Multinational Corporations, Sub-national Governance and Human Resources: A Cross-national Comparison for Europe

Variegated forms of corporate capture: The state, MNCs, and the dark side of strategic coupling

“…This contribution answers Dawley et al.’s (2019) call to explore the impact of GPNs on regions by viewing the ‘dynamics of strategic coupling from a host perspective’ (p. 853). Moreover, this article contributes to broader discussions on the firm‐state‐region nexus within international relations, sociology, and business management (see Almond et al., 2014; Levy, 2008, 2017).…”

“…For example, Jessop (2004) has demonstrated how many states, with strategies oriented to strong competition in a neoliberal regime (international capital as the hegemonic force within the state), privilege short-term, hypermobile, superfast flows of speculative capital (see also Gough, 2004). Such countries often encourage their subnational states to address regional competitiveness by adopting specific paths of action based on pure inward investment policies that often disregard wider regional development goals, placing MNCs as the route to economic salvation, and therefore as the central actors in directing initiatives (Almond et al, 2014;Brenner, 2003;Phelps & Wood, 2006;Rutherford et al, 2018;Wood, 2003). As Almond et al (2012Almond et al ( , 2013Almond et al ( , 2017 demonstrated, liberal forms of state are more likely to have processes of corporate capture than others, given that their accumulation strategies often rely on a passive dependence on locational competitive advantages.…”

“…FDI scholars were interested in understanding the power relations between states and FDIs and the consequent outcomes of such relations in terms of regional development. Therefore, one main concern of such studies was to understand whether some forms of states were more prone to have corporate capture than others when attracting FDIs (see Almond et al., 2013, 2014; Phelps, 2000; Rutherford et al., 2018). The present article engages with such literature to explore corporate capture, but it also draws from Marxist theories of the state and the GPN literature to further develop it.…”