Transnational Corporations, Technology and Economic Development: Backward Linkages and Knowledge Transfer in South East Asia (New Horizons in International Business series)

This innovative book provides a greater understanding of the relationships between transnational corporations and the economic development of host economies. In the age of globalisation, awareness of the mechanisms through which foreign firms impact on host countries is crucial. The emphasis lies on backward linkages and knowledge transfer to local firms. The book offers a theoretical framework for the activities of TNCs and a review of their impacts on South East Asian economies.

The author conveys in-depth information, using extensive data collected from transnational corporations in the Malaysian electrical and electronics sector. A unique approach is adopted by presenting factors explaining the existence as well as the degree of knowledge transfer through backward linkages. To date, no other study has provided a full range of data - qualitative and quantitative - on the existence, as well as the degree, of backward linkages' transfer.

Academics, practitioners and students of international business studies, international development and Asian studies will find Transnational Corporations, Technology and Economic Development of great interest, as will business school libraries in European, North American and Asian universities.

Axèle Giroud, Professor of International Business, University of Manchester, UK