Multinational Companies and Domestic Firms in Europe : Comparing Wages, Working Conditions and Industrial Relations

Globalisation is one of the most heavily debated present-day phenomena and has been widely covered by books, papers and journal articles. Nevertheless, the reader is frequently left with nearly as many definitions of the subject as there are authors writing about it. Most analysts now agree that a common denominator is the increasing inter-connectedness of nations, people, and economies. After the Second World War, a number of major forces underpinned the spread of globalisation. These included the rapid development of information and communication technology (ICT), boosted relatively recently by the development of the Internet and the massive growth of trade and foreign direct investment (FDI). These factors cannot of course be separated from the increasing numbers and influence of multinational enterprises (MNEs) and the tide of economic liberalization that has swept through both developed and developing economies. Neither should we ignore changes in transport technologies. For many commentators though, FDI has been regarded as the main -albeit not the sole-mechanism for the international expansion of MNEs.
The Social Effects of Foreign Domestic Investment on Multinational Companies and Domestic Firms compares and contrasts wages, working conditions and industrial relations processes in multinational and domestic companies. Very little academic study has hitherto been devoted to the differences that may or may not exist between the wages and conditions that MNEs routinely offer compared to those of domestic companies with whom they compete. The analysis covers five sectors of the economy and 13 EU countries. This book is an effort to map the social effects of FDI in a number of EU member states, in relation to the prevailing patterns of internationalization. The need to examine critically the labour market and industrial relations aspects of recent waves of FDI is both timely and compelling.