three points along a continuum describing the degree of optimism regarding the ability of MNCs to play a positive role. 1
Optimists |
Pessimists |
Meliorists |
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Nature The MNC is the most creative international institution, representing humanity's highest accomplishment in the art and science of organizing material and human resources. |
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Role The MNC must and will play a more active and more visible role in domestic and international human affairs. There is basically no incompatibility between the nation-state's plan and the MNC's objectives and specific goals. |
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The MNC and the worldorder The Third World's demand for a "new" economic order seems to be justified but must be accomplished by their "putting their own house in order" and not by handouts from the MNCs. They must create an environment conducive to more freedom for the MNC, not less. Those Third World nations that have made progress toward industrialization have done so through the offices of the MNCs. |
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Future proposals The MNC should be left alone to evolve into a more effective and efficient wealth-creating mechanism. Do not kill the Golden Goose. Both the host and the home country will depend on the MNC to lay the golden eggs of a peaceful, prosperous, and viable world. |
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SOURCE: A. G. Kefalas, "The Multinational Corporation and the New International Order," in A. J. Dolman (ed.), Global Planning and Resource Management (New York: Pergamon Press, 1980), 38. |
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