استفان هایمر: سه فاز، یک رویکرد؟

Stephen Hymer is a seminal figure in the development of the theory of the multinational enterprise (MNE). This paper argues that the three separate phases of his writing–his thesis (1960), his neoclassical 1968 paper and is later radical pieces–can be reconciled around the central core of the economics of the MNE and the attempt to build in a dynamic element.

Stephen Hymer (1934–1974) is regarded as a seminal figure in the establishment of the theory of the multinational enterprise (MNE) and a founder of the academic subject of international business. This reputation is largely built on Hymer's thesis, written in 1960 (published only as Hymer 1976) but also on his later writings which, after Hymer's conversion to Marxism, took a critical view of the activities of MNEs and their impact on the world economy from the viewpoint of a radical economist. This paper suggests that there were three phases in Hymer's work. The first phase was the 1960 PhD thesis, the second is a neoclassical phase represented by his strange 1968 paper in French in Revue Economique, and the third his ‘radical phase’. The intriguing question, which this paper explores, is whether these three phases are consistent, contradictory or non-overlapping sets.

Hymer's work on the multinational corporation was fundamental to the development of international business theory. This paper has argued that three separate phases of his career and writing can be reconciled around the central core of an economic theory of the multinational corporation that was truly dynamic and that reflected the rapid changes in the world economy co-evolving with his thought. In Hymer's work it is a necessary condition for the existence of the multinational corporation that it possesses a ‘firm specific advantage’ and a sufficient condition that the firm can obtain more profit by exploiting the advantage internally than licensing it out to external organisations. The multinational corporation is both efficiency improving in the way that it integrates internal markets in goods, services, capital and information whilst at the same time such firms create distortions by the use of monopoly and monopsony power. Hymer constantly strives to cast his work into a dynamic frame. He chose to do this via Marxian macro dynamics rather than through a microdynamic analysis of innovation at the firm level.